All Singing, All Dancing...
In China the working year is slightly different to our own, as with Christmas not being a holiday the year begins and ends with ‘Spring Festival’ or Chinese New Year. Spring Festival this year falls on Jan 29th – a rapidly approaching date.
Last week my Project held its Annual Review which was followed by the annual Spring Festival Party hosted by a local university. We were told a couple of days before that we would need to prepare a performance for the concert, and duly the Chinese and Australian team-members decided that we would sing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ together in both English and Chinese. We had a hastily convened rehearsal in the office after lunch one day and with that felt confident enough that we wouldn’t embarrass ourselves.
Come Thursday night we arrived for the concert only to see an additional item on the programme… “Australian Advisors Performance”… this was in addition to our group ‘Auld Lang Syne’ effort. When we queried this we were told it was a ‘surprise’. NOT A VERY NICE ONE.
So with no preparation time, no music, and no talent we got up and performed the first verses of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and ‘Advance Australia Fair’. They were the only songs we could think of at the time and we certainly did not do them justice. Stunned silence greeted the end of our performance. Seriously. One or two people clapped but that was it. An Australian colleague later suggested that we should have refused to do the ‘surprise’ performance but I think it was better that we did. Now they will believe us when we say we don’t like singing and aren’t very good at it.
The Chinese absolutely love performing and they generally can carry a tune. They just don’t believe us when we tell them that Australians don’t like singing and don’t do it very often. Unless we’re super drunk. No matter how many times we explain this to the Chinese they just don’t seem to believe it. One of my more naive colleagues was simply shocked when I told her this. She wanted to know what we do at ‘banquets and concerts’ if we don’t sing?
Other performances were much more warmly received. A ‘famous’ piano accordion bloke and a couple of professional singers topped the bill (see what we were up against?), while everyone else had the benefit of a karaoke machine. Why no-one offered us this little gift from the heavens is anyone’s guess.
Unfortunately the story does not end there. For next week the Chongqing Municipal Education Commission will hold its Spring Festival Concert and this time there is more at stake. This time it is a competition between the various departments and thus must be taken very VERY seriously.
For the past couple of weeks our Chinese team members have been putting together lists of songs, downloading music (legally, I’m sure... this is China afterall... hardly anything is pirated), compiling lyrics etc etc. Yesterday we were called for a rehearsal, and not in the office after lunch. This time we piled into a mini bus and were taken to a local university where we had the rehearsal room to ourselves.
For the next TWO AND THREE QUARTER HOURS we were held captive, learning to sing five new songs. Three songs in Chinese and two in English. The singing teacher (yes, we have a professional teacher) suggested that the Australians could mime the Chinese words, or just sing “la la la” in key. I would if I could. The English songs we will perform are ‘Click Go The Shears’ which is inexplicably popular in Chinese (I’d love to get my hands on an English translation of their version to see what they’re actually singing about) and 'Waltzing Matilda'. We will only need to sing the first verse and chorus, as our performance is limited to five minutes in length. We were also going to do 'I Still Call Australia Home' but something needed to be cut and it was decided this song was the most difficult. My Australian boss wanted to know why we couldn’t do ‘Lonesome Tonight’, his karaoke song of choice, but we just couldn’t find the Aussie connection.
So we stood around in the freezing rehearsal room (ie. windows open, unheated, can-see-your-breath cold) learning the words and the keys etc etc. By the end of the rehearsal we were confident enough that we would be okay. Only to be told we were expected back the following day AND EVERY DAY FOR THE NEXT WEEK for further practice. Including the weekend. We’ll see about that.
Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse… SURPRISE… they did. After a run through of our repertoire at today’s second rehearsal I thought we were going well, and might even get out within an hour. You know, to get back to the office to do some work. Wrong again. For then we had to learn the accompanying DANCE MOVES.
I fear it shall be a very long week.
(Performance is next Tuesday. Report to follow. No more singing/dancing after that. Ever)
Last week my Project held its Annual Review which was followed by the annual Spring Festival Party hosted by a local university. We were told a couple of days before that we would need to prepare a performance for the concert, and duly the Chinese and Australian team-members decided that we would sing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ together in both English and Chinese. We had a hastily convened rehearsal in the office after lunch one day and with that felt confident enough that we wouldn’t embarrass ourselves.
Come Thursday night we arrived for the concert only to see an additional item on the programme… “Australian Advisors Performance”… this was in addition to our group ‘Auld Lang Syne’ effort. When we queried this we were told it was a ‘surprise’. NOT A VERY NICE ONE.
So with no preparation time, no music, and no talent we got up and performed the first verses of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and ‘Advance Australia Fair’. They were the only songs we could think of at the time and we certainly did not do them justice. Stunned silence greeted the end of our performance. Seriously. One or two people clapped but that was it. An Australian colleague later suggested that we should have refused to do the ‘surprise’ performance but I think it was better that we did. Now they will believe us when we say we don’t like singing and aren’t very good at it.
The Chinese absolutely love performing and they generally can carry a tune. They just don’t believe us when we tell them that Australians don’t like singing and don’t do it very often. Unless we’re super drunk. No matter how many times we explain this to the Chinese they just don’t seem to believe it. One of my more naive colleagues was simply shocked when I told her this. She wanted to know what we do at ‘banquets and concerts’ if we don’t sing?
Other performances were much more warmly received. A ‘famous’ piano accordion bloke and a couple of professional singers topped the bill (see what we were up against?), while everyone else had the benefit of a karaoke machine. Why no-one offered us this little gift from the heavens is anyone’s guess.Unfortunately the story does not end there. For next week the Chongqing Municipal Education Commission will hold its Spring Festival Concert and this time there is more at stake. This time it is a competition between the various departments and thus must be taken very VERY seriously.
For the past couple of weeks our Chinese team members have been putting together lists of songs, downloading music (legally, I’m sure... this is China afterall... hardly anything is pirated), compiling lyrics etc etc. Yesterday we were called for a rehearsal, and not in the office after lunch. This time we piled into a mini bus and were taken to a local university where we had the rehearsal room to ourselves.
For the next TWO AND THREE QUARTER HOURS we were held captive, learning to sing five new songs. Three songs in Chinese and two in English. The singing teacher (yes, we have a professional teacher) suggested that the Australians could mime the Chinese words, or just sing “la la la” in key. I would if I could. The English songs we will perform are ‘Click Go The Shears’ which is inexplicably popular in Chinese (I’d love to get my hands on an English translation of their version to see what they’re actually singing about) and 'Waltzing Matilda'. We will only need to sing the first verse and chorus, as our performance is limited to five minutes in length. We were also going to do 'I Still Call Australia Home' but something needed to be cut and it was decided this song was the most difficult. My Australian boss wanted to know why we couldn’t do ‘Lonesome Tonight’, his karaoke song of choice, but we just couldn’t find the Aussie connection.
So we stood around in the freezing rehearsal room (ie. windows open, unheated, can-see-your-breath cold) learning the words and the keys etc etc. By the end of the rehearsal we were confident enough that we would be okay. Only to be told we were expected back the following day AND EVERY DAY FOR THE NEXT WEEK for further practice. Including the weekend. We’ll see about that.Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse… SURPRISE… they did. After a run through of our repertoire at today’s second rehearsal I thought we were going well, and might even get out within an hour. You know, to get back to the office to do some work. Wrong again. For then we had to learn the accompanying DANCE MOVES.
I fear it shall be a very long week.
(Performance is next Tuesday. Report to follow. No more singing/dancing after that. Ever)
posted by bvc @ 12:43 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Surely you'll all be wearing matching full-length red and yellow leotards for the concert? Accompanied by matching jiffys of course.
Bec
Ah you jest. My size is causing some consternation amongst the Chinese - I'm about a foot taller than any of the other women and this is a matter of concern to the organising committee. Everyone is very concerned about the costumes (red flouncy dresses I hear) because they don't have one big enough for me. I offered to sit it out if necessary but that didn't go down too well...
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