Lunar revels
Sheesh. Anita Rowland compliments me for "keeping up on the posting" and then I go and fall silent. (Thanks anyway, Anita!) Ah, well, what can one do? Anyway, as I mentioned Monday, we received an invitation to a Mid-Autumn festival party. Well, actually, Yauh Neih received the invitation. The girls and I were her "date". It was extended by Tori, a geography teacher, who was having the bash with her class. Why the English department didn't have a party, I don't know. (Well, I can't complain too much. The English department did have a dinner for Teacher Appreciation Day, which was the preceding weekend.)(Hmm, sounds like China is party central, doesn't it?)Anyway, as seems to be the norm here, we were extended the invitation and then the details were communicated a few days later. Sunday, 7:30 pm. Oh, and we were expected to give a performance. That was something that we were warned about. People are often expected to perform at parties, even if they're sober. So we had a family brainstorm over what we could do. We resisted the temptation to have Ga Dai do all the performing for us. That would be quite unfair to the child. The problem is, Ga Dai knows about zillion songs and Yau Neih knows about a zillion different songs and I know, oh, two or three. (not counting Christmas carols. When Christmas comes, I'm covered, but for now I'm the musical loser....) We finally managed to agree on "River of Jordan", which we have on Atwater-Donnelly's The Blackest Crow release. There was some argument over whether we should move or not while singing it. Yau Neih thought it would be a nice, authentic touch. Ga Dai and I, being true to our Germanic roots, didn't want to. Or were afraid to. Something like that. Anyway, Yau Neih must be mellowing out here, since she gave in.
Sunday evening we made our way to the designated classroom, more or less at 7:30. There was a flurry of activity as students were finishing up decorations and monkeying with the karaoke machine. It seemed like the karaoke machine had two settings: reverb and reverbreverbreverb. But I digress. Tori welcomed us and a couple of students hurried to wipe off some of the desks in front. Oh, I should describe the classroom. Think Little House on the Prairie school desks, sized for two people with benches behind upon which they sit. They had those desks running along the side and back walls, and then a few rows of desks lined up in the middle. So we were given front row seats from which we could view the preparations. They treated us very well. First they gave each of us some water, then a nice pile of candy. Then some peanuts and sunflower seeds. Then an apple. Then a pear. Then a mooncake. Actually, at some point between the seeds and the mooncake, they started putting such piles at every seat. We just got served first because we had arrived early. After about a half hour or so, Michael and Joan arrived. They likewise received an honored welcome and front row seats.
The rest of the students didn't arrive and the festivities didn't start until about 8:30. Everybody sat in their seat, chatting and eating, while people took their turn coming to the front row and performing. I don't know how, or even if, this was organized. For the most part the singers of the group performed first, either solo or in groups of varying sizes. There was an accordion off to one side and at one point a young woman strapped it on. But instead of performing, she stayed in the corner and played there, while the students started playing "hot potato" with a bottle of water. (She did do give an actual performance later on.) When the music stopped, the person holding the bottle would have to give their performance. This happened twice, but they seemed to end it when Michael got caught. He got up and gave a little demonstration of the evolution of English--from an ancient language akin to Welsh, through Chaucer and Shakespeare. I don't know how well it went over with the students, but I enjoyed it.
The Hamburger Clan's debut followed a few turns after Michael's. Ga Dai played two tunes on the tin whistle and then we did our song. The students did seem to enjoyed it, clapping along as we sang. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Yau Neih and Ga Dai swaying a little bit along with the tune. (Siu Wan was out of my peripheral vision, so I couldn't see what she was doing.) I didn't dare try to join them, as I was having enough trouble singing the right words. ("some of these days, not "one" of these days, you chowder head!) Anyway, our performance was soon over and we got to go back to eating peanuts and fruit.
About halfway through, the entertainment seemed to switch to recitations. Some students tried out their English and seemed to simply be introducing themselves and giving their greetings to the foreign guests. I had no clue as to what the other students were saying, so I don't know if everybody was simply "toasting" the class or if the English speakers were just showing off. None of us were asked to offer our greetings, so if it was the former, we had some sort of exemption.
Finally, at some point after 10, Tori announced to us that the party was over. Since we naturally tend to stay until the last dog is hung, we made no immediate move to leave. Nor did anybody else. Then Tori reiterated that the party was over and we could leave. It finally sunk in that they were waiting for us to leave first. Whether that was some Chinese custom or they just wanted us gone so they could break out the keg, I don't know. So we got up to leave, but not before they loaded us up with a big pile of the fruit and candy we hadn't finished eating. If they were giving us the bum's rush, they sure did it generously. Anyway, after sharing mutual thank yous, we returned to the flat and enjoyed a good Mid-Autumn night's sleep.
The next day, the party was indeed over. In the class she helped with, Yau Neih had to give a repeat (solo) performance of "River of Jordan", and students had peppered her with questions about her Mid-Autumn celebrations. (Some were surprised to learn that the Festival wasn't a big thing in the U.S. It's kind of like finding out that people outside of the U.S. don't celebrate Thanksgiving Day.) But other than that, the Mid-Autumn festival had vanished. When we went marketing, the displays had been taken down and nary a mooncake was seen. (You would have thought there would at least have been a clearance sale.) Even the bakeries were closed up. (Of course, maybe they all took off to eat up all the mooncakes.)
Update: Siu Wan is looking over my shoulder and she says that we had the option to leave the party or stay a bit longer. She's probably right, since Siu Wan is far more observant than I could ever hope to be.
posted by John @ 7:51 PM
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