The Mask

With the New Year approaching (Chinese New Year, that is), it seems as if everyday there is some group from work going out to dinner to pre-celebrate. They always ask us to go; which we accept – I wouldn’t want to be rude and pass up a free dinner and more “toasting”.
Last night continued the stretch of activities.
It was a night of Hot Pot (the traditional Sichuan dinner of boiling pots of “sauce” and you put the raw meat in and cook at the table). But this place has a floor show.
It was like spending an evening with Ricky Ricardo (anyone over 30 should know that reference).
We watched traditional Chinese music, singers, dancers, kung-fu dancers, and a small play between a wife and her hen-pecked husband (the Chinese call him a “soft ear”. I guess based on the way the wife would lead him around by his earlobe). I didn’t know what they were talking about but it seemed as if he came home late and she was giving him “what-for”. He was dressed as a clown and part of the play was his balancing a candle on his head while he crawled under a bench and other acrobatics. It had several sight gags, so understanding the humor was easy. Very enjoyable and their talent was great.
But there were two main attractions; A Shadow Hand Puppet and a Mask Dance.
We all know how to make barking dogs with our hands shown on a wall through the light of a flashlight, but this lady did dogs, cats, swans, ducks, rabbits, a wolf eating the rabbit, a man and woman hugging and kissing, and she did this with only her two hands and choreographed to music. It was truly awesome!
The Mask dance was a man in full Chinese opera garb who wore a mask and performed some sort of dance with a folding fan. The cool part was that as he passed the fan in front of his face – the mask would change! I have no idea how this is done. It has to be some sort of mechanical device he activates with the various masks (he must have used 7 or 8 of them) hidden under his hat. He even walks off the stage out into the audience and does this magic just a few inches away from you as if daring anyone to see how he does it. I couldn’t. One of the ladies in our group began to explain it to me, but I was so impressed I asked her not to spoil it and to just let me remember it as magic.

We also had a “special” moment at our table.
Several of the group were drinking what looked like milk (very weak milk, I might add) and so I asked if that is what it was. Tang Jianghui said it was “milk from the soybean”. I leaned close and said “Gosh, it must be very hard to milk those beans” all the while moving my fingers like I was milking a very tiny microscopic cow. She looked confused and said “I don’t understand what you mean. Milking the ….?” And then you saw the realization come across her face. Her confusion turned to laughter; she balled her hands into fists, and began to beat on my shoulders while screaming “Mitchell, you are so bad man!” I was laughing so hard I got choked up and almost spilled all my food on the floor.

So, pre-celebrations have begun and it looks like we are trying to make the most of it.
So, we will be off work for three days while everyone goes to their parent’s homes to visit family.
At least I am not stuck with 500,000 people in the Nanjing railway station!