Feeling Asian

Feeling Asian

By Maurice Malanes

When the Hua Yang Nian Hua, a cultural group from the Jinan University in Guangzhou, China, performed at the Cultural Center for Arts auditorium of the Saint Louis University last week, I was not only thrilled. The show tickled my Asian consciousness.

The 45 college cultural performers, who were singers or dancers plus one English-speaking master of ceremonies, gave me a break from my Hollywood, Western pop-saturated cultural consciousness. Although the performers did mostly songs and dances of ethnic groups in mainland China, I didn’t feel Chinese at all. I felt Asian once again.

Whether the performers were dancing “The Fragrance from Milk,” “The Huge Rock,” “The Happy Prairie,” “The Descendants,” “The Rising Sun” or “Carrying the Lotus Roots,” one could not fail to note in their performance the harmonious mix of the grace and poetry and the soft and hard principle of Tai chi and Kung Fu. In fact, a young lady performed a martial arts dance with a thin sword and all of us in the audience were mesmerized with the way she jumped, tumbled and somersaulted in the air as though she had transcended gravity. While she exhibited speed and toughness, she also had poise, precision and grace, all of which were done with rhyme and rhythm.

Some of the dances were as old as 2,000 years and have been performed since the Han dynasty. But the cultural group has kept these dances alive, bringing to life on the stage part of China’s history.

The same could be said of the various folk songs the cultural performers rendered. Apart from singing songs of various Chinese ethnic minorities, they also sang contemporary songs, all of which were truly and distinctly Asian, at least in melody and nuance. Music themes such as love, pain and triumph over suffering are universal and are common to both East and West. But there’s something in the rendition, melody, rhythm and beat of a song that distinguishes it from the rest. That distinction was evident in the songs the Jinan University cultural performers rendered.

A lady player of a musical instrument, which resembles an accordion with an organ, also struck an intimate chord with the audience when she played “Planting Rice” or “Magtanim ay Di Biro,” the Filipino folk song many of us learned during grade school. Their choir also sang “Leron Leron Sinta”, another grade school song we almost forgot but which we came to appreciate again when it was rendered by an internationally acclaimed cultural group.

That Thursday evening with the Chinese cultural group was an affair to remember and also something to reflect on. Apart from being the biggest nation in the world, China has a 5,000-year civilization, which the many of us can learn from. Now joining the WTO-led market-oriented global economy, China has become the apple of the eyes of other countries seeking to invade the vast Chinese market. For its part, China has also started breaking into the global market, saturating even the US market with Chinese products, which range from Statue of Liberty and Elvis Presley memorabilia souvenir items to farm products such as grapes and apples.

For many countries, China is a country to watch in the 21^st century.

Unfortunately, the Philippines has yet to explore China as a major economic partner. The Philippines’ tourism industry, for example, can actually tap Chinese nationals, who are attracted by our sweet mangoes and beaches. With its rich culture and old civilization, China is a good partner for the Philippines in cultural tourism.

The cultural show at the SLU Cultural Center for Arts auditorium, for instance, should have been well-attended had the local government and the tourism department helped promote it. In fact, I came to know that there was such a cultural show only when hotelier Peter Ng called and sponsored tickets for me and a few other media representatives, who were able to leave the proof reading and other desk work for their weekly papers to watch the show.

Kathleen Okubo of the Baguio Midland Courier and Lyn Ramo of the Northern Dispatch were the only media colleagues who were able to watch the show. During that evening, all of us concluded that the show made us feel Asian again. Thanks to Peter Ng who made it a point that we should not fail to watch a rare performance, which all made our Thursday evening a memorable one.

We were quite envious though because Peter Ng and Dr. Charles Cheng, with their knowledge of the Mandarin language, could relate well with the beautiful performers after their presentation. That gave us an idea: we should start learning Mandarin, which may yet become one of the major international languages in the future as China joins the global economy and other international affairs. (Note: This was published as a regular column in the Cordillera Today, a weekly newspaper in Baguio City, Philippines)