Chinese Quick-change research

Since watching the performance of the Chinese mask quick-change artists, I have wondered just how the actors were able to pull off such magnificent feats. I tried to do research online regarding the secrets behind the illusion but could find very little. Most of the search results consisted of videos of performers rather than information behind their tricks. With a little more effort, I discovered that this is due to the secrecy that still surrounds the tradition.

            This quick-change art is apparently a very well-kept and guarded secret of the ancient Chinese culture. It has existed for about 300 years, originally as part of the Sichuan opera. Tradition dictates that the techniques of the mask changing can only be passed down to people of Chinese descent. To increase the amount of secrecy, the art is passed within families, and then they could only be passed onto sons. This restriction against women was apparently not just a result of a male dominated culture but an effort to keep the secrets within each family because a woman, upon marrying into another family, ran the risk of spreading the trick beyond her immediate relatives. 

            These cultural rules are reminiscent of multiple principles held dear to the Chinese people. For instance, the Chinese put a large emphasis upon the family unit; as a traditionally communalist country this is only to be expected. Therefore it comes as no surprise that even their artistic pursuits would center around family. The Chinese people are also known for being isolationists, which explains their rigorous efforts to preserve the secrets behind their uniquely Chinese art. These efforts can also be explained by the way in which the Chinese hold tradition in highest esteem; by forbidding outsiders to learn it, they hope to preserve it as a pure art within their own culture. 

Theatre From Opression

The vast amount of theatre and opera in China and the specificity of the regions each originated in, reminded me of studying dance in my Spanish classes.  To an outsider, it is so easy to cluster and clump these different forms of art all together as homogenous.  Doing so gives no credit to the rich history the respective preforming arts have, let alone, what they actually consist of.  Both Latin America and China have endured and continue to live in environments where oppression is a day-to-day encounter.  Dances like the Tango and, in respect to China, the Cantonese Opera both were born out of the repressive contexts that possessed their countries at the time.

This emblazons a cliché surrounding the preforming arts: that they are an outlet, a release for emotions.  While this a predictable, stereotypical answer to the question “why do you preform?” history proves it true.  Living in America, its hard to imagine living under a government where freedoms like speech, protest, access to media and books et cetera do not exist.  In such a society, theatre presents an outlet for not only the lack of freedoms but the frustration and hardships that come with it.  In China, theatres like Cantonese opera, Cuotaiji opera, Yuan Theatre all developed from adversity and oppression.  Traditional theatre in the Mao era was suppressed, thus another release developed to channel emotions of the public: Cantonese opera.  Cuotaiji opera is representative of sacrifice, cultivation and good wishes- values and preeminent trends of the society.  During the Mongol Invasion in the North, Yuan theatre was born out of the newfound stress confusion and subjugation.

Though it is a very familiar answer behind the motivation of theatre, history does show theatre is an outlet- especially in difficult times.  Whether it is used to express the hardships, bring joy or add dimension, theatre gives a public a means of unity.  Because of that, it seems theater will forever be inherent within societies.

How we deal with death

I learned the other week that people of different cultures deal with death differently.  I mean I know that every family has a different way of handling death but it is more eye opening to actually hear other peoples'  ways of grieving or even celebrating.  I do not deal well with death.  In 2006 within almost one month of each other both my grandmother and great grandmother passed away.  I couldn't even imagine what my mom must've went through.  But I was there with her every step of the way.  I wanted to be involve and see my grandmothers as much as possible.  And when I wasn't with them I remember being in my room or just detached from everything else going on.  And during the funeral it was really hard for me as well.  I just find it really hard to be happy or to celebrate someone leaving us.  But I never talked about it with anyone.  There was no outlet for that.  I just had to keep it all to myself, as I'm sure my mom did and everyone else.  That is why I loved sitting in our Banjar the other day and talking about death.  Hearing others' perspectives and ways of dealing with death helped me to see that everyone shares these feelings of sadness, but there are different ways of coping with them.  Some cultures actually celebrate death.  I don't think I could do that, but my dad always jokes about when he dies he wants us to throw a party and not a funeral.  He's always said he wants people drinking and having a good time!  He doesn't want us wasting our time crying over him!  I don't know if I could do that but the theory of it sounds like a great idea.

I think that it was really beneficial to sit and talk about the death of Troy.  It's been a long four years with several deaths here at William and Mary.  I knew going into this school that it was somewhat known for having a high suicide rate.  That's why after the first one I didn't really think much of it because it just went along with the stereotype.  But four suicides later and it is just unbelievably sad.  When I got the email I couldn't believe it.  I was overcome with that feeling of sadness.  I've just never understood why people feel they have to do such a thing.  My dad has always told me that life is not that bad!  If you have people in your life that love you and a roof over your head what is there to be so depressed about that you feel like you can't live anymore?  But I think that it was very special that we sat and talked about Troy.  It made me think about how thankful I am and how I need to appreciate everything that I have in life because you never know when someone you love can be taken away from you.

Death as a Cultural Event

In these past couple of weeks our William & Mary community has had to come to terms with the death of a fellow student, and the events that have taken place concordantly. In class, we have discussed the cultural distinction in dealing with death and any other cultural or life event for that matter. Practiced rituals and standardized beliefs differ not only between cultures, but within a culture itself. This is self-evident based upon the culturally diverse melting pot America has become today. The occurrence has forced me to consider the event of death not only as private matter, one which adheres to more specified cultural values, but one of more communal and societal public observance as well.

In attempting to reconcile such a dichotomy between private and public life, it is almost inevitable that certain compromises must be made in regards to cultural events. In my own life, my family has dealt with death first in a very private matter. Grieving as an internal and nuclear unit not only allows us to cope in the most honest and natural way possible, but it creates even stronger bonds that are so necessary for the nuclear family to have. In this sense, death is a very private matter for us. Yes, we receive phone calls, emails, and general condolences from friends and community members, but the majority of the support comes from within our family. We recognize that this private matter must be extended to the greater community at some point though. We try to reconcile this, and I think society does in general, by melding private and public lives in the form of the funeral. Not only does it allow my family to continue the grieving process in a religious setting, but it invites members of the public to grieve with us within a space considered sacred to the family. When this done community members come back to our house and bring something that helps in the coping process, whether that be food or just emotional support. It seems as though the integration of private and public lives roots itself in primarily spatial forms. Simply put, common places such as the home or a religious institution allow for the simultaneous grievance of private and public entities.

In American culture, bringing death into a public realm allows for a communal family to be formed and recognized. The nuclear family is no longer responsible for all the pain-bearing. The pain is subsequently superceded onto the community. Here at school, the "one tribe, one family" statuses permeated facebook and served as a reminder that a deeper family and support system exists to rely on. This is the true beauty of it all. We quickly were reminded of the broader social and academic family that we hold a defining characteristic of the school after the event. It helps keep everything in perspective by forcing us to appreciate the close ties we have with one another. Although never depreciating the significance and tragic nature of the event, the broad community of support reminds us that there are few events that we cannot get through together.

Thoughts on Orientalism

Our view of the world is mainly influenced by our experiences with varying cultures as we grow up and the lessons we are taught about these cultures.  I had the opportunity to experience both the Korean and American culture from a young age as I lived in a Korean home in American society.

At a young age, I did not know that the word “orientalism” existed and did not even fathom what “hegemony” meant.   Though I started with a naïve mindset, I slowly understood the typical stereotypes of Asian cultures that were perceived by society.  Though the word “Asian” might be one big group to some, it is a cluster of various cultures to me.  Accordingly, I am amazed everyday I learn something new in this class whether it is a dance movement or a short clip on an oriental play.  All the material in this class is new to me in which I have no previous basis of knowledge.   I guess you could say that I have a clean slate to build upon and I am glad of this fact. 

Orientalism does have an influential affect on the way some may view the world.  As a Korean-American, I am often asked of my views on certain topics.  My friends expect a very strict and controlled response from me but are later surprised of the fact that my response is very open. Stereotypes are naturally brought up in discussions, but I think that I am a perfect example of someone who can attest to the incorrectness of stereotypes with just my opinions and lifestyle alone.  Stereotypes are going to still be prominent within future generations.  We need to stop letting preconceived notions of cultures rule our minds, so that we may respect each other and live respectful lives accordingly.

Celebrating life.

This week I have been thinking a lot about death, and our discussion in class last week. My grandmother passed away on Friday. She was very sick for the past two weeks, but I did not think that her death would come so soon. This is the first time someone relatively close to me has died, and I’m still trying to understand what this change means. I say “relatively close” because she lived in El Salvador, and most of my memories of her are from when I was younger. As a child, my parents and I would visit her every other year, but as I got older it became harder to go so often. The last time I saw my grandmother was in 2008. It was the summer before college and all she would say to me was how proud she was of me for graduating from high school and going to college. I have found that the hardest thing for me to come to terms with right now is the fact that next time I go to El Salvador, she won’t be there and that I never got to say goodbye. Throughout the years she had collected photos of me, ranging from when I was a baby to my high school graduation picture. She asked to be buried with the pictures. While I am glad that she is no longer sick or in pain, I can’t help but feel sad that she’s not here.

I realize that this post doesn’t really have much to do with what we’ve been learning about in class, but I still wanted to share. I’m glad that this class has given me a greater perspective on death and how different cultures throughout the world celebrate someone’s life. While I was unable to attend my grandmother’s funeral in El Salvador, I have an idea in my mind of how it went. There was a long parade of sorts from the church to the cemetery, through the streets. The entire community was present. As people walked, they sang beautiful songs expressing their love and sadness. There were colorful flowers everywhere. And afterwards, there was a great deal of food involved.

Reaction to Mahabharata

            The Mahabharata incorporated several different views and philosophies relevant to the culture of its society.  There were a few ideas that caught my attention more than others.  First, was how important keeping one’s promises is.  This goes back to the idea of oral communication and oral contracts.  Someone’s word is all they have and they must honor it.  This was witnessed in the story when the first wife of Pandu promised the second wife of Pandu that she would treat her sons as her own and that all the sons would share everything.  The first wife never broke this vow even when one of her own son won a bride at a competition.  She declared that all five sons would share the wife which they did. 

            Another idea presented in the Mahabharata that I noticed was the honor a wife should bestow upon her husband.  This was evidenced throughout the story but I believe it was most powerful in the case of Dhrithastra.  I was amazed that his wife, once hearing that her husband would be blind, tied a blindfold around her own face so she would go through life as her husband does.  Through this action, she showed complete dedication to her husband and made it clear that if he would not be able to see then neither would she.  She displayed the characteristics that this culture believes a wife should have.

            Finally, I really took note of the philosophy of being devoted to the gods.  Not only is devotion to the gods addressed but that the gods reward those who are faithful to them.  They will provide help to those who ask for it.  These ideas are expressed in the scene where Draupadi has just been won in the game of dice and the Kauravas try to humiliate her by undressing her in front of everyone.  However, she prays to Krishna and asks for his help.  He answers her prays and makes it so that the fabric she is wearing never runs out.  As the Kauravas try to pull her clothes off, the cloth is never-ending and Draupadi remains fully clothed.  Krishna protected Draupadi for her faithfulness and answered her prayer for help.     

My Experiences with Theater

To be honest, I do not really know that much about theater. My eldest sister was capturing the spotlight on stage with her fifteen years of dance, while my other sister belted out notes in all the school musicals. I was left someone between capturing the football field for Color Guard, and being the dancing tree in the Wizard of Oz. Until I was in college I never took a single theater class, though I dabbled in dance while I was younger. Theater was never really a mystery to me; I understood the concept of the arts and why they were important. I knew that acting and dancing alike took great skill, and very few performers would truly make it on Broadway or in the movies. Everyone wanted their chance to steal the spotlight; that is what I thought of when it came to theater.

Upon choosing classes for the first semester of my freshman year, my only concern was to fill up my GERs. The sooner I got those over with, the sooner I could move on to taking classes within my proposed major, Asian and Middle Eastern studies. South and Southeast Asian Folklore Performance not only gave me two of my GERs, but allowed me to earn a possible elective credit for the AMES major. On the first day of class, I knew that my perception of theater would never be the same.

I was introduced to the ways of Balinese dance and theater, and I know my life will never be the same. From the chorus of caks to the different characters personified through movement, Balinese dance is a beautiful art form. I always knew theater to be the expression of art and emotion, but I had never truly seen the beauty in it. When an entire culture is encompassed within how and when theater is performed, the beauty is unbelievable. Every class I feel as though I am making connections with another world, people I would never have the opportunity to meet in real life. A new perception on the world has formed within me, and I can see both dance and theater in a new light. It is not just for entertainment, but religious practices and the preservation of culture.

My Mahabharata

Having taken the Folklore performance last semester, I was very familiar with the Ramayana. However, we really did not go into the other big epic, the Mahabharata. It was wonderful for me to see this movie because it gives another element to how I perceive the lessons and teachings that we can take away from these epics. When dancing the values that we learn are more on a level of broad spectrum of discovery and they are much more specific. You focus on one point or character and you fine tune it to try and express it to those around you.
I think the Mahabharata provides the audience with a sense of moral value and lessons that if are read to not come across as well as if they were performed. I drew from this experience important lessons about gambling, respect for your spouse, and the need to listen to those with more wisdom than you in order to succeed in life. I loved all of the teaching in the movie even if they weren’t preformed in the traditional sense.