Ignite

I met Dean Franklin when I took a picture of his (I assumed) wife and daughter at the Peking Opera presentation by the Confucius Institute last November.  He told me about Ignite - a program he's working on that gets community people talking about things they're passionate about.  I was interested, but as it turned out, it's happening the day after we leave for Juneau.  But he emailed me some information about it and I can certainly encourage you to go and send me your report so I can post it.  (Luckily, I didn't delete my junk file tonight, cause that's where the email was. )  It's another free Anchorage event that promises to be worth more than a lot of stuff you have to pay for.  


The next Ignite Anchorage conference will be held at the
Snow Goose Theater one week from tonight, on Thursday, January 14th at 7pm.

We've got some great speakers lined up to give some fascinating presentations:

• Nils Andreassen "Vibrant Democracy"
• Cindy Baldwin "How Toastmasters Can Help YOU Be a Better Communicator and Leader"
• Marian Call "The Art and Science of Songwriting"
• Cindy Franklin "The Best Job You’ll Ever Have"
• Sarah Hurst "Transforming Alaska History into a Play and Graphic
  Novel"
• Karen Keller "Off the Shelf"
• Karl LeRay "What the @!#%$! Do Those Motorcycle Hand Signals
  Mean?"
• Bob Nicoll "There is Power in the Clarity of Your
  Articulation"
• Aliza Sherman "I Survived Winter in Tok, Alaska"

We are also holding a food and fund drive for Food Bank of Alaska at this event. We are asking all attendees to bring a donation of food or a monetary donation to help Food Bank of Alaska restock their warehouse for the new year. Food Bank of Alaska is typically running low on food and funds in January due to their generous contributions to our fellow
Alaskans over the holidays. If you are bringing a donation of food, please see Food Bank of Alaska's shopping list to find out what they need. If you plan to make a monetary donation, please bring a check made out to "Food Bank of Alaska".


If you haven't already done so, register to attend now (click that big red button just below). It's free, it will be fun and you'll be supporting a good cause.

Musical Instruments of Peking Opera - Short Video Tour

I have way too much video from last night's Peking Opera presentation by National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts and sponsored by the University of Alaska Anchorage's Confucius Institute. So I'm going to offer more than one post of the evening. The performance was more of a music education evening with an explanation of movements, stories, music, etc. and then vignettes from famous operas performed. The presenter brimmed with charm and knowledge and skill that came through even though he spoke in Chinese. The translator, unfortunately, captured only the words, not the charisma of the speaker who occasionally demonstrated movements in a way that suggested to me that he'd spent a fair amount of time on stage as an actor.

The actual vignettes were accompanied by recorded music, but at the beginning of the evening we were given a demonstration of percussion, stringed, and wind instruments. You can see the demonstration in the video. Which ends with part of the first opera vignette where you can see and hear the use of the percussion instruments.



For more, Philmulti gives a nice overview of Chinese traditional stringed instruments with pictures and a video.

From a post on a Chinese music forum:

Music accompanies singing. reciting. actions and acrobatics in Chinese operas. It also helps develop the story. personalize the characters. expose their thoughts and feelings. and create a special atmosphere.

http://china-corner.com/images/pics/2006426123021.jpg
The orchestra of a typical opera is composed of two parts -- the Wenchang. or Civil Section. of string and wind instruments; and the Wuchang. or Military Section. composed of percussion instruments. The former section accompanies singing. and the music is Qu (tunes). The latter accompanies the performers` body movements. reciting. singing. dancing and acrobatics.

The beats clearly mark the beginnings and the endings. Led by the main drummer. the music adjusts and controls the rhythm of the opera. The instrumental music is produced by various kinds of stringed. wind and percussion instruments. and each has its own functions and timbres.

Chinese Opera Comes to Anchorage

The first time I saw Chinese Opera was sometime in 1967 or 1968. I was teaching English at the Boys High School in Kamphaengphet, Thailand and the Chinese community had hired a group from Singapore to perform for some special occasion. There was a trailer that converted into a stage that was set up in a public area in town. The folding chairs were set out for the members of the Chinese community who sponsored the opera. The rest of the town could stand behind the chairs and watch. In a small town like that I got to visit backstage and meet with the actors. [I started this on Saturday and turned the house upside down trying to find some pictures of that first encounter with Chinese opera. In vain. But when I find them one day, I'll post them. This picture here is from UAA's website.]

Chinese opera is like asparagus. It's an acquired taste that requires small samples over time. I've had various opportunities over the years, to see bits and pieces of Chinese opera. Several more times in Thailand. Then when we lived in Hong Kong for a year, at the night market there were always small groups of actors/singers who would perform a scene or two on the street.


In China, Chinese opera was on television every night and once when I was there for a conference they took us to a performance for tourists. It was interesting because they explained things in English and they only showed short scenes. I'm sure the tourist agencies had discovered that most tourists couldn't last through too much Chinese opera. Besides the fact that it is all in a foreign language, the screechy singing and scratchy sounds of the stringed instruments, well, that's the part that takes getting used to.

Now it's a relatively familiar sound that brings back good memories.But I'm confident that at this performance they will give short glimpses of different operas with English explanations so that it should be easier for novices to understand what is happening.

So, come Tuesday, November 3, 2009

UAA's Wendy Williamson Auditorium
7pm (doors open at 6:30) Free!

Well, nothing is free. This is offered by the Confucius Institute at UAA. As I've said in an earlier post, this is sponsored by the Chinese government to promote Chinese language and culture around the world. And people speculate less savory agendas, but no more, I'm sure, than the US and other governments promote with their cultural outreach into other countries. If the Confucius Institute is merely a cultural exchange or a branch of the Chinese takeover of the world*, your taking this opportunity won't have much of an impact on their agenda, but you'll get to experience an art form that has been around for a thousand years or more. [*I'm mostly joking. Even if the worst fears about Confucius Institutes as outposts to monitor overseas Chinese is true, they will play only the tiniest role in China's increasingly important role in the world. And if you take the threat seriously, consider this an opportunity to get to know your enemy.]

The UAA website has a detailed description of the scenes they will be playing so I encourage you to visit that, even print out some of the descriptions before you go. If you take kids, and by all means do, letting them act out the scenes before you go would be great preparation. Let them watch some Chinese Opera videos on line (there are two below). The makeup and the costumes will be spectacular. I think kids can relate to the music better than adults who already have formed notions of what proper music is.

The first video looks like a Chinese television show about modern kids who are studying Chinese Opera. It's all in Chinese, but it shows practicing, putting on makeup, some performances. I think kids can relate to other kids even if it isn't in English. If they don't like this one, find another one and let them dance to the music and play one or two of the scenes described on the UAA website. They'll be a lot more interested when they see the real thing.






From the Illuminated Lantern, a site that reviews Asian movies, I've excerpted this description of the form of Chinese opera, but the whole piece, which is a description of the historic forms of Chinese opera is well worth a peek.

Although there are many different regional styles, they all share many similarities. Each have the same four role types: the female, the male, the painted-face, and the clown. Performances consist of singing, poetry, music, dance, and gesture. Emphasis is on costume and makeup rather than props or scenery. The operas often tell the same stories, though with various regional differences, such as alternate endings or additional characters. The information described within this article will, unless otherwise noted, pertain to Peking Opera specifically, and the regional operas more generally.

We can see four roles here in this description of one of the pieces to be presented Tuesday (from the UAA website.)

Autumn River 京剧《秋江》片段

This story happened during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). Scholar Pan Bizheng is staying with his aunt at a Taoist temple when he falls in love with the Taoist nun Chen Miaochang. His aunt finds out and forces him to leave his love behind and go to Beijing to take the imperial examination. When Chen Miaochang learns that Pan is leaving, she runs to the bank of the Autumn River and hires an old fisherman to follow him. The two meet on the road, travel to Beijing and get married.
The role of Chen Miaochang is played by Hua Shan.

Clearly Scholar Pan is the male role and Taoist nun Chen is the female role. I'm guessing the old fisherman is the clown and that leaves the aunt as the painted face, but I'm just guessing.

Don't miss this. Bring the kids. Sit as close as you can or bring binoculars. And since it's free, if you tire quickly, you can leave without feeling you've lost your money. And you'll forever be able to say you've seen Chinese Opera live, and if you're lucky, you'll get hooked.

If you've never heard it before, it is a bit of a shock to Western ears, so check out this video of Teochew dialect opera (the kind I first heard in Thailand) so it will be a bit familiar when you come Tuesday night. This is from yeohts8192289 at Veoh, he's from Penang, Malaysia.

Kids Enjoy Chinese Cultural Fair in Anchorage

Yesterday afternoon I invited the daughters of friends to go to the Chinese Fair at UAA put on by the Confucius Institute. In the end, their parents came too. I was a little underwhelmed after the quality of Thursday night's performance. But even though the Student Union hadn't been transformed visually into a Chinese village fair, it turned out that the activities were good ones that got the kids and the adults involved.



Each table had some aspect of Chinese culture. This one was called Chinese toys and this was a game where you had to use chopsticks to move tiny beans from cup to cup.





This kid was really getting into the chance to learn some Chinese calligraphy. You can see the character for river (the three vertical lines) and below the character for mountain.





There was also origami - I didn't think to ask about the Chinese claim to what I thought was a Japanese artform.




There were also people who would write people's names on these tags using Chinese characters.













I was hoping to add something about Confucius Institutes in general but if I'm going to get this up, I'll have to leave that part for later. They are sponsored by the Chinese government through the Ministry of Education and they are a way for China to promote Chinese language and culture. There has been some criticism that this is a means of Chinese propaganda and even espionage. But I think the same claims can and have been made for Western organizations that do the same thing. One particular issue with universities is the extent to which the funding agreements give control to the Chinese over curriculum of regular university classes on language and China. One way universities have dealt with this is not by having the CI within academic units - such as the language department or other departments which might cover aspects of Chinese politics, history, etc. in their courses. My understanding of how this works at UAA is that the CI is NOT housed in an academic department, such as Languages, but separately with International Programs which has taken the place of the old American Russian Center.

The benefits, if this works out as hoped, will be extra resources to improve opportunities to study Chinese language in the Anchorage School System and the university and help for the business community that want to tap Chinese markets and resources. If this is going to be more than a symbolic presence, I suspect there will need to be more resources and a clearer focus on a few things that can be done well.

That's actually the gist of what I had to say. Perhaps I'll get up a post with more details another time.

University of Alaska Anchorage Confucius Institute Opening Celebration

Thursday night I walked over to the Wendy Williamson Auditorium at UAA to see the performances celebrating the opening of the Confucius Institute. I've been busy with a number of things today - including computer problems following the installation of Snow Leopard which I think may now finally be over - so I had trouble getting the video completed. [Update Oct. 3 - see this later post for what the Snow Leopard problem was for me. Doesn't mean it will work for you, but it seems to have solved my problem.]

I'll try to do another post or two - one on Confucius and one on Confucius Institutes - but in the meantime here's a glimpse of the celebration. There were entertainers from Anchorage, other parts of the US, and some brought over from China.

This really did have a Chinese feel to it. I was particularly interested in seeing the 'change of face' act. This is a particularly Chinese art form handed down from generation to generation. There's a great film about such an artist who is looking for an apprentice to teach his art to. And as part of the Opening Week celebration, the Confucius Institute will show the movie Saturday night. This is an amazing skill and Thursday night was the first time I saw it in person. It's at the end of the video.




The following is what UAA's website had about Thursday's show (there's a bit of all of the acts on the video)

A Celebration of Chinese Performing Arts

Thursday, Sept. 10, 7 p.m. at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium

• Dr. J.D. Zhang, Sichuan Opera “Change of Face” artist and master of traditional Chinese magic [top picture]
  
• Guoming Sun, Asia International Martial Arts Champion performing double Chain-whip and Drunk Sword [right]
  
• Weiguang Dang, Famous Chinese Baritone
• Dr. Yuxiang Wu, Classical Chinese Flute
• There will be choral singers, dancers and other performances by members of the Alaska Chinese Association.

There was also some formal stuff. The Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences [left] spoke as did the director of the Institute and the the Vice Consul General from the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco [picture above.]

All the events are free. Friday night there was a talk on "Overcoming the Global Economic Crisis: The Chinese Gamble" which I missed because our (originally from Taiwan) guests got back from their trip to Kennecott Mine this evening.

Here's the Saturday schedule from the Institute website. I expect this too will be pretty genuine and worth attending. And it should be good for kids and it's free. This is not your every day fare, the Chinese government is using these Institutes to put a good face forward in the world, so this is probably as close to being in China as it gets at a public event in Alaska.

Chinese Adventure: A carnival of
activities, games, performances and prizes

Saturday, Sept. 12, Noon to 4 p.m. at the UAA Student Union on the 1st Floor [parking is free on Saturdays, and if you don't know where the student union is, this is a good time to go looking for it (it's on Providence between Providence Hospital and Lake Otis) next to the sports center].

Come witness and participate in traditional dance and martial arts performances, calligraphy, paper cutting and folding, Chinese games and more. These opportunities made possible with assistance from the Alaska Chinese Association and the UAA Chinese Language Club.

And then in the evening the movie I mentioned above. This is a really interesting movie and if I recall right, appropriate for kids. [Let me amend this thought. It's probably good for mature kids about 12 or over. It probably has subtitles, but if you are one of those anti-subtitles people, try not to pass that prejudice on to your kids. It helps them improve their reading and gives access to many great films.] One of the key characters is the kid who is being trained. The Fine Arts Building is on the far east side of the campus. The street that comes out of the Providence Hospital onto Providence Dr. goes right into campus there. Turn right at the first corner.

Film Presentation: The King of Masks (1999)
Sunday, Sept. 13, 6:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts Building 150
Directed by Wu Tian-Ming, The King of Masks is set in 1930s Sichuan Province and tells the tale of an aging master of the traditional Sichuan Opera art of Change of Face, rapid mask changes to display the emotions of varied players, and his quest to find a protégé to carry on his art. This is a simple, moving and well-acted film starring Zhang Zhigang and Xu Zhu.

Blogging Is Like Fishing

It's been a year now that I've been blogging. What Do I Know now I didn't know then? Lots. Some thoughts:

1. Blogging is like fishing

I started blogging to just see what it was all about. I really didn't care who read it, and I'm reasonably pleased that those who do stop and comment have been civil (I know that's sounds like an invitation to the uncivil, but it seems they aren't reading it, or it's too boring for them to even respond.) But I noticed early on that I started looking at the "Viewed Profile" numbers. Then someone suggested I put up site-meter. That is addictive - not just seeing how many hits I get, but where they are all from. And until I got site-meter, I had no idea how much information I left at other websites. Unlike fishing, even posts I've dropped into the water months ago can get hits today.

2. Hits

I was averaging anywhere from 3 to 10 hits per day -with spikes into the 20s - before July. Up til then, the biggest days came from my posts on automaticwashers.org trying to get help fixing my Maytag. But in July I blogged a local trial of a politician tried (and convicted) of extortion, bribery, and money laundering. That got me links on the local newspaper's website and several other sites and my hits zoomed up - 30, 45, on up to 150 and then slowly back down. But some of those folks have stayed and I'm in the 20s regularly now. This week's Sicko review got linked to a major Italian movie site and was translated into German on another site. Then there are the "unknown" referrals. Some, like my mom, are regulars. But I wonder how others found my site. One commenter said her search engine alerted her that my site had mentioned one of her flagged terms: 'prophy-paste.'

3. What are people searching for?

Major topics have been the Tom Anderson Trial, Carnival Cruise lines, Alaska Airport Railroad Depot. I like the idea that people trying to figure out how to get from the airport to their cruise get to read about how the cruiselines are ripping everyone off. A few hits for "Viddler v. Youtube." Then there are my favorites who searh for the exotic. Who are the people (three or four altogether) who have searched for awazdo? (I did some posts on trucks in India with pictures of their "Please Honk" signs. Then I discovered awazdo meant "give me horn" in Hindi (Maharashtri?) and posted on that. ) I guess other people have the same bizarre curiosity I have. People also have searched for names of people (ordinary people) I've posted about. And then there are the people whose searches get them to me, but only because the words appear scattered in different posts, but nothing I have is relevant to them. Someone the other day from New Jersey got here googling, "i live in a condo above a smoker and the smell comes in what can i do to get rid of it." That got him to my April archive that began with a post on the Confucius Institute. But five or six posts down was
"What is it about smokers?" Did he read down that far? Who knows?

4. Searching and Finding
I still haven't figured out exactly why search engines give the results they do. Sometimes they give the archive - like with the smoker - and then the person has to find it on the page. Sometimes they give my latest posts and then they have to search the blog. Sometimes they give the exact post they were looking for. I haven't studied it enough to figure out if there is a pattern - whether the word is in the post, title, or labels. I originally thought the labels were a good idea so people could search my blog by topics so I wanted to limit it to a few general categories. But I've been slipping in more specific things lately.

5. Google Hits and Technorati Rankings

Technorati seems to be focused on how many other people link to you and how high their rankings are. I've moved up from Zero to 1, then 2, and eventually up to 9 this week. (The Italian movie blog was ranked around 3200 to give you a sense.) So I'm a slight bump in the blogosphere. On the other hand, Google must be impacted by how often you post. I've been posting once or more a day on average and as I check the site-meter to see how people got to me, I've been on page one of Google fairly often.

6. New features

I started with just text. Buying my Canon Powershot changed everything. I was soon adding photos. And then video. First YouTube, then I found Viddler. And now Blogger has an upload, but it didn't work yesterday. That may have to do with the bugs in iMovie08. Fortunately, it left iMovie06 on my computer. (There was no '07, but the blog wags are calling iMovie08, iMovie07.) And Jamfest made posting audio easy. You can even download directly from websites to Jamfest. And Blogger added polls, but I'm not sure how I would use them. They seem like toys on most blogs. And I probably don't have enough readers anyway.

7. Comments.

I discovered early, accidentally, that leaving comments on other posts, often brings a visit from that blogger, and even a comment. I do wander to other blogs now and then, though I'm cruising Alaska blogs more than the 'next blog' button. I'm not even sure how I got to Mirksome Bogle. Mirk has become a regular commenter here. Visually, our sites are totally different, but our content has some overlaps - photos of nature, quirky photos, punnish, and eclecticity.

Those are some things that pop into mind musing on my blogging.

Confucius Institute

The University of Alaska Anchorage has had its proposal for a Confucius Institute accepted for the first round. Now they have to submit a revised proposal to get it funded. Germany has the Goethe Institutes and France has the Alliance Francais, and the US sponsors libraries and other programs through their embassies to promote the understanding of their languages and cultures. Japan also has some programs. And now China is getting into the game too, though they seem to be going about it a little differently. The others, as I understand it, are direct arms of their respective governments. The Confucius Institutes are being set up and run through foreign partners - usually Universities. There are already a number in the US and other parts of the world. The Chinese government will sponsor one or two Chinese language teachers from a Chinese University (UAA is partnered here with Changchung Normal University) who will work on various projects. The basic areas we are looking at are University language teaching, community outreach into the public and private sector (such as workshops on Chinese culture and doing business in China), and the Anchorage School District, which has a proposal to create a Chinese immersion school (there already is one for Japanese, Spanish, and Russian.) If the funding comes through, the Chinese government, through the Confucius Institute organization, will be supporting Chinese language and cultural programs in Anchorage. As the US state closest to China, this is could be a good start for us.