The Great Hall of the People: ode to Zhou Enlai

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

As Sun Bin is deeply involved in the study of China’s period under Zhu De, Zhou Enlai and of course her grandfather Sun Bingwen, we get involved in unusual events. Like this one in the afternoon of 17 February. We thought at first it was a “small event”, till we reached the gates and saw half of Beijing was there queuing up to enter. We were in that huge hall that filled up completely. And me the only foreigner…
Boring at first, it was pretty interesting. For Sun was it rather emotional as it showed the old times, so many memories for her.
On stage, the original seat of Zhou Enlai. And some of the most famous singers in China’s history, some like 90 years old.
Also the “Third Red Generation”, the ones all with a long red scarf.

I was moved by what I consider to be one of the most beautiful pieces of Chinese music. See here the story behind it:

The Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese legend of a tragic love story of a pair of lovers, Liang Shanbo (梁山伯) and Zhu Yingtai (祝英台), whose names form the title of the story. The title is often abbreviated to Liang Zhu (梁祝). The legend of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai is set in the Eastern Jin dynasty (265-420 CE). The Butterfly Lovers is also known as China’s play of Romeo and Juliet.
In 1950s, Chen Gang (陈钢) composed the internationally famous violin concerto themed with Liangzhu, and in 1954, ex-premier Zhou Enlai introduced the movie named Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, China’s first colored opera-type artistic movie, to the journalists of the world when he attended at the Geneva Conference, and then this movie based on the love story was widely called Chinese Romeo and Juliet. In a short time, this story becomes internationally famous.

The internationally famous violin concerto named Liangzhu or The Butterfly Lovers: see here one of the many versions. Just simple moving….

There are also versions with erhu instead of violin. Great stuff.
See also the old picture of The Great Hall and Tiananmen, when I arrived in Beijing it was still nearly like that: no barriers anywhere. Now, to go there or leave there, what a fuss. All that security. Times have changed and not always for the better.

Austrian musician, Operation Smile in Beijing Rotaract

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

On 22 February in Lyrics Cafe, a special meeting. The usual discussion about the projects and the introduction of Morning Tears (by myself).
The star was however the Austrian songwriter and musician Franz Eppensteiner who set up his social platform EPPI.

EPPI is a platform where music, art & social commitment come together. EPPI’s team includes people who are following their dreams and who are work on the projects aimed to help people in need.
First project carried out by EPPI was named “I JUST WANNA SEE YOUR SMILE”, and it includes song “Smile”, related music video and so-called “Smile T-shirts”.
This project is supporting two charity organizations aiming to help kids who are suffering from cleft lip and/or palate. The music video “Smile” shows the power of a smile and gives a solution of how to help these (mostly) children, namely by getting the “Smile T-shirts”.
Austrian national Franz Eppensteiner is a founder of EPPI Platform. He is also musician, singer and songwriter. Trough almost a year now he was trying to reach out to people all around China with the help of the EPPI’s team aimed to build partnership so project can be promoted properly and to get platform bigger to create more collaborations and opportunities from which will benefit young Chinese kids born with cleft lip and/or palate. He wrote song ‘Smile’ few years ago and after his arrival to Shanghai he heard of the organization aimed to help those kids. Than he realized he can contribute it with his music.
Visit: www.loveppi.com

Video “I want to see your smile”
http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTQ2MDg5Nzc2MA==.html

Or here directly:

Enjoy

Rotaract Club Beijing, nursing homes and Lyrics Cafe

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Our Rotaract Club has now changed its meeting spot to Lyrics Cafe in SOHO Sanlitun.
The meetings are well attended by a wide mix of nationalities, all young and enthusiastic volunteers – France, Belgium, Holland, France, Zimbabwe, Germany, Guyana, Kazakhstan… and more.
As mentioned earlier, one of the projects is paying regular visits to a nursing home in Beijing. See here also some of their idea related to nursing homes. On 22 November 2015 they made a movie at Long Zhen Senior Care, for retired seniors, in Laiguangying. Name of the movie: The Missing Ring.

See here pics from the meetings on 25 January and 1 February.

Foreign leaders attend September 3 parade

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A look back at last year!
Thirty heads of state and government leaders attended the 3 September 2015 parade in Beijing to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The foreign leaders included Russian President Vladimir Putin, South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Former Taiwanese Vice President Lien Chan also attended.

(Most pics from the media and WeChat, except the last ones)
The parade included some 12,000 soldiers, 50 generals, 500 pieces of military hardware and nearly 200 aircraft. Chinese President Xi Jinping presided over the parade ceremony, flanked by his two predecessors, Jiang Zemin, 89, and Hu Jintao, 72. Three former Premiers – Li Peng, Zhu Rongji and Wen Jiabao – also turned out for the event. In a speech at the parade, Xi said the numbers of the PLA’s forces would be cut by 300,000 by 2017.
Oh well, it was a parade strictly to watch on TV. No people allowed on the streets. No enthusiastic citizens waving Chinese flags for the soldiers. Except for the “selected” foreigners and others who suffered hours and hours to be on Tiananmen Square. I was happy not to be invited and preferred to watch the planes fly over Guomao and watch CCTV.
Security measures were massive, including in Sanlitun and the main shopping areas. Beijing lockdown with many streets blocked: I went home quickly during the rehearsals and the parade days because I had the risk I could not go home at a certain point (it was actually a bit scary…). Most restaurants closed, and many shops. Yeah the sky was blue, after APAC blue now Parade blue after shutting down industry and social life. Beijing nearly became a ghost town except for the rumbling of the tanks and other heavy vehicles that I could hear in Julong Garden.
Draconian measures out of fear for “incidents” and to control pollution.

“The New Sanxia” 3D movie media event

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

I was very fortunate to participate as the only foreigner in the making of the 3D HD movie on “The New Three Gorges”, in early November 2015. I still have to work on my well over 1000 pictures.
On 15 December 2015 a Media Event was held in the CCTV Media Center (Fuxing Road) to introduce the movie, “Discovering New Three Gorges”.
See some pictures of the event, some screenshots of parts of the movie and parts of the magazine introducing the movie.

I met many of the experts and film crew and we had a lively banquet later on.
As far as I understand, the movie should come out in March, in several episodes and will be shown on CCTV. Oh boy I am a bit nervous about all that as they forced me to do nearly all the interviews for the movie in Chinese and well, I think my Chinese is still very mamahuhu.
To have an idea about the many exciting places we visited, see this posting. Those were shots made in a previous shooting and they will be mixed with the footage we did.

https://www.wenjuan.com/s/yuyEza/

Yeah, I am not not I am now an “actor”.
More about my findings in another post to come about the seminar of the Leisure Industry (16 January 2016).