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Published: September 21st 2007
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Impression: Liu Sanjie
Fisherman with red cloth. It was all dark and all of a sudden these fisherman with bright red appeared like this- it was so pretty! We had dinner on West Street and wanted to try a local specialty, "Beer Fish". The fish (a big one) was prepared with the scales on it. Big scales. Yuk! I asked the waiter why the scales weren't take off and he replied "That's how it's prepared". In my mind I insisted that the chef was lazy and made us scrape off the gross cooked scales. It was a bit diappointing. When I saw our driver and Cherry I told them about our beer fish and she immediately said that "oh, we eat the scales here" as if she knew what I was going to say! Oops... my bad... guess they eat the scales! Ick! My wrong for accusing the chef of being lazy.
Initially, our tour was supposed to head back to Guilin at night, but we tailored our tour to stay one night in Yangshuo because we wanted to see this show "Impression: Liu Sanjie" at night and go for a morning bicycle ride in Yangshuo.
I had heard mixed reviews about the show - and of course, I had to see for myself. I tell people that while I have the resources and opportunities, I'd rather
say, "The show sucks" than "I don't know, I heard it sucks". Anyhow, the show is famous and directed by the famous Zhang Yimou (House of Flying Daggers, Hero, and director of the Beijing Olympic Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies).
The "stage" is actually ON the Li River, surrounded by 12 karst mountains that are lit up during the show. The theater seats 2,000 and there are 2 shows per night, and over 600,000 people see it a year. Wow. The cast is made up of 600 people (water buffalo and comorants too!), including local fisheman! Lights, music, mountains, dancing on the water... 600 hundred people... just the idea of this kind of performance made me so curious and excited to see it!
To be honest, I'm not so clear what the exact storyline is about. Liu Sanjie is a minority girl (Zhuang?) and the show tells a love story between her and a fisherman. They all sing, glide about the river, lots of flights, flames, costumes, etc. It's quite a production. My favorite part of the show was when all these fishemen come out on lines of bamboo rafts and use this lit up red cloth to
Impression: Liu Sanjie
One of my favorite parts: all the lights are girls in costumes lit up on the water. "symbolize the enthusiasm and praise the labors of the local people"(?). I read that off the internet. I didn't really interpret that myself. I saw it as "fishermen gliding and performing with red cloth". It was truly beautiful and very graceful. All of my pictures are terrible - but I decided to post them so you get an idea. Everything is on the water.
My other favorite part was at the very end where all these Zhuang girls dress up in traditional silver costumes that light up. They all (over 200) string together with on the water and the silver on their costumes reflect all the light to make each person sparkle... and they use the lights to create a light show. It's really neat and nicely choregraphed. The entire show was very "Opening Ceremony-ish". Lots of synchronized simple movements all together create an impressive show! Guess that's why Zhang Yimou is in charge of the Olympics.
I would highly recommend this show if you are in Yangshuo. The cheapest tickets are 188 rmb though. A bit steep, but if you like performing arts, and can appreciate this sort of entertainment, it's definitely worth it! The queue out
Impression: Liu Sanjie
Fishemen hold torches while gliding on the river. of the parking lot was a nightmare. Our driver was already in line when we got out! 😊
CL and I got ice cream on West Street after the show. She said, "I waited all afternoon and I was a bit disappointed." I said, "You mean the show?" and she said, "No, the ice cream." 😊 haha. She's so funny.
Side rant/note: There was a guy sitting behind us during the show who obviously had no interest nor appreciation for the performance. This Chinese tourist must have been dragged by his tour group. He was talking (or should I say yelling) on his cell phone during the show, making his airport pick-up arrangements, making comments to three people down from him etc. It was driving me crazy and I turned around and "Shhhhhh-ed" him which did not help. I seriously wanted to pick a fight with him and tell him that if he wasn't going to watch, he should leave!!! This is why I can't stay in China - I always want I to reform/teach people, when it's not my place, my right nor worth my effort to impose myself like that on others. Don't spit, don't litter,
don't push, don't cut, don't smoke, don't yell during a performance. Argh! This is how people are here - they talk loudly, and don't have a sense of personal liberties (my right to be able to listen to the show in peace (in a smoke-free environment)!). There are 1.3 billion people in China... it gets loud and noisy. You have to yell to be heard. Sigh.
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