A day of art, a night of music

Before I get started, here is a quick thought that has been poking about in my head for a while: Beijing is a very hard city to get to know. It is, first of all, massive. Then, on top of that, unlike most of the European and East Coast cities with which I am acquainted, it is not designed for the pedestrian. Without a bicycle (a state that I am currently in), it is very hard to actually get to know your neighborhood, as they are so big. Blocks are massive, and, at least in Wudaokou (五道口--the neighborhood of Beiyu) there are not very many alleyways (胡同-- a Beijing center). Being so far from the center of town also makes it difficult to see the city on a weekday, when homework swamps our free time.

On to the actual content of this blogpost.

Yesterday, HBA organized a trip to 798 art district (whose Chinese name is a pun involving going to bars).  It is a part of Beijing that was originally filled with factories and was at the center of Mao's first five year plans.  In the years since, it attracted poor artists and now it is one of the most interesting parts of Beijing.  We went there for about tow and half hours, and I spent most of the time wandering the streets.  It was as much an outdoor area as it was filled with galleries.  It was so refreshing to be able to wander streets again (as it's proportions were not that of many of Beijing's quarters).

It was filled with people, and, given the heat of the mid-afternoon, it made an already fascinating area an even more bustling environment.

(a former factory)

From 798, I met up with a student, who is the friend of a family friend, and her parents.  I went with them to a concert that we believed was going to be a symphony conducted by a very famous Chinese conductor.  It turned out to be a benefit concert to raise funds and awareness for the disabled.  There were singers, dancers, and instrumentalists, who all had some kind of disability.  There were blind performers, performers who were amputees, and several dance troupes who were deaf and were conducted by two people on either side of the stage who signaled to them where they were in the music using Chinese sign language.

(one of the deaf dance troups)

The headliner of the show was indeed this very famous Chinese conductor.  His name is 舟舟 (Zhouzhou), a man who is very severely mentally disabled.  When he spoke, the Chinese could not understand him, and when he sang, he could not carry a tune, and yet he was a brilliant conductor, and was able to lead an orchestra brilliantly.  The orchestra consisted of Chinese instruments (except for percussion, cello, and bass from the west) and the pieces that it played were all Chinese pieces (except for their closing number: the Radetzky March.)

（舟舟）

It was a fascinating concert, and very moving on many levels.