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It's been a patriotic week what with the Diamond Jubilee & all. And it goes on. Even in Beijing.
This afternoon Liz and I went to the Queen's Birthday Party - her official one - at the Ambassador's Residence. Having lived overseas for the last dozen years we're pretty used to these. They're funny things, very Glyndebourne-meets-Ascot but without the opera and horses. There's fish & chips & Pimms, ladies in hats, speeches and a toast to the Queen. And the Beijing Beatles performed later on but we missed them as we had to get to the NCPA to see...
...Propeller's Henry V - as patriotic a play as was ever written. Very good production performed with matey, laddish gusto. Many other versions (including the Olivier & Brannagh films) see Henry dominate everything, but here it's much more of an ensemble piece. I felt a little uncomfortable at times: one of them wears an England football shirt, and there's obviously lots of puffing up of chests and jingoism towards the French... but thankfully there's enough humour and invention to distract from the nationalism. And the ending of course sees Henry question whether it was all worth it.
My definition of a good night out: three arts events in one evening, all organized by someone else!
Kicked off with the opening of Mario Testino's Private View exhibition at Today Art Museum, which we 'facilitated'. A predictably glamorous affair: beautifully installed & impeccably lit giant-sized photographs of models, actors and royals... attended by models, actors and, er, us. Models seem to be a different species: already unfeasibly tall, they tottered around on 6-inch heels, thin and alien-like. Testino himself was charming and happy to chat.
We then tootled off to a fashion show by the young Chinese designer and Central Saint Martin's graduate, Simon Gao. Big warehouse affair, 100+ outfits, dry ice, pumping music. I was almost certainly the oldest one there.
And finished off at a gig in a tiny hutong bar called School. The band was Nova Heart (mentioned in a post last month): great, wistful, electronic pop, a sort of cross between Anna Domino and Blondie, fronted by Helen Feng (Chinese, but grew up in America). Top night out.
Last day of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. We watched a bit of the boating regalia on Sunday but missed today's inevitable concert, though I saw brief highlights on YouTube. "Do I have to have a pop concert?" "Sorry, Ma'am, yes you do". So, cue Robbie Williams and Annie Lennox and Sir Cliff and Sir Elton and Sir Tom and Sir Paul and all the usual people. Still, well-themed and an impressive production - and Madness doing Our House on Buckingham Palace roof was a nice touch.
There was a fair bit of coverage in the Chinese media. Not sure what they made of it all. Lang Lang performed, so that probably helped. And of course all the Jubilee merchandise was made in China.
Tough start to the week with a straight 14-hour day and no lunchbreak. but an interesting respite half-way, MC-ing a press conference for Propeller who landed this morning (and were surprisingly chipper considering). Propeller are an all-male, exclusively Shakespearian theatre company, founded by Edward Hall - son of Sir Peter. They're doing a double act - Henry V and The Winter's Tale - both in Beijing and Shanghai. A lot of the questions were of the "Why only men?" persuasion (that was how it was done in Shakespeare's day was one answer but there were others). Robert Hands, who plays the lead role in The Winter's Tale, had a funny anecdote from when he played Helena in Midsummer Night's Dream. His (her) "I am as ugly as a bear..." speech met with an "I agree" from a little girl in the front row.
Looking forward to seeing them do their stuff.
Watched a nice family film this afternoon: Hugo, directed by Martin Scorsese. Fascinating subject - the rediscovery of pioneer French film-maker Georges Méliès who, after his dalliance with fame, fell upon hard times after the First World War and ended up working in a toyshop in the Gare Montparnasse unbeknownst to virtually everyone. It's based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by American author Brian Selznick, which invents the character of Hugo but otherwise sticks reasonably close to the truth. The two child actors are great, so too Ben Kingsley as the grumpy Méliès. But the real surprise is Sacha Baron Cohen as the station inspector who brings a bit of Borat to a character which might otherwise have been too straight-forward nasty. And of course it looked great, even if we watched it in 2 not 3D.
Today we officially went Apple. We've had iPhones for a couple of years but after a lot of humm-ing & ha-ing we braved the heaving Apple Store and bought an iMac and an iPad. The cult of Steve Jobs and the sleek designs by Jonathan Ives (Sir Jonathan Ives now) have snared us. There is something beautifully, terribly alluring about Apple culture. So begone wheezing Fujitsu PC and welcome 21/5" screen with its wireless keyboard and mouse. As for the iPad - I don't think we'll see much of that, if the girls have their way...
Yesterday the girls went to school in Diamond Jubilee regalia. Liz fashioned 'ermine' cloaks and I made crowns, but the best items were a delightfully kitsch tea towel and rubber duck, brought over by Nick yesterday. They were the envy of their classes. I mean, how could their Chinese or Korea or Japanese classmates compete with that?
Naomi was going to go as a corgi but we convinced her that no-one would get the corgi cultural context - she would just look like a dog. At best. Incidentally, we found out that the Queen has dorgis as well (apparently a cross-between a corgi and a dachsund).
Anyway, we're missing out on all the fun & festivities back home. Doubtless there will be street parties across the land. Let's hope the weather holds out.
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