Getting Past the Eggplant
We got off the boat on Sunday. Then we got on a bus. And then a plane. And then a bus. And then a rest, a boat, a bus and now, SHANGHAI! The center of the immoral in the universe or at least in the Tintin books!
But I can't talk about Shanghai quite yet, because the boat still looms large in the collective imagination of the 45 members of this tour who are now fraying at the edges, getting sick and snapping at each other amid moments of pure jollity and more actual informal humanity than witnessed before. The things a boat can do. Eggplant discussions are a thing of the past.
One of the positive effects of being on the boat for three days was that we had to talk to each other and sooner or later we ran out of polite inquiries or good manners and just descended into the regular human sorts of things. There wasn't much to do on the boat besides look out at the river, except on our morning excursions which involved smaller boats and other parts of the river.
What we looked at was bittersweet - the Three Gorges, other gorges, some occasional monkeys, and a number of incredibly breathtaking sights that are becoming markedly less breathtaking by the day as the new Three Gorges dam backs up water for about 400 miles on the Yangtze. I talked about this a little bit, I think, in the last entry. The effects are fairly dramatic. There are white markers along both sides of the riverbank that illustrate the 176meter mark, which is how high the river will eventually get. Most things below the markers are abandoned, but many villages, coal deposits, and factories still remained, belching out their final smoky belches.
But, despite the massive change occuring, and all the resettling, and the genuine controversy in a country known for its strong oppostion to opposition - we were reminded, China needs the electricity, China needs the dam. And this seemed like a good enough reason until we drove through the town of Yichang on our way to the airport to come here. Yichang is the center of the building frenzy - all the temporary engineers and laborers are residing in Yichang. Yichang is also the last city in China to get the power provided by the dam and the place is a mess. All the still water behind the dam inspired an outbreak of schistasomiasis (probably misspelled) a very nasty disease I learned about in school that involves parasites invading and mating (cue undergraduate chorus of: eeeewwww! grossss!) in your bloodstream. Mao had almost eliminated the disease, but it's back and the place, despite all the construction work, is in poverty. For the dam.
The extraordinary dam. It's so compelling to look at -a huge man made thing that controls so much you can't take your eyes off of it. The only analogy I can think of right now is the Death Star. Yes, the Death Star. It's like looking at the Death Star might be if we were in space and the Death Star wasn't imaginary and people could travel in space and there was also an intergalactic battle for justice. Cool? Glad you follow.
The final night we went through the ship locks to get us around the dam. In each lock they pack in as many as six to ten ships, drain the water from the lock and move you through the five stage process. At night, under bright lights, surrounded by concrete and enormous lock doors making huge low thrums and the slipped shut - well, it reminded me of landing in the Beijing airport. Scary. Fun! Communist! I stood on the prow as we went through the locks and invented the various plots of spy movies that might start in the locks of the Yangtze. This, of course, was before I learned about the schistasomiasis.
And after the talent show. The what? Oh yes. The onboard talent show. Which, of course, is different from the fashion show of the night before. Especially since the passengers participate in the talent show.
This summer I went to a wedding in New Hampshire which was at a "family camp" up there and involved lots of planned activities and beautiful rustic surroundings and cabins and general bohomie. I compared it to a WASPy version of Dirty Dancing. At that point in my life I did not expect to see a talent show on board a river cruise, performed mainly by the staff, and realize that the entertainment aesthetic of Dirty Dancing is carrying its watermelon all over the globe.
Watching the staff perform in the fashion and talent shows was a blast. Mainly because the more improv I do, the more I enjoy amateur theatre that aims for spectacle - costumes! dancing! music and lights! Techno beats matched with outfits from the Ming dynasty! GIVE ME MORE!
A couple of the staff members, I could tell, just lived for it and I loved watching them. One guy - a great hammy physical comedian, did three short routines in different outfits, all non-verbal in order to vault the language barrier. One of the girls had definitely choreographed everything - you could tell by the smile and the utter panic of one of the other dancers stepped out of place. It was great.
And on the second night - the talent show, the cast did some more modern routines, the super-Ham came back as a magician, and one guy breakdanced. How does it feel to be the skinniest 24 year old Chinese guy in the world busting a move for a boatload of ancient white Americans?
No one applauded for the coupld in their fifties - a man who's profile was chisled like a 50s film actor and his lady friend. They did a "medley of songs to show how men are different from women." I didn't recognize his song, but she joined in with "All I Want Is A Room Somewhere" from Sound of Music. Seriously, that is the difference between men and women. We just want a room, somewhere, please god, with chocolate and maybe by ourselves. Even Virginia Woolf thinks so and we all know she was super weird for a woman.
Anyhoo, there is so much more to say about the talent show, but here in the city of sin the internet is very expensive. I'll just say I taught and led a quick game of "Dr. Know It All" which seemed to be a success until The Benevolent King of the Unsolicited Monologue told me I should get a job. Thank you!
Besides him, it went as well as I thought it might and to my surprise, the trip Professor played! The China Professor whose presence makes this whole thing untaxable (good scheming, Harvard!)! She's an awesome woman and I should write more about her later, but it was very game of her to step up there and answer questions.
One. Word. At. A. Time.
For the IGPers out there, I'm seeing Brit tonight (Tuesday). Yeah! She's been here three days! Woo!
But I can't talk about Shanghai quite yet, because the boat still looms large in the collective imagination of the 45 members of this tour who are now fraying at the edges, getting sick and snapping at each other amid moments of pure jollity and more actual informal humanity than witnessed before. The things a boat can do. Eggplant discussions are a thing of the past.
One of the positive effects of being on the boat for three days was that we had to talk to each other and sooner or later we ran out of polite inquiries or good manners and just descended into the regular human sorts of things. There wasn't much to do on the boat besides look out at the river, except on our morning excursions which involved smaller boats and other parts of the river.
What we looked at was bittersweet - the Three Gorges, other gorges, some occasional monkeys, and a number of incredibly breathtaking sights that are becoming markedly less breathtaking by the day as the new Three Gorges dam backs up water for about 400 miles on the Yangtze. I talked about this a little bit, I think, in the last entry. The effects are fairly dramatic. There are white markers along both sides of the riverbank that illustrate the 176meter mark, which is how high the river will eventually get. Most things below the markers are abandoned, but many villages, coal deposits, and factories still remained, belching out their final smoky belches.
But, despite the massive change occuring, and all the resettling, and the genuine controversy in a country known for its strong oppostion to opposition - we were reminded, China needs the electricity, China needs the dam. And this seemed like a good enough reason until we drove through the town of Yichang on our way to the airport to come here. Yichang is the center of the building frenzy - all the temporary engineers and laborers are residing in Yichang. Yichang is also the last city in China to get the power provided by the dam and the place is a mess. All the still water behind the dam inspired an outbreak of schistasomiasis (probably misspelled) a very nasty disease I learned about in school that involves parasites invading and mating (cue undergraduate chorus of: eeeewwww! grossss!) in your bloodstream. Mao had almost eliminated the disease, but it's back and the place, despite all the construction work, is in poverty. For the dam.
The extraordinary dam. It's so compelling to look at -a huge man made thing that controls so much you can't take your eyes off of it. The only analogy I can think of right now is the Death Star. Yes, the Death Star. It's like looking at the Death Star might be if we were in space and the Death Star wasn't imaginary and people could travel in space and there was also an intergalactic battle for justice. Cool? Glad you follow.
The final night we went through the ship locks to get us around the dam. In each lock they pack in as many as six to ten ships, drain the water from the lock and move you through the five stage process. At night, under bright lights, surrounded by concrete and enormous lock doors making huge low thrums and the slipped shut - well, it reminded me of landing in the Beijing airport. Scary. Fun! Communist! I stood on the prow as we went through the locks and invented the various plots of spy movies that might start in the locks of the Yangtze. This, of course, was before I learned about the schistasomiasis.
And after the talent show. The what? Oh yes. The onboard talent show. Which, of course, is different from the fashion show of the night before. Especially since the passengers participate in the talent show.
This summer I went to a wedding in New Hampshire which was at a "family camp" up there and involved lots of planned activities and beautiful rustic surroundings and cabins and general bohomie. I compared it to a WASPy version of Dirty Dancing. At that point in my life I did not expect to see a talent show on board a river cruise, performed mainly by the staff, and realize that the entertainment aesthetic of Dirty Dancing is carrying its watermelon all over the globe.
Watching the staff perform in the fashion and talent shows was a blast. Mainly because the more improv I do, the more I enjoy amateur theatre that aims for spectacle - costumes! dancing! music and lights! Techno beats matched with outfits from the Ming dynasty! GIVE ME MORE!
A couple of the staff members, I could tell, just lived for it and I loved watching them. One guy - a great hammy physical comedian, did three short routines in different outfits, all non-verbal in order to vault the language barrier. One of the girls had definitely choreographed everything - you could tell by the smile and the utter panic of one of the other dancers stepped out of place. It was great.
And on the second night - the talent show, the cast did some more modern routines, the super-Ham came back as a magician, and one guy breakdanced. How does it feel to be the skinniest 24 year old Chinese guy in the world busting a move for a boatload of ancient white Americans?
No one applauded for the coupld in their fifties - a man who's profile was chisled like a 50s film actor and his lady friend. They did a "medley of songs to show how men are different from women." I didn't recognize his song, but she joined in with "All I Want Is A Room Somewhere" from Sound of Music. Seriously, that is the difference between men and women. We just want a room, somewhere, please god, with chocolate and maybe by ourselves. Even Virginia Woolf thinks so and we all know she was super weird for a woman.
Anyhoo, there is so much more to say about the talent show, but here in the city of sin the internet is very expensive. I'll just say I taught and led a quick game of "Dr. Know It All" which seemed to be a success until The Benevolent King of the Unsolicited Monologue told me I should get a job. Thank you!
Besides him, it went as well as I thought it might and to my surprise, the trip Professor played! The China Professor whose presence makes this whole thing untaxable (good scheming, Harvard!)! She's an awesome woman and I should write more about her later, but it was very game of her to step up there and answer questions.
One. Word. At. A. Time.
For the IGPers out there, I'm seeing Brit tonight (Tuesday). Yeah! She's been here three days! Woo!
posted by The Gadabout at 4:09 PM
1 Comments:
Hellos to Brit
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