Lifestyles

There is something that I have not yet mentioned. The average Chinese home does not have a television. In fact, from what I can tell, it is an extraordinary home that does. So there is not a mass form of entertainment for a billion people. A billion people that live in sometimes horrendous conditions, on extremely little pay, with stringent government enforcement on how they should live, what they should think and say, and how many children they can have.

As ancient Romans would tell you, this is a problem. Their solution was the coliseum. China's solution is to keep you out of your home for as long as possible during the day, and return you there only for sleep until your next day begins, with many people working seven days a week, fourteen or fifteen hours a day.

On my first night in Panyu, the smaller, industrial city outside of Shenzhen, I witnessed a strip of shops that are run out of garages on the bottom floor of dormitory housing. These shops have maybe six pool tables, outside, on the street, or a small food mart, or plastic chairs and overturned buckets lined up to watch a fifteen inch tv with a popular show on. I assumed that this was happening because of the poverty of the area, but did not expect that it was a cultural occurrence.

In the larger cities, however, there is usually a square or another row of shops on what is called a "walking street" where there are no cars and you can sit on the sidewalk and watch a billboard sized screen with that same popular show. The shops themselves are also open until ten, so that what little time you have to yourself can be spent shopping for things that you need, or those that you want and have been able to save for.

But tonight, I was introduced to something else. We treated our hostess and her twelve year old daughter to dinner and then she asked us if we would like to go to the park. Um, okay. It was already about 8:00 and street lighting is not a common convenience, but she insisted and we had no other plans. We drove to her home and from there walked to the local park, which we then had to pay to enter (there are many such controls in China) and we walked around the grounds until we came to a small stage where three girls were performing a parasol dance. We sat to watch the dance and I was thinking that it was a local talent show or variety show, as the girls were not well synced or terribly talented with spinning their parasols. That was, of course, until they started bending over backwards, lifting each other by one foot, balancing all three on one pair of legs, or climbing up ladders while balancing candles on poles on bars that they held with their teeth.

I remembered suddenly that of all the Cirque performances that I have ever seen, there has always been an act of Chinese acrobats. Of course they learn from early childhood and practice day in and day out. But apparently there are many such acrobats in China, and these that we saw tonight were just three of those many, and were not afforded a greater audience than those of us that fit in the courtyard in front of the stage in lawn chairs.

I was also reminded that every Cirque show that I have ever been to has cost over $75 USD per person, and the arenas hold several hundred. These performers, we were told (and there were eight of them in all) make $500 RMB (Chinese dollars) a night. That equates to around $60 USD, split between 8 people that I saw, plus whatever crew was working backstage, costs of props, costumes, lighting, equipment, and any other overhead.

But they do keep the citizens occupied.