Yvonne Webb

Two groups of Chi­nese artistes daz­zled south­ern­ers with their amaz­ing cul­tur­al dis­play at a func­tion cel­e­brat­ing their coun­try's an­niver­sary and diplo­mat­ic links with T&T on Oc­to­ber 4. Mem­bers of the Chi­nese Arts and Cul­ture Stud­ies So­ci­ety, as well as the Suin­ing Folk Art Troupe, held guests spell­bound with their mag­nif­i­cent bal­anc­ing acts, mag­ic, dance and com­ic jug­gling skills. Held at V's Mem­bers Club, San Fer­nan­do, on Sun­day Oc­to­ber 4, the troupes per­formed on a big stage, while hun­dreds of guests en­joyed an elab­o­rate spread of Chi­nese cui­sine and del­i­ca­cies.

Mem­bers of the Chi­nese Arts and Cul­ture Stud­ies So­ci­ety per­form the Li­on Dance.

To the beat of drums and cym­bals, two young men en­act­ed the pop­u­lar li­on dance. They por­trayed the li­on's pow­er and dex­ter­i­ty by lift­ing each oth­er, rolling and jump­ing in uni­son, on three dif­fer­ent plat­forms, of vary­ing heights. Dain­ti­ly dressed fe­male ac­ro­bats each twirled eight tea plates on sticks, leaped, flipped, did cart­wheels and formed hu­man pyra­mids, with­out loos­ing their bal­ance. But the ul­ti­mate show of per­fec­tion came from one con­tor­tion­ist, who sup­port­ed four trays of 13 wine-filled glass­es on her hands and feet–plus a long wine rack re­sem­bling a can­de­labra, hold­ing five more glass­es, in her mouth. All this while mov­ing grace­ful­ly from one po­si­tion to the next.

A group of three young boys al­so demon­strat­ed their ath­let­ic strength, flaw­less bal­ance, as well as their play­ful na­ture, while jug­gling straw hats. MC John­ny Chow ex­plained that it takes years of train­ing, both phys­i­cal and spir­i­tu­al, to achieve the kind of ex­cel­lence dis­played on the south­ern stage, Chow said in the past 35 years since diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions were es­tab­lished, many Chi­nese troupes have vis­it­ed this coun­try to pro­mote friend­ship and cul­tur­al ex­changes. Chow said ac­ro­bats to Chi­na are like pri­ma bal­leri­nas or opera singers in the West. "There was a time when these troupes played on­ly to roy­al­ty, so you in T&T are very lucky," Chow said.

Pa­trons at­tend­ing the 60th an­niver­sary of the Found­ing of the Peo­ple's Re­pub­lic of Chi­na have a won­der­ful time at South­land Mall, Cross Cross­ing, San Fer­nan­do.