It was the Sino-Anglo celebration of the year of Rooster on Sunday, 29th of January. It was jointly organised by different British and Chinese cultural groups in Britain and overseas. It was the fifth organised so far. It’s held in Logan Hall in central London. The atmosphere was entertaining and relaxed, just to mention a few of the performances, for example, the “War horse” which is a Erhu(Chinese violin)by Li Hailang, the Chinese opera “The pear tree song” performed by Qiang Hua, the “Kung Fu Tea Ceremony” performed by Zeng Xiaolong and so on. These are just a few of the interesting ones.
The one which is the most enjoyable to watch is actually the “Sichuan magical face changing” performed by He Hongqing and Daogu Xianfeng. People know that the current Chinese master of the art of face-changing is Mr He Hongqing from Chengdu, who has been interviewed on the BBC, where he explained a bit about his "magic", albeit, without revealing precisely how he manages to change his masks almost at the blink of an eye. A photographer once tried to capture the secret behind this by turning up the shutter speed on his camera to the maximum, but had to admit that the face changes happened so quickly that even his camera was unable to follow the action. “Face changing” began about 300 years ago, and it is an important aspect of Sichuan Opera.
On the night of 2017 China-Britain Chinese New Year Extravaganza, Mr He also shows his Sichuan Opera singing upon request from the audience which is highlight of the day. The Sichuan Opera is well-known in China, and it is mostly done by solo singing and skilful acting. It is an enjoyable night and as the director of the celebrational performance said, “it is a good celebration denoting the beginning of a new year and more prosperity to come just like the rooster crowing when dawn comes, a new beginning and a new era.
Cherie Lee, Newstead Wood School
