Hungary established diplomatic links with China 60 years ago - when the People's Republic of China was formed - and the Chinese Cultural Festival in Hungary has been organised to celebrate this anniversary. The festival programme includes exhibitions, performances, film and concerts between September 13 and October 25.
The Chinese Nations Song and Dance Ensemble gave a large-scale performance on Tuesday, featuring the music and dance of a number of the nationalities living in China and offering a surprisingly colourful and cheerful repertoire.
The first production, a drum dance that required extraordinary concentration, got the audience's respectful attention. This trend further intensified during a dance that imitated a military parade of the thousands of clay soldiers that guard the graves of the first Chinese Emperor. The elementary power of the dancers reached out to viewers. Masculine power was counterbalanced by a dance of Uygur girls balancing plates on their heads and hands. This dance also evoked flamenco because the dancers were using the small plates as if they were castanets. Despite the minimal stage set, there was a true spectacle thanks to the dancers' colourful costumes, so the piece was appropriately called The Thousand Colours of Home.
The Korean singer Piao Hong-dje gave a loud operatic performance that nearly burst our ear-drums (the volume would have matched any stage at the Sziget Festival), singing the famous aria Hazám, hazám from the classic Hungarian opera Bánk Bán, which was certainly an undisputed success among the audience. The highpoint of the show was a solo by A Vang from Tibet whose song Heavenly Way was not at all concerned with enlightenment. The singer followed this up with the famous Hungarian folk song Tavaszi szél vizet áraszt.
There were plenty of unique musical instruments, including a violin decorated with a horse head from Mongolia and an Uygur string instrument. The ensemble closed the show with a grand dance that reminded us of synchronized swimming. Small presents were handed out during the applause. Some of the performers threw them, others went down the aisles. Performers and audience were all smiles leaving the concert hall this evening, and indeed, what more could one desire.
Author: Éva Kelemen / Photo: Eszter Gordon
