Lumberjack part 1 of 2

I didn’t need to see the 4-D Happy Feet Show with the vibrating seats. I really didn’t have any desire to ride The Dive, Chimelong Amusement Park’s tallest roller coaster. But there was no way that I was going to skip “The American Lumberjack Show!”

We were in Guangzhou, about four hours into China by bus and by train. Seven families –about 25 of us- were doing a little weekend getaway. It had been organized by my colleague Tim “Mr. Hong Kong” Wong. Tim had gotten us a really nice package deal at a great hotel that came with tickets to the waterpark, the circus, and an amusement park -all of which were within walking distance from the hotel.

I was anxious to see how the largest and most successful amusement park in China portrayed America. Of all the aspects of American culture they could have picked –Hip Hop, surfer culture, Jazz, Westward Ho!, Motown, 1776, the Roaring Twenties- they decided to build a show around lumberjacks.

This I have to see.

As we settled into our outdoor bench seating hewn from half logs, I saw that some of the cast members were mingling with the crowd and posing for pictures. The couples wore coordinating outfits –with his shirt and her prairie skit in matching robins-egg blue. My instinct told me something was amiss. The cast members didn’t strike me as young men and women from Dubuque or Kansas City or San Diego. Later, I was able to confirm my intuition. The cast weren’t young aspiring performers from The States, they had all been hired from Eastern Europe: Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria. Ah, but they are tall, white and blond; close enough.

The show was supposed to be set at a tradition lumberjack camp/saw mill. And just to make sure the audience got that, on the side of one of the small wooden buildings on stage in big three-foot letters was the word “SawMel.”