The Monkey King

It wasn’t very well advertised. I never saw a single billboard for it and I only saw one commercial for it on the MTR.

But that was enough.

I was definitely taking my family to see a The Monkey King: China’s first rock musical when it came to Hong Kong.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, eat your heart out.

I emailed a bunch of our friends and neighbors inviting them to join the Van Noord family, and –can you believe it- I didn’t get a single response back. When I approached a few people about it, they either had a glazed-over look in their eyes or they gave me a little knowing smirk before turning me down.

Hello? We’re talking The Monkey King, here. Live. On stage. China’s first rock musical, people.

Well, we went. Alone. And let me just say, you all missed out. It was awesome.

It was like Joseph and Phantom and Evita all rolled into one. Okay, it wasn’t anything like that. It was more like Cats on amphetamines meets Starlight Express with a lot of kung fu acrobatics thrown in.

It was loud. It was colorful. And it had a lot of spinning. A lot of spinning. And let me tell you folks, when you go to the theater to see one of these big production numbers you want to see a lot of spinning. And I’m just letting you know, this show had a whole lot of spinning.

The musical is based on a thousand-year-old Chinese myth and is about this monkey who . . . well, never mind, I have no idea what the show was about. All I know is that Monkey King kept twirling a big stick to fend off a string of baddies –each one in a more glittery outfit than the one before.

If the performers weren’t busy spinning, they were twirling one thing or another. Twirling is almost as good as spinning.

Andrew Lloyd Webber plus kung fu action. What’s there not to like?

Too bad for all of you who could have seen it, but didn’t. You wouldn’t know high-class culture if it bit you on the backside.

Long live The Monkey King.

-Jack

And yes, we hung around afterward so that I could get my picture taken with various cast members. And yes, I bought the commemorative DVD. Did you even have to ask?

Door Prize

Our eight-year-old neighbor Ben came over to play with the girls. Once in the apartment, he said, “Annika, I tried to knock on your door, but there was no space.”

Okay, okay; our door is a little covered in Chinese New Year decorations at the moment.

The really embarrassing part is that as people walk by, they make comments like “Wow, Jack’s been busy.” Wait a minute. We have two kids living in this household, why would they automatically assume it was me?

They –of course- were right.

Fine I’ll admit it, I got a little carried away. Once I started decorating our apartment door for Chinese New Year, I couldn’t stop. There was about a week there where Julie had to keep a close eye on me every time we walked past a stationery store.

When a Chinese co-worker of mine was on the seventh floor, I proudly showed her my door. I asked her if I had gotten it about right or if it was a bit much. Not wanting to hurt my feelings, she paused for a moment but then confessed, “Yeah, it’s a little over the top -even by Chinese standards.”

But at least one person on the floor appreciated my efforts. Ernie made himself the self-appointed, one-man, door-judging committee. He took the time to type up a “Best Door of 2011” certificate and hung it on our door.

See, I told you, Julie, everything in life is a competition.

-Jack

Ushering in the Year of the Rabbit

Celebrating New Years Chinese style

Last year we heard that Chinese New Year around Hong Kong could be a little crazy. So we heeded the advice of some Hong Kong veterans and we hung low. We watched several movies, took a couple of hikes, read, and hung out with some friends on the seventh floor.

Boy, were we going about it all wrong. That is so not in the spirit of Chinese New Year. Having been in Hong Kong for over a year now, we know better. CNY is for visiting and being visited. This year we approached New Year in a much more Chinese fashion.

Tuesday day: Spent all day cleaning, cooking, and making last minutes runs to the corner grocery store. Cleaned the fish tank.

Tuesday evening: Had another family from work over for dinner, dessert, and games until 11:00 p.m. On the menu: French dip beef sandwiches.

Wednesday lunch: traveled 45 minutes across the New Territories to a colleague’s house for a cookout potluck with a dozen other families. Our friends actually have a yard which is a rarity in Hong Kong. Granted it’s smallish and it’s covered in cement pavers; but, it’s a yard none-the-less. Menu highlight: warm red bean soup-like dessert.

Wednesday dinner: Got picked up at 4:30 to go to the home of a friend of Annika’s. We were joined by several members of their extended family including Uncle Ping. We had a traditional Chinese dinner including a boiling pot in the middle of the table that had all sorts of meat chunks in it including chicken feet and a whole baby pigeon that had been cut in half. It was an excellent evening of great cross-cultural conversation.

Thursday lunch: we had my school principal, his wife and two small boys over for lunch. This was long overdue and we were glad to finally have a chance to reciprocate all the hospitality they have shown us. Julie made vegetarian black bean burgers.

Thursday dinner: Seventh-floor hotpot. After putting together several meals and social gatherings in the beginning of the year to make sure that all the new teachers felt welcomed, it had been a few months since we had all done something together. Our neighbor, Renata, who is Chinese, organized the meal and bought all the ingredients for hot pot. With thirteen adults and four kids, we were too big for her one-bedroom apartment, so we ending up having it guess-where.

Friday evening: headed down to the Island. We didn’t leave ourselves as much time as we needed to grab dinner so we ended up ducking into a McDonalds. It was the first time in Hong Kong that we didn’t have to stand in a long line at McDonalds to order food or have to wander the restaurant looking for an open table because the majority of Hong Kong was visiting grandma for a home-cooked Chinese New Year meal. We headed to some friends who live in the Midlevels for dessert and to watch the New Year’s fireworks over the harbor. Got home tired and way past our bedtimes.

Now that it how you do Chinese New Year week in Hong Kong.

Nine days off of school and I only watched one movie.

I am exhausted.

I can’t wait to get back to work next week so I can get some rest.

I managed to get through the Christmas season without gaining any weight. But I am afraid to get on the scale tomorrow morning. I think that I am going to have to go on a post-holiday diet.

I am going to start by swearing off of chicken feet.

-Jack

picture: taken with permission (for once)

Looney Planet travel guides

As we zig-zagged back and forth across Thailand and Cambodia, I passed some of the time reading the historical and cultural information in the front of our Lonely Planet guide book.

At first, it was subtle. But the more I read, the more I saw a pattern emerge. Every so often, the editors managed to slip in a dig against the West in general and the United States in particular. I kept waiting for them to include some of the positive contributions America has made to the world; but, after thirty pages, I decided I better stop holding my breath.

Apparently I am not the only one who has picked up on this bias. None other than the esteemed BBC who acquired the Lonely Planet empire in 2007 for a cool $250 million dollars has taken note.

The Age newspaper out of Australia -where the Lonely Planet is published- reports that since being acquired by the BBC “Lonely Planet is cracking down on political bias, especially in the history and culture sections of its guides. At least one senior journalist has been to the publisher's headquarters to speak to editors about objective reporting.”

I wish that I could list some examples for you from the Lonely Planet Thailand guide, but by the time our sixteen days were over, I had had enough. I accidently on purpose left the Lonely Planet guide in the hotel room on our last day.

But, I don’t want to leave you empty handed, so here’s an excerpt from the Lonely Planet United States guide book: "Bush really hasn't done much when it comes to breaking down the preconceived notions of Americans as greedy, myopic, pompous cretins. The president had never been to Europe before taking office*, his disregard for immigrants has been shocking, and the lengths he's been willing to go for oil seem boundless."

Wow.

Don’t hold back.

Tell us how you really feel.

Memo to the writers over at Lonely Planet: Most of us, all we want to know is where we can find a decent, affordable deli within walking distance from the Statue of Liberty and a cheap, clean place to flop for the night. If we want political commentary, we’ll get ourselves a subscription to Mother Jones magazine.

I was thinking of making a trip to Kota Kinabalu this spring. Does anybody have a copy of the Frommers guide to Malaysia that I can borrow?

-Jack

*Apparently, the travel writers over at Lonely Planet don’t consider Italy, England, and France to be a part of Europe.

Dinner and a Show in Cambodia

That's right Ronald . . .

. . . hold that pose.

It helps you to blend.

You look like a local.