â… Teahouse will Delay Opening
I started looking forward to this play when the promotional booklet said Teahouse would be performed in August, no specific date on it though. After that I went to the box office at the theater once and was told the play would be delayed till early September. It could be understandable, since some actors in Teahouse are famous and meantime they are respectively contracted to films or TV dramas so it’s difficult to gather them together.
Ok, I waited, until I went to buy tickets today. As I stepped into the Beijing People's Art Theatre, the advert board got my attention at once�they delay the play till the end of September! Damn it! I’m applying for the tourist visa to Japan so not sure if I am in Beijing during the October holiday. If I can get the visa, I’m going to leave for Tokyo as the schedule on 26th.
I want to complain, the question is how and where? I don't think anyone wants it to be delayed. According to the theater bosses, they would prefer that the actors didn't spend most of their time making TV dramas, but the fact is that stage plays don't attract huge audiences, and they can make much more money from film and television. As for actors, it’s an honor to be a part of the best-known theater in China, but they can’t get many chances to perform on stage although they’re better actors than others, so they need more chances to act. Plus it seems to be a mess in Chinese entertainment circle, so who knows what happens before all the staff come back for rehearsal, such as contract stuff or blah blah. Perhaps only audiences get good luck, especially some tourists in the October holiday.
I've been patient with putting on Teahouse so I hope I will have good luck (doesn't mean I don't want visa. I hope I can get it and there's no any important exhibitions in early October in Tokyo, then maybe I will change the schedule). I would not be upset if in case I couldn’t watch Teahouse this year, because I figure the theater will celebrate 100 years of Chinese stage play next year, ok, my patience is ready. BTW, apparently, a good actress will play my favorite role in Teahouse, it’s cool~~ the bad news is the ticket is 3 times more expensive than other plays, my budget won’t allow me to sit near the stage, I have to scream at my favorite actor instead of flying kiss.
â…¡ Line is Busy
Applying visa to Japan has to via agency. The girl told me my condition is kind of strange to her, because my guarantor and I are both freelancers, so we don’t have some relevant materials. She suggested I would better to call Japanese embassy directly to consult. Then I did after I dialed the phone again and again. Finally, I got the chance to ask my question. The woman on the phone was quite efficient, without “Can I help you?� or similar stuff, she just said one word “说!(Say it!)�, attractive voice!
â…¢ Where is Volumeâ…¡
Yu Hua published his new novel called Brothers . It’s almost ten years since he wrote his last novel. I read his many stories and essays months ago, which his literary language in it was not as charming as his To Live and sort of disappointed me. As a result, at beginning I was not going to buy his new work until I watched a preview of his interview on TV. His new novel seems to be a tear-gas one as To Live. My type! Then I bought it yesterday and finished it and got pissed off.
I think it’s a good novel compared to many popular Chinese novel nowadays. I’m glad he still writes with his northern-styled language although he was from southern city. Yu Hua kept the same humor as Chronicle of a Blood Merchant and the same suffering as To Live in Brothers. I like it, without tears dropping though.
But I don’t like the novel didn’t publish ALL. What I got is just the first part! I noticed there’s a tinyâ… below the title on the spine (even not on cover!) then I blamed myself for short sight. Today I went to the bookshop for volumeâ…¡ and was told second volume was not yet available.
Why? What I can think is it must be the publisher’s selling trick. If it is, I decide to buy pirated volumeⅡ to protest this behavior. Hope the pirated booksellers will hurry up, don’t challenge my patience.
Filed under: Marginalia of Days
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