[Leica] China Ballet 1976

[imra at iol.ie (Douglas Barry)]

Howard, these are wonderful. Madame Mao knew how to pick beautiful girls 
with talent. I wonder what they're doing now?

Douglas


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "H&ECummer" <cummer at netvigator.com>
To: <lug at leica-users.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2011 8:54 AM
Subject: [Leica] China Ballet 1976


> HI Luggers,
> In addition to touring Russian inspired heavy industry factories while  in 
> China in 1976 I was also invited, many times, to see revolutionary 
> ballets and operas, mostly the Red Lantern, Taking Tiger Mountain by 
> Strategy, and the Red Detachment of Women. These works were overseen  by 
> Madame Mao and they were the only public performances allowed. So  we got 
> to see them over and over again until we were sick of them. The  tickets 
> you received depended exactly on where you ranked in the VIP  list. In 
> this set of photos, some taken in Shanghai and some in  Guangzhou, I was 
> quite lucky because, although only middle ranking (a  First Secretary) I 
> managed to score the second row - meaning there  were few real VIPs in the 
> theatre the nights I was there. Having seen  the dances so many times it 
> was easier to anticipate the action and no  one minded me taking pictures 
> with my Pentax K2 and 85mm f1.8 lens on  high speed (!) Exta 160. No 
> flash, of course.
> So here are eight slides, some of them cropped because of the VIP head  in 
> front of me. Please enjoy, look large and C& C always welcome.
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/1976ChinaBallet/
>
> Howard.
>
> PS: 35 years on there is a lot of nostalgia for these works and there 
> have been several revivals in recent years. The communist messages  (class 
> struggle, etc) that was so important in each play originally  has been 
> subsumed by the memories of the "good old days".
>
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