Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/04/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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".