The New Tang Dynasty Television's Chinese New Year Spectacular opened in Sydney on Thursday night setting a precedent for Chinese performance art and overcoming Australian uncertainty about just what performances of traditional Chinese culture might entail.
"Chinese music – that's what was frightening me," said Danny Long of Sydney's Edmund Rice Centre. "I was expecting very high pitched voices but instead it was very beautiful and quite Western in many ways."
Mr Long was commenting on the range of Chinese music and singing presented in the Spectacular which included heart rendering pieces from soprano Min Jiang and the tenor many believe is the Chinese equivalent of Italy's Pavarotti, Guan Guamin.
There were also some concerns about the quality of the show, Mr Long said, as recent experiences of entertainment coming from the Chinese mainland had not been of a good standard "I thought it might have too much silly dancing or what have you but the dancers instead were disciplined and brilliant," he said adding that much of the dancing reminded him of western ballet except that it seemed "more disciplined."
Mr Long said he had particularly liked the "Mongolian Bowl Dance" and had enjoyed the precision timing of the drumming but it was the ability to remain totally still that had also impressed him.
"One of those dances when they were statues - they kept so still," he said.
Mr Long has had a long association with the Chinese community in Australia through the Edmund Rice Centre which has been consistent on drawing public attention to human rights violations presently occuring in China. The Centre is presently leading one of two delegations formed in Australia to investigate claims of illegal organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China.
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