WHEN choreographer Willie Tsao explored the nightlife of Guangzhou while working there with China's first professional modern dance company, his first thought was 'how ridiculous'.
'There was a female impersonator performing suggestive gyrations that you think you would find only in the darker corners of New York, and certainly not in China,' Tsao recalled. 'But now you get officials and farmers-turned-businessmen going wild for these impersonators. The government tried to ban it but it just kept re-emerging.' These impressions and the confusion in today's China, as well as Tsao's comments on its emerging entertainment industry, are reflected in China Wind - China Fire, his new work for the City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC).
'Post-reformation China is moving from a traditional, conservative society into a very crazy place. Sometimes it's hard to believe what's happening and how fast it is all going,' Tsao said.
He has choreographed the production to two rather different musical forms - Peking opera, sung by Mei Lanfang, and Beijing rock by such contemporary performers as Cui Jian and Black Panther.
Composer-musician Wong Sun-keung combined the two genres, producing rapid shifts in music that convey a sense of schizophrenia, as the mood swings violently between the slow and painstaking movements of the traditional China, and the apparently uninhibited behaviour of the new.
'It starts with a serene, slow piece in traditional white opera garments, and then moves into a rock 'n' roll piece,' said Tsao. 'They have some wonderful rock musicians [in the mainland]. I think the rock music in China is the only legitimate rock music in the world.' He said young people in China were yearning for change and at the same time trying to come to terms with the conflicts such changes brought. The contrast between old and new is similarly reflected in the costumes, which include traditional robes and an eclectic mix of 1990s saggy suits, tight shorts, farmers' trousers and smock dresses.
