Travel

Residents wow their neighbors with amateur performance

By Wang Chao (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-01 13:17

Residents wow their neighbors with amateur performance

A community show to celebrate the upcoming Spring Festival for local residents wooed its audience with amateur but whole-hearted performances on Saturday.

The show, initiated by the Huilongguan Volunteer Association and community forum and performed by residents and migrant workers, received unexpectedly warm response from a packed room.

More than 2,000 people turned up on Saturday night to an auditorium in a campus in Huilongguan community, one of the largest residential compounds in northern Beijing.

The standard Spring Festival Gala, aired by the China Central Television, is the must-see event for the year and the sole entertainment for most Chinese during the largest holiday of the year.

But over recent years, many other performances have emerged to battle the giant.

"The audience loved the show because the performers were from the same area," said Wang Yuyu, director of the community Spring Festival celebration.

Wang said the show cost about 400,000 yuan to put together, with sponsorship from local companies.

He said most of the performers were from Huilongguan community, and aged between 40 and 60 years-old.

"The audience feels connected and satisfied despite the amateur performances," he added. "Because of their low expectations, they enjoyed what they saw on stage."

Dong Jilu, a member of the audience, said she was thrilled by how dedicated the children in a drum show were, and their apparent joy from the performance.

"The kids looked so excited. They took the show very seriously," she said.

Most of the dance and percussion performances were provided by 34 students from Qinghe Elementary School, a migrant workers' children's elementary School.

Xu Fang, 11, said she was really excited about her dance performance despite the fact that her migrant worker parents could not come to the show.

Having moved to Beijing with her parents in 2007 to run a small supermarket near the community, Xu said she really missed the days when her family was together in their hometown in Shanxi province.

"The show reminded me of how great the festival is," she said. "It can build the children's confidence in public performances and make them more comfortable in the city," said Liu Fengguo, an investor in Qinghe Elementary School.