the jugglers and the clowns

I spent most of yesterday in the company of a bunch of clowns. "What's new?" I hear you cry. Well these weren't your regular run of the mill clowns. No siree. These were the real deal.

Having promised to try, I took myself and my camera across town to visit the Clown Festival. Such was my dedication to duty that I even took a bus. The No. 19 is a cunning beast. It runs between two parks, so if you get on going in the wrong direction, you still end up at a park. I got on going in the correct direction and ended up at the park which is hosting the festival.

I forgot to take a picture of the bus, but here is the driver!

The bus safely delivered me to the park gate, where I was scalped for a huge ¥50 to get in! It normally costs ¥5! OK, ¥50 is only about £3 or $7 (approx), but in a city where the average monthly salary is less than ¥1,000. ¥50 is expensive.

Anyway, hang the expense. I'm here now.

I wander around and take in the sights. Well, I've been here a hundred times before, so I really only retake in the sights. It is a pretty park, only spoilt by the disgracefully bad, sub-Disney "minority architecture'. As I have said before, the nasty copy of the beautiful Wind and Rain Bridge in Sanjiang will be first to go come the revolution. So, I look at the natural bits.

Having digested enough scenery, I turn to the stage. Well, one of the stages. There are five dotted around the park. I spend a while admiring the stage.

While it is clearly a beautiful stage, it doesn't really hold my attention too long on account of its emptiness. So, I look at the audience instead. There is quite a mix of people - kids, middle-aged and a couple of oldies - all watching the empty stage. Right in front of me I spot someone who seems to think they are a menu.

I am just beginning to wonder if all the people are part of the cast, when I notice one of these!

Then another one!

Nope! It's the same one twice. For the next half hour or so, I watched this chap and some of his co-clowns being extremely silly indeed. And it was so much fun that I forgot to take any photos. Sorry!

I wandered off, watched the goings on at another stage for a while (forgot to take photos again), then went for a stroll around the park. I then met this.

My dictionary tells me that 'ambulance' comes from the Latin 'ambulare', which means 'to walk around'. These people were taking it literally and walking around pushing the anbulance. Now, I'm not sure if the ambulance had really broken down or if they were clowns carrying out some surreal (but symbolic) performance.

In the weeks leading up to the festival, a few American clowns had contacted me after finding this blog and its sister site via Google. We had exchanged a few emails, so, I decided to try to find them. A few minutes later I spotted one woman of distinctly Caucasian appearance and asked her if she was or knew one of my contacts. Indeed, she had emailed me. We then spent a while chatting and she introduced me to some of her colleagues.

In my eagerness to reach the park, I had given no thought about how to leave. The bus going there was reasonably quiet, but the queue scrum for the bus back to the city centre resembled the evacuation beaches at Dunkirk (but much more dangerous). Fortunately, my new friends, the clowns, were heading back to the city in the government provided minibus and, being just another foreigner, I was able to creep on board and bum a ride back!

More interestingly, it turned out that the clowns were giving a perfomance in the city Art Centre in the evening and before I knew what was happening, I was clutching a ticket for the said event.

I then spent the entire evening sitting with and talking with clowns while watching some excellent clowns and jugglers. I've always been in awe of anyone who can juggle. I can't even juggle one ball. These guys were GOOD! Of course, there were non-juggling acts too. Particularly memorable was one guy from New Zealand on stilts. For sure the best 'stilt show' I've ever seen.

But all good things come to an end and the show was over. I then headed next door with a bunch of clowns (who look very different in plain clothes -in fact I didn't recognise anyone!) to partake of a beer or three. And jolly fine people they were, too! They seemed to be enjoying ordering strange food from the passing strange food trolley attendants and the open air bar staff had fun being completely overwhelmed by having twelve or so foreigners descend. More than they have seen in total in their entire lives! I was particularly impressed by the young waiter whom I addressed in Chinese and who answered, "Sorry, I don't speak English!"

What a clown!

(All the pictures I've been able to find from the local media (50 pics) are here)

Update: Found a couple of amateur videos from the opening ceremony.

tags: clown  laowai  juggler  guangxi  liuzhou  ??  china  

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