13.12.2009 von Ines.

The Beijing Actors Workshop in Beijing has been holding workshops on playwriting, directing as well as acting. And those three disciplines form the theatrical triathlon which was displayed this weekend at the Beijing International New Short Play Festival. Today they had 5 short plays on stage.

The first one was called “Sex and the forbidden city” and was about the issues of foreign women in Beijing and how hard it is for them to find a date. I could relate with the four female characters. It is so hard for us strong willed Western women here in Beijing. The Western and Chinese men prefer the fragile Chinese women.

A very interesting but slightly confusing short play was called “lovely country”.

Funny was the beijing version of the musical “West Side Story”. The short play was called “Lao Wai Story” menaing the foreigners in Beijing. It was a fight between the foreign students living in Haidian district of Beijing and the foreign Expats living in Chaoyang district of Beijing. They sang songs of the musical with altered funny lyrics only understandable to Chinese or the foreigners living in Beijing.

This was the last time for Anna Grace to be on stage in Beijing for a while. She is moving to New York city. So this was her goodbye performance. I hope she will be back to Beijing with many new ideas and inspiration.

Geschrieben in Performers, Beijing | 1 Kommentar »

13.12.2009 von Ines.

After the ride Julien and I started to work on his bike. The wheels that we gave to bike mechanics around lunch time were already finished.

But otherwise we just had the bare frame without the matching fork. But he had chosen his colors for the various bike parts.

Of course we ran into some issues like getting the headset cups hammered into the frame or not having the right size seat post holding ring (even though I we had the right one in the Natooke shop). So we were not able to finish the bike. For now it looks like this:

Geschrieben in Natooke, Fixed Gear | 1 Kommentar »

13.12.2009 von Ines.

Again a cold winter day and only foreigners came for the Beijing fixed gear bicycle ride out North of the city. Now the rivers like here at the North 5th rind road are starting to freeze.

We cycled along empty roads. Beijing is vast and not as crowded as many people outside of China imagine it to be. In many places it is actually quite quiet.

We then went into a park along the Qinghe River and stopped for snacks (longevity nuts and homemade bread and youzi) in a pavilion.

Then we cycled around the huge and empty park.

Of course the cold weather made us a bit cold and we were sharing our thoughts on best ways to keep the finger and toes warm. Shannon explained his multi layered plastic bag inside and outside of the sock approach to keep the feet warm. I might try that next time.

Then we cycled on to “Leisure Square”. I uploaded my pictures to a webalbum.

Nico and Katiushka took some really nice pictures again. Here are two of their pictures of me balancing a track stand on the concrete structure of the abandoned building.

Geschrieben in Fixed Gear, Beijing | Keine Kommentare »