Bollocks, I woke up at 6.30am and couldn't get back to sleep again. I knew I'd have to go to Lin Hong's soon so I forced a shower but she didn't call me till gone 8.30am. I was proper nervous and still couldn't remember my new lines. I drove over to hers soon after 9am and we went and picked up an ex-colleague of Tan who was also involved in the festival. She was quite small but full of personality and insisted on doing a video message for Tan as apparently they were good friends.
We arrived at Bangxu soon after 10am and it was chock-a-block with cars. I got out for a walk and after a bit recognised I was at the road I'd arrived at in late 2003 where I got out and hugged an old woman who I thought was my future mother-in-law but actually wasn't. I walked down the streets and had really bittersweet memories. The first time I was here she was just my girlfriend and I couldn't speak any Chinese. 20+ years later a lot had changed but Bangxu didn't seem to have. Rather like our Bangxu wedding in 2005 there were quite a few people cooking stuff in massive pans outside, except that instead of 100+ people there were 1500+ people expected to eat.
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| I'm sure I recognise these stairs from somewhere |
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| Nice changfen for lunch |
A Zhong had found a place to park and called me and after a nice walk around the market I managed to find my way back to what was apparently Lin Hong's house. The next hour or so was simply waiting around and chatting, and I took advantage by going for more walks around the market as it was really bustling. Then I heard a shout from someone and it was Lao Pan across the road, and she was calling me to drink tea...fair enough I'd not seen her or her husband Lao Ling for about 6 years but it was like we'd never been apart. Tea was poured and we chatted about stuff as one does.
Then I got a call to eat as it was midday. Fair enough, I went to what I was told was Waipo's old house, where I'd spent a few weeks a long time ago. If it was the same house it had changed massively, but the bloke said they'd made some structural changes. Lao Lin joined me with a few other blokes and we had a simple meal but when Lao Lin opened the beers I explained that I had to be a compere so I wouldn't indulge. That ended up meaning I would only have 3 glasses which is fair enough I suppose.
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| Preparing food for 1000+ people |
Next, the woman we gave a lift to told us to go to the wu tai, which is the place we were to perform in the evening. We went there to practise. There was an oldish bloke but all the rest of the comperes were young people in their 20s. I was the only one who'd printed out the lines, and after 20 minutes or so practising, that woman (I really should know her name) decided that the rest of them should have printouts too, so set about sorting that. Of course things had changed again since I made my printout yesterday but it was more the order than the actual text. I started to get a bit nervous and sent my words to Tan and she said she didn't even understand all of it.
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| Starting to get stage fright |
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| To be fair there were quite a few people |
But it was getting on for 3.30pm and the evening meal was nearly ready...there were something like 100 tables, each with 10 people, and as much as I would have liked some Dutch courage I knew I needed to be sensible. Tan had recorded herself saying my words and maybe it would have helped a little if I'd had the time to listen and practise but nay, soon after the meal us comperes had to meet up to practise again. It was great that they were all talking to me in Mandarin (as if there was another option) and I made sure I understood what they were talking about...apparently the old bloke would pick three kids from the audience and do the following:
1 - ask one to guess where I was from and if they got it right they'd get a red envelope
2 - ask why I was in Bangxu (and yes I had to answer in the local language - góu dāo lán yǎ dāi)
3 - ask if I could caima, and then of course caima with me
Well, what could go wrong? Eventually at 7.25pm the event started and the six of us got on stage. I managed to follow the words but when we all had to join in saying Happy New Year I totally forgot to use my microphone. But I realised my mistake and a minute later when I had to do my first solo statements it seemed to go ok, if slower than the native speakers. I think the fact that the floodlights were blaring into my eyes so I couldn't see the crowd helped.
When it got to my time to do the local lingo thing I was already somewhat in my stride. I knew I wasn't speaking fluently but I'd lost the initial stage fright. The main bloke invited a young kid to come up to the stage and ask me where I was from. She was fairly young and embarrassed so when he said "Meiguo, Yingguo, Deguo" she simply answered with the first one - "American" I felt so bad telling her she was wrong and that I was English simply because she would have got a hong bao had she got it right. The bloke even showed her the red envelope she would have won!
Next, he wanted to know why I was in Bangxu, as per above, and this time he got another kid on stage to ask me this question. As per my practice, I answered "góu dāo lán yǎ dāi" as Tan had helped me with earlier. I'd hoped this would garner a response but it appeared no-one understood. The other bloke repeated my words but got the same response. It was as if most of the crowd were too young to understand the local tu hua. At least when he translated to Mandarin we got a few laughs!
Finally he got another kid to come on stage to ask me to caima. This was another embarrassing moment for a kid as he was about 13 and clearly didn't know how to play. I was about to offer scissors paper stone but the other host said he'd caima with me instead. Well why not? I've caima'd in front of 20+ people before...what more would another 2000 make? I beat him in two hands and that was it. I only had one more speech to make before my song.
The next hour went past pretty quickly until it was my time to perform. Normally I'd have had a couple of drinks by now but being a compere meant I didn't want to. I hope I got away with my rendition of Sound of Silence, as the penultimate act. At least I got a decent round of applause. And with that the first day was over, and before long we were in A Zhong's car heading back to Pingguo and I was home at midnight after being told we would leave earlier tomorrow.
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