Frank and Jeanmarie, the main characters of “The Dwarf in China”, have taken up a new adventure in the city of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. They performed their dwarf show in kindergartens from March 10th until April 10th 2015. Frank & Jeanmarie will write about this period on this blog.
Read bottom posts first to read in chronological order!

The Future of the Dwarf in China
By Frank Hitman

Upon our return in the capital we were once again confronted with reality. Fact was that we hadn’t done enough shows in the first few weeks and we had to make up for this by planning as much performances as possible in the last few weeks. So we were back to a highly hectic expedition, with heavy insecurities about the potential financial return. At the same time, we had a lot of valuable experiences and learned a lot.

     
One of the good things was that we had gained a significant momentum. During our efforts to sell the show on such a short term, I steadily built up a circle of highly interested pedagogues. I tried to invite as many new people to the shows we had already planned and the reactions were usually very positive. We steadily improved our repertoire, and were able to consistently creating consistent waves of quiet, focused attention and pure ecstatic joy with the kids in the audience. It made the rooms brim with a truly magical energy.

In all the different schools we visited, we encountered both the problems as well as some pillars of hope. We witnessed some typically painful segregation in the more expensive schools. The poshest of all, in a walled-off compound in the middle of towering skyscrapers with fancy apartments, was an actual “little-emperor-factory”. Kids were dropped there with bright race cars every morning to be received by a committee of forty (!) foreign teachers. Lunch and dinner was served on plates of silver and gold, and all arranged neatly to look like Disney figures. It left us constantly wondering how some of the behavior cultivated in these kids was inevitably going to be a problem for China in the long run. Nevertheless, we found it very interesting to have these kids and their parents as an audience for our show. We all had a blast.

We also did shows in the most beautiful, well-organized and conscious kindergartens we had ever set foot in. The principal, Mrs. Luo, was an energetic young woman with a very clear vision. She seemed to run her team perfectly, and was constantly working to expand her school in a good way. The school grounds were inhabited by many giant trees, many a few centuries old. Also had she convinced the local government to renovate an old courtyard quarter that used to be a school before (it goes without saying that this kind of preservation is rare in China). They did calligraphy and traditional music classes in these rooms. There was almost no plastic in the school, and all toys were artifacts from nature such as pine cones, sticks and rocks. When we expressed her surprise about this, the principal informed us that she found it “most important” for children of this age to get a feeling with nature and to learn that “everything comes from nature.”

We got to know some truly fascinating and inspiring individuals. We got to do our show for them in their schools and were delighted to build on their feedback. Our show grew tremendously, and became a product that was even more suitable for the enormous market. So, how come we worked so hard on our expedition, on an increasingly successful show, in a country with a gigantic potential market, and didn’t reap the financial benefits? All the ingredients seemed to be there. But maybe we had wanted to move a little bit too fast. Maybe we had skipped some crucial steps, just trusting in our good faith and confident we’d learn on the way, like we did before. Because of the success we had encountered during the shows, we had just been overly eager to get this off the ground with our personal funding.

We clearly should have worked together with an agent in China helping us to book our show into schools in advance. I had been quick to find someone like this, but he was quick to show signs that he wasn’t that suitable to act as our agent as we had hoped. In turn, I was quick to go on with the whole expedition anyway because we were so strongly attached to the project with our hearts. Going on with it might not have been the smartest move, but it certainly made us finally learn how to really plan such a project and what to exactly outsource and to whom. And in the end, we acquainted a few enthusiastic and trustworthy potential agents with whom we are currently planning our next tour in Sichuan. For the moment, all eyes are on spring 2016…

Frank and Jeanmarie, the main characters of “The Dwarf in China”, have taken up a new adventure in the city of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. They performed their dwarf show in kindergartens from March 10th until April 10th 2015. Frank & Jeanmarie will write about this period on this blog. Read bottom posts first to read in chronological order! 

 Thoughts of Jeanmarie 3 

Early saturday morning, after two weeks of touring in Chengdu, we took off for a two days trip  in the middle of a high mountain area inside  the province of Sichuan.

We picked up my son Tim, who flew over to join us on this expedition that proved to be just as short as surprising. Yang Xiao had chosen a small village of a Tibetan minority of Qiang people where we would combine a dwarf performance for the locals with a one day mountain hike between two and four thousand meter. Little did I know before hand how well he had selected this time and place, until we got there: the most harmonious settlement of humans in the purest environment of nature, I have ever seen. I felt a wonderful sensation of release as soon as we got there.

 

We arrived  in the early afternoon  and drove back at the end of the next day. By that time my body was exhausted from the hike and had left me with knees so tired  that I wondered if I would recuperate quick enough to perform the dwarf again on the monday morning, when we were to go back again into the densely populated urban environment of Chengdu to continue our tour around kindergartens. But my heart was filled with gratitude for what had happened right after the performance on the night before:
Inspired by the purest of joy that the dwarf had generated in this most remarkable community , the people of the village started dancing and singing around in a spontaneous and genuine mood for celebration like I never witnessed before.

I could hardly believe my eyes and ears when I was gathering my props right after the show, while the audience was chanting and dancing in circles, on that small place that we had chosen to gather for this spring celebration. Cause a spring celebration it was. I realised just then that by some magic touch of coincidence the timing of this event had been perfect. We happened to be with these beautifull people on the evening of the twenty first of march!

The Qiang People dancing their traditional dance after the dwarf performance

Without exaggeration I can say that an old dream of mine had come true in the most splendid way I had ever experienced.
Ever since i started my life as a clown, I had dreamt of the possibility of using my performance as an opportunity to celebrate life, the way this used to be done in the old days, when festivals were created around the natural birthdays and nights of spring, summer, autumn and winter times. During my 35 years of clowning i had noticed how gigs that happened on spring equinox days could have a special quality. Studying the old traditions of season-related festivities I came to understand that these moments were blessed with a powerful potential to reinforce the bonding of humans and nature, through the joy of sharing music, dance, theatrical rituals, drinks and food. Within the language of esoterical science I treasure, these moments are named “cardinal feasts”, four of them unfolding each year……

And here it happened! Without me having planned it as such. But more joyful then I have ever felt before. What a joke……In the beginning of the documentary, Frank speaks about how one day in Thailand he runs into some oriental fakir like person who predicts how in the future he was bound to get together with someone of the age of his parents, to cooperate in the realisation of dreams that were waiting to unfold. And here this prophesy did materialize…………….La vie fait vraiment très bien les choses!

It is true that when I returned home after a month of hard work in China, I had no more  money then I had when I left this place. It is true that my bills had not stopped falling on my desk. It is also true, that I have spent almost a month to recuperate from a sever back problem from going around on my knees, like i never did before ……..But this experience with those Qiang people is a treasure that fills my heart, like money will never be able to do.

And I am forever grateful to Yang Xiao, Frank and all the people in this mountain village.

Frank and Jeanmarie, the main characters of “The Dwarf in China”, have taken up a new adventure in the city of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. They performed their dwarf show in kindergartens from March 10th until April 10th 2015. Frank & Jeanmarie will write about this period on this blog.
Read bottom posts first to read in chronological order!

The Qiang People
By Frank Hitman

Despite some successes resulting in really interesting shows and venues, the sales didn’t go as well as expected. It proved to be a nearly impossible task for me be responsible for the entire logistical and financial arrangement of the tour, as well as actually building up the stage, playing a dragon and a crow in the show itself, and in between going from school to school trying to sell the show on a very short term. It goes without saying that a break to visit some Sichuanese mountains was indeed very welcome.

As soon as we picked Tim up from the center of town, we tried to get out of there as fast and far as possible. After a 3-hour drive on the highway, almost only through tunnels, we started to climb a very steep dirt road. After some scary moments with our fully loaded and somewhat aged car, we arrived in the village and were welcomed by Yang Xiao with some nice tea and phenomenal views of a giant snow mountain.

After a short excursion around the fields of the town, we set up our stage in one of the biggest courtyards of the village, and asked some villagers to circulate the news that it was show time.

After dinner, an enthusiastic crowd made it to the courtyard with a torch and their best behavior. The air was filled with anticipation and outbursts of wild laughter. I played a few songs on the organ while the host filled trays of strong rice liquor for the guests.
The show was very well received. After we finished the show, people burst out in pure joy, performing traditional song and dance in a big circle. We pushed back our stage and joined in the rejuvenation. It reminded us that playing in villages like this was a crucial part of our expedition plan.

    The Qiang People are dancing their traditional dance after watching the dwarf performance

Frank and Jeanmarie, the main characters of “The Dwarf in China”, have taken up a new adventure in the city of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. They performed their dwarf show in kindergartens from March 10th until April 10th 2015. Frank & Jeanmarie will write about this period on this blog.
Read bottom posts first to read in chronological order!

Thoughts of Jeanmarie 

Our first Dwarf show took place in a neighborhood of Shengdu called Longquanyi – meaning something like the well of dragons – in the outskirt of this huge town. It was a marvelous experience to start our tour there, both for the remarkable quality of the kindergarten and the green lushy environment of that part of town. The general atmosphere out there felt like a shockwave of relief that went through all the senses of my body. After days of surviving amidst the density of the all urban universe of the rest of Shengdu…In the middle of town,with its never-ending network of roads and buildings ,you are constantly dealing with air pollution. My breathing pattern kept itself as superficial as possible. Apparently my body had automatically chosen to prevent unnecessary consumption of air. Trees were rather rare to be enjoyed, since we never had time to visit one of the parks that seem to be beautiful though. It happens to be so that I find it easier to live without humans then without trees. At the foot of our servicehotel-appartment-towers I had admired an old and skinny willow tree that came out with fresh spring green leaves far ahead of all the other tree bodies I met.When i sent him my grateful attention, I could feel a wave of warm energy in response.

In fact I have seldom been so impressed by the power of spring as in this urban jungle, where despite the difficult conditions, trees were still keeping up with the desire of nature to jump up at the end of winter sleep. Some trees were dead, waiting to be replaced, I guess, by another tree who would give it a try……but most trees were alive and some of them with a remarkable vigorous presence. Most of them supported by four wooden or iron poles to prevent them from falling or maybe to avoid wild parking of cars…Regularly I would see a tree decorated with a golden mantle. I would pass by some of them at the corner of the street, next to our apartment, on my way to a  taylor workshop, coming out on the side walk of a relatively quiet street. The lady would be singing softly behind her sowing machine, while I was waiting for my theatre curtains to be finished. I do not know precisely why the Chinese fancy the idea of surrounding the trunk of a tree with shiny gold tissue.They love gold anyway  and in the Buddhist temples one can see this colour shining like a sun from afar, but i tend to think also that this is their way of showing their appreciation for the tree. Because it is obvious that the Chinese, loving all that is material have a deep sense of admiration for the mother of all mater-ial.

In Longquanyi my heart would be uplifted in view of all the green power that harmoniously joined in with the still ongoing urbanization. Gardens were all over,trees were blossoming and one could feel how all this beauty added joy and peace to the urban life of this neighborhood. Frank told me that many towns have a neighborhood with this name. Were these places long ago associated with legends of dragons coming to drink water…..or were these names given in the days of old china,when one still knew how to recognize and honor the inner ways of natural life, with its dragon lines? In the days where also in Europe one knew how to respect the natural order of ley lines and what more to adapt the human settlements to the demands and offerings of the life force within the natural realm…Who knows. One day I am going to finally meet someone who still knows the answers to all these questions that fascinate me just as much as the contemporary Chinese shopping tourist seem to be fascinated by the artificial miracles of expensive brands of all kind of props and stuff to buy in the city center.

I went back to that “dragon source” because I needed to take a break from overdosing city stress. When I found a workshop for brooms and baskets I was happy to go back the next day of this show-free weekend. So I could finally find new supply for the dragon food we used in a slapstick to crack open explosions of laughter at the beginning of our Dwarf shows. Walking around in the kashba-like labyrinth of all sorts of old craftmen workshops in that old working class people neighborhood I too delight in sensing the old fashioned pleasures of life in these shopping streets, where the noise of modern publicity was absent and the atmosphere of the people just as happy and relaxed as in the city center, but more authentic to my heart feelings. In an ongoing chaos of food shops, drugstores, traditional healing clinics, welding workshops and what more…..I see little kids playing around, while elderly people are playing mahjong games. Along side the parking places where new cars in beautiful colours line up I observe how boys and girls are walking by enjoying each others company in the general mood of spring..Today the sun has managed to break through the almost permanent layer of smoggy-foggy clouds, with some help of blowing winds that will lower the degree of pollution for a while. I can relax for a while..And I realize that even here, at the outer circle of the urban jungle of Shengdu, the gods of mother nature have managed once more to perform the greatest magic trick of all: springtime.

At half an hour walking distance I can see the first hills rising up from the huge plateau that is surrounded by a wall of mountains that keep the air pollution stagnant. I try to imagine what it would be to walk around there. But time is running out: I need to go back to the metro with my two meter high bundle of “dragon food”.

Frank and Jeanmarie, the main characters of “The Dwarf in China”, have taken up a new adventure in the city of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. They performed their dwarf show in kindergartens from March 10th until April 10th 2015. Frank & Jeanmarie will write about this period on this blog.
Read bottom posts first to read in chronological order!

The Dragon Source
By Frank Htiman

The principal was a young and energetic lady named Eva. She showed me around her school, we chatted for half an hour and we agreed on a total of 4 shows. She agreed to help me invite all kinds of kindergarten teachers, principals and education officials in the neighborhood to come and watch our show. It goes without saying that when Eva dropped me off at the subway station on my way back in her large luxury car, that I was brimming with enthusiasm for this great window of opportunity. On my way back, I got off in the middle of the fields, and enthusiastically harvested some dragon food.

When I came back to the apartment, we had a special Ethernet cable installed in the room. Jeanmarie showed me something that had arrived through the mail; a characterful crow with a deep black fur and a wild look on its face. Fuelled with new energy, we worked very hard the coming few days to get ready for our show in the Dragon Source neighborhood.

Jeanmarie & Frank preparing for the show

The shows in Eva’s school were an enormous success. We immediately continued on the same line of quality where we had stopped in 2014. The crow was a huge hit. The children identified immediately with this terribly misbehaving character. And its big yellow beak was perfect for slapstick interaction with the dwarf, which gave us a lot of new possibilities.

A local television station decided to produce a feature about us. The principals who were invited to the shows were so enthusiastic, we were booked in another school for the day after.

Frank and Jeanmarie, the main characters of “The Dwarf in China”, have taken up a new adventure in the city of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. They performed their dwarf show in kindergartens from March 10th until April 10th 2015. Frank & Jeanmarie will write about this period on this blog.
Read bottom posts first to read in chronological order!

Into the Deep
by Frank Hitman

When we woke up, we were almost entirely convinced we belonged in a real jungle instead of a concrete one. We both hadn’t slept for a minute. I especially was shaken by the lack of sleep, as I hadn’t slept for more than 3 hours at a time since Thursday morning. Jeanmarie first expressed his worries: “Well, Frank, if we are not going to get anything out of this, we’ll just have to minimize the damage and get the hell out of here.” I couldn’t really say anything to counter his pessimism. Instead, after breakfast, I was unable to stand, walk or even sit, so I decided to lie down for a minute.

Then suddenly, something turned around in me. We hadn’t come to Chengdu to act like a bunch of beaten dogs. We had come here because I had seen potential and we were going to exploit it! Suddenly I bounced up from the bed, straightened my back, got into the shower, shaved, selected my finest clothes, filled my bag with flyers and photographs and off I went. On the way out I peaked my head around the corner of the landlord and forced him to fix the internet. Arriving at the subway station, I called my main contact in Chengdu, the principal of a kindergarten in the south-eastern corner of town called ‘the Dragon Source’.

The dwarf tours in China have started as a self-funded dream project and we haven’t been able to make our theater company official yet. In the past, I have always just got in touch with school principals, and sold them the shows on the spot, for which we were paid in cash. Essentially, we should be happy that we have had the nerve to start touring this way. If we had looked into all the risks and market models from the beginning we would not have had all these great shows. But aiming at markets in bigger cities all over China, it would become crucial to make our theater company more official and work together with agents.

Due to my relative inexperience in this field and the fact that we are opening a completely new market in China, we’d have to figure all this out on the way. The tour in Chengdu was still largely dependent on me going into schools with a bunch of materials and some small talk, nailing shows for a few days later. This would never work like this in Europe. But in China it has always worked. Still, I was quite nervous going into that first school.

Frank and Jeanmarie, the main characters of “The Dwarf in China”, have taken up a new adventure in the city of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. They performed their dwarf show in kindergartens from March 10th until April 10th 2015. Frank & Jeanmarie will write about this period on this blog.
Read bottom posts first to read in chronological order!

Thoughts of Jeanmarie 

A day of resting….

I sit on my bed on the 26 th floor of a tower that serves as our base for a one month expedition in the concrete jungle of the urban giant called Chengdu.

The foggy-smoggy blanket- that progress has layed over the citycenter- is particularly thick today and i can hardly see our neighbouring towers all around.

On the ground i imagine loads of chinese people going around with their smartfone at hand for selfies that will show tomorrow that they have been in the promised land of a neokapitalist paradise in the artificial heart of the city center with its material goods and gods of luxurious brands from all over the world.

Tonight this part of the chinese dream will even be more convincing with all the lights that will bring in the colours and moving picture fantasies on giant screens that are spread all over…to lure the public into the impression that this is the place to be……Allmost day and night cleaners by the hundreds,sometimes well dressed in specially designed costumes are washing away the dust that  keeps on coming down from the sky…….painting the concrete universe even more grey all the time….

And yet……surprise surprise……allmost everywhere i see and feel a people that is genuinally joyfull and relaxed..

On the free saturday i took the metro untill the terminal to reach for the outskirts of this jungle and was happy to discover that  the people are continuing their lives in their good old kashba like working class neighbourhoods.In an ongoing chaos of foodshops,drugstores,traditional healing clinics,welding workshops and what more…..litlle kids playing around,elderly people playing

majing games,boys and girls enjoying each others company in the general mood of spring…that just accomplished gods most delightfull trick on the planet…even here,amidst all those pollution loaded dust damping grey world of running cars all over the place.

Vive la vie,where ever

Jeanmarie

Frank and Jeanmarie, the main characters of “The Dwarf in China”, have taken up a new adventure in the city of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. They performed their dwarf show in kindergartens from March 10th until April 10th 2015. Frank & Jeanmarie will write about this period on this blog.
Read bottom posts first to read in chronological order!

The Home Restaurant

We woke up to a groggy, hazy dawn in the middle of the concrete jungle, feeling slightly dizzy after a night of lucid, jet-lag induced sleep. I was struggling with the same hacking cough we had first gotten in the car the day before. When I opened my computer, I found out there was a major problem with the internet. When we rearranged the furniture to make a workspace, big clotted balls of dust were swept up in the air and we had to open both the windows to let in a metallic, polluted draft.

The missing crow didn’t really make things any better. We had promised our sales partner that we would constantly keep expanding our repertoire, in order to be able to ask for higher prices. We had a few extra organ books made especially for this tour. Also, we had added very strong scenes in which the dragon and the dwarf interacted. But without a crow, we’d have to give up on a major part of our storyline.

After a few more fruitless negotiations with our landlord about the dysfunctional internet, we headed out. We had scheduled a meeting with our mountain friend Yang Xiao, who was waiting for us in a tea house with a cozy Sunday afternoon atmosphere. He lives mainly in Chengdu to care for his elderly parents, but grabs every chance he can get to explore pristine mountain areas.

Yang Xiao and some yellow poppies in Yunnanese Tibet

We were delighted when he unfolded some maps to show us his plans for our weekend retreat into the mountains in the middle of our tour. We were even more delighted, when we were sitting down over a gigantic feast in a cozy home restaurant, to find seemingly characterful crow puppets for sale on the Chinese site Taobao.

Frank and Jeanmarie, the main characters of “The Dwarf in China”, have taken up a new adventure in the city of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. They performed their dwarf show in kindergartens from March 10th until April 10th 2015. Frank & Jeanmarie will write about this period on this blog.

The Dwarf in Chengdu 2015 was a fact! With a feeling of triumph the 3 of us shared a cigarette in the car upon leaving the airport. But as we were driving out onto the congested airport highway, exhaust fumes entering the car from all sides, and looking out into the hazy, polluted white-gray sky, we felt compelled to extinguish our smokes with hacking coughs.
As I had arranged apartments right in the city center, we encountered very heavy traffic. Chengdu is a large and well-known Chinese city with 8 million inhabitants. Liu told us that it was quite nerve-wrecking to drive in this city. And indeed, many drivers just missed hitting us when they mindlessly zig-zagged over the highways, alternating crazy bouts of speeding with driving 20 on the left lane while checking social media on their smartphones.
After some arrangements with the landlord, we settled in an apartment on the 26th floor, right in the middle of the concrete jungle. After a lot of hassle and conflict with the guard at the parking lot, we were able to carry all our props and stage parts to the room.

The first set-up of the stage parts in our room.

Our building.

Getting ready.

The view from our room.

When we were making our first inventory, it seemed everything except for the electric saw had made its way from Kunming to Chengdu. No crucial props or stage parts were missing. “So did you carry the crow in your carry-on luggage?” I asked casually. Jeanmarie looked back at me with a big frown. “Well, no, because we didn’t have the crow with us either at the last tour, or did we?”

Frank and Jeanmarie, the main characters of “The Dwarf in China”, have taken up a new adventure in the city of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. They performed their dwarf show in kindergartens from March 10th until April 10th 2015. Frank & Jeanmarie will write about this period on this blog.

The last time I took the Amsterdam – Chengdu flight, the plane had been almost empty, with more or less 30 passengers aboard a massive jet. This time it was absolutely crowded. It was nearly impossible to sleep in my cramped middle seat. Nevertheless, the food was edible and we had some great views of some Tibetan highlands northwest of Chengdu.

At the airport everything went smoothly. Given the fact that it always takes plenty of time, money and effort to get a Chinese visa in Europe, I tend to expect the border crossings to be just as bothersome. But maybe because officials are aware of the hassle it takes to get your hands on a visa, they let you walk into the country without many questions.
My heart skipped a beat when one of the custom guys had us put the organ onto an X-ray scanner, poking his companion with a smirk: “Let’s have a look at this big box these foreigners are carrying!” But once again, we were allowed to carry it into the country.

The organ made it safely to our apartment! It has been improved and will stay in China from now on.

Liu was waiting for us at the airport with a smile from ear to ear, looking like a Chinese Mohammed Ali. He had started a few days earlier; first getting all our stuff from Tim’s attic, then going on to drive more than a 1000 kilometers to Chengdu. We were all happy we had made it to this point!