2015-02-14

【Aiden in English】

        Chinese Spring Festivity is the largest celebration in China. Traditionally people spend crazy money and kids get out of school for a month. In the US, however, the celebrations don’t sound even half as big. Although they aren’t as big, Chinese New Year still has rituals and performances in the Greater Philadelphia Area. Especially this year, I’ll experience a lot of them. So for the first performance of the week of Chinese New Year, I was going to perform some fascinating tricks with my Chinese yo-yo. 

        At Guanghua Chinese School (GHCS) once a week on Sundays, I go to a Chinese yo-yo class. We learn and practice basic techniques, and also talk and tell jokes. But when the show time comes, 70% of the kids are determined not to participate it and the performance stayed in bad shape. At this moment, the only thing we were able to do was to cope with it and make the most of whatever we had, which, to be honest, wasn’t much at all. 

        Time wasn’t on our side, for we were performing at China Grace Christian Church (CGCC) at 7:00 pm. It limited us to about three or so hours of practice, considering it was around 3:30 pm. With so many kids gone, the biggest challenge would probably be the amount of extra time we had on our hands. My teacher, Eric, a 14-year-old boy, had to teach us a new trick for time purposes. He also changed the original choreography to fit three people, mending two parts into one. Yet even with all the changes, the timing just wouldn’t line up. Sometimes it took too long to wrap up. Sometimes we would finish with half a minute to go. With all the new tricks, we would mess up and take up a lot of extra seconds. Other than that, we had no other way of wasting time. 

        The performance time came. While we waited for our turn to embarrass ourselves, Eric was sitting in a corner with the head in his hands, not saying a word. Finally, we were announced to go on stage. As we got ready to walk into the spotlight, music of the Grand China blared from a radio. We were spinning our yo-yos and forcing a smile. The first trick was my friend Devin’s. He walked to the front of the stage and did the Cat’s Cradle. The Cat’s Cradle was that one threw his yo-yo on top of X, bouncing it up and down when he crossed his strings in the form of an X. The only mishap was that it got messed up while he was untangling the X. Devin dropped the yo-yo and I went up to take his place. I did the Cat’s Cradle again and successfully untangled the X. Then I did the second trick. This one was simple, but looked cool. All I did was to flip the yo-yo around a stick and to catch it on the string. Once it was done, I stepped back and let Eric do his tricks. Eric’s tricks were on a different level. First of all, he did the magic knot. When he wrapped his strings around the sticks multiple times, he flung the yo-yo to the side and somehow the strings untangled.

        As soon as he stepped back, I walked up next to Devin and both of us tossed the yo-yo back and forth. The only problem was that when I went to throw it, the yo-yo caught on to my strings and fell the floor. Luckily, Eric stepped up and did another trick to cover it up. He wrapped the strings around his neck and tossed his yo-yo from one string to another. After a while, he stuck his leg through the stings and cast the yo-yo in circle around his leg. The final trick of the show was when Eric flung his yo-yo into the air, whipped his strings, and caught it. At last, we three stood in a line and bowed to the audience.

        After the performance, we were praised for an amazing job and we gladly accepted it. For a show that lacked 70% of its cast, we hung in together and did pretty well.

【紅霞譯文】

        歡度農曆新年堪稱中國最為盛大的慶祝活動，人們不惜狂擲重金，學校停課放假長達一個月之久，彰顯咱民族隆重的傳統氛圍。然而在美國，節日氣息無法與之相比，充其量不及國內的一半。儘管如此，大費城地區還是好戲連台，鼎力推出多種多樣的文藝表演，藉以表達海外華裔辭歲迎新的喜悅之情，今年我深有同感。這不，恰逢新春佳節到來之際，我準備用中式空竹為大家登台獻技。

        在光華中文學校里，我每周星期天都要上“空竹”課，除了學些基本技巧之外，還會跟大家插科打諢相互逗樂。可等到動真格需要施展才藝的時候，同班70%的低年級小不點學生竟然打退堂鼓，決定迴避上台亮相，為我們本次節目蒙上了一層陰影。此時此刻，我們唯一能夠補救的就是重新調整陣容，充分利用有限的人力資源，拿出吃奶的本事完成表演任務。坦率地說，留下來的三位也底氣不足，心裡實在沒譜。

        距離七點鐘神州基督教會的春晚演出未剩下多長時間，大伙兒僅能提前擠出三個小時左右的光景進行臨場模擬練習。由於大部分同伴缺席，我們所面臨的終極挑戰便是如何在短時間內以不變應萬變。為了配合音樂，年方十四歲的老師耶桁趕緊支招教了一套全新抖法，同時還特為今晚上台表演的咱哥仨重組套路，並將原來由兩人承擔的表演內容濃縮到一人身上，雖然做出上述決定不難，但難就難在合拍問題，我們要麼到時間做不完既定動作，要麼提前半分鐘便耍盡全部花樣，抖空竹所需的形、神、意、氣非但把握不好，該停的時候也根本停不下來，好在我們別的方面尚說得過去。

        上場的時刻到了，醜媳婦總得見公婆，這時耶桁危襟正坐角落，雙手掩面，一言不發。終於，報幕員道出節目，舞台正召喚我們。聚光燈下，《大中國》音樂響起，我們強作鎮定，朋友德文領先抖起空竹。他走上台前，給大家表演“小貓搖籃”。所謂的“小貓搖籃”其實就是讓空竹上下彈跳，棍棒上捆綁的線繩呈交叉形狀。表演中出現突發狀況，德文尚未來得及復原交叉的線繩，空竹已應聲落地。我當機立斷，馬上接替德文的位置，成功地完成“小貓搖籃”。接着，我又開始做第二套動作，雖說它難度不大，但看上去卻招人眼目，空竹圍繞棍棒翻轉之後再乖乖地落回到線繩上。做完了這套動作，我馬上退居後排，下面將由耶桁獨挑大梁。耶桁的演技非同一般，他先神秘地系個繩結，然後將繩子在棍子纏上幾道，再把空竹向外一拋，不知怎麼搞的，繩結自動解開。

        耶桁表演完畢，我走近德文，倆人配合共同拽拉抖動。拽着抖着，問題冒了出現，我本應將空竹扔給德文，結果準頭欠佳，德文夠不到無法接住，說時遲那時快，耶桁一個箭步跨了上來替我們補台。他一會兒將線繩往脖子上一纏，空竹便輪番在其脖子兩側的線繩上跳來跳去；一會兒又把線繩往腿上一捆，空竹圍着他那條腿轉起圈來。壓軸戲上，耶桁巧施絕技，揚鞭高拋空竹，空竹青雲直上，不時發出嗡嗡的響聲，最後穩穩地收住空竹，我們哥仨隨即排成一行鞠躬謝幕。

        演出結束後，觀眾盛讚表演成功，無疑給我們的心頭平添了一絲喜悅。在人員少時間緊任務急壓力大的情況下，彼此心往一處想，智往一處謀，勁往一處使，充分挖掘各自的潛力，終於圓滿地達到了預期目的。