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.

【红霞译文】

        欢度农历新年堪称中国最为盛大的庆祝活动，人们不惜狂掷重金，学校停课放假长达一个月之久，彰显咱民族隆重的传统氛围。然而在美国，节日气息无法与之相比，充其量不及国内的一半。尽管如此，大费城地区还是好戏连台，鼎力推出多种多样的文艺表演，借以表达海外华裔辞岁迎新的喜悦之情，今年我深有同感。这不，恰逢新春佳节到来之际，我准备用中式空竹为大家登台献技。

        在光华中文学校里，我每周星期天都要上“空竹”课，除了学些基本技巧之外，还会跟大家插科打诨相互逗乐。可等到动真格需要施展才艺的时候，同班70%的低年级小不点学生竟然打退堂鼓，决定回避上台亮相，为我们本次节目蒙上了一层阴影。此时此刻，我们唯一能够补救的就是重新调整阵容，充分利用有限的人力资源，拿出吃奶的本事完成表演任务。坦率地说，留下来的三位也底气不足，心里实在没谱。

        距离七点钟神州基督教会的春晚演出未剩下多长时间，大伙儿仅能提前挤出三个小时左右的光景进行临场模拟练习。由于大部分同伴缺席，我们所面临的终极挑战便是如何在短时间内以不变应万变。为了配合音乐，年方十四岁的老师耶桁赶紧支招教了一套全新抖法，同时还特为今晚上台表演的咱哥仨重组套路，并将原来由两人承担的表演内容浓缩到一人身上，虽然做出上述决定不难，但难就难在合拍问题，我们要么到时间做不完既定动作，要么提前半分钟便耍尽全部花样，抖空竹所需的形、神、意、气非但把握不好，该停的时候也根本停不下来，好在我们别的方面尚说得过去。

        上场的时刻到了，丑媳妇总得见公婆，这时耶桁危襟正坐角落，双手掩面，一言不发。终于，报幕员道出节目，舞台正召唤我们。聚光灯下，《大中国》音乐响起，我们强作镇定，朋友德文领先抖起空竹。他走上台前，给大家表演“小猫摇篮”。所谓的“小猫摇篮”其实就是让空竹上下弹跳，棍棒上捆绑的线绳呈交叉形状。表演中出现突发状况，德文尚未来得及复原交叉的线绳，空竹已应声落地。我当机立断，马上接替德文的位置，成功地完成“小猫摇篮”。接着，我又开始做第二套动作，虽说它难度不大，但看上去却招人眼目，空竹围绕棍棒翻转之后再乖乖地落回到线绳上。做完了这套动作，我马上退居后排，下面将由耶桁独挑大梁。耶桁的演技非同一般，他先神秘地系个绳结，然后将绳子在棍子缠上几道，再把空竹向外一抛，不知怎么搞的，绳结自动解开。

        耶桁表演完毕，我走近德文，倆人配合共同拽拉抖动。拽着抖着，问题冒了出现，我本应将空竹扔给德文，结果准头欠佳，德文够不到无法接住，说时迟那时快，耶桁一个箭步跨了上来替我们补台。他一会儿将线绳往脖子上一缠，空竹便轮番在其脖子两侧的线绳上跳来跳去；一会儿又把线绳往腿上一捆，空竹围着他那条腿转起圈来。压轴戏上，耶桁巧施绝技，扬鞭高抛空竹，空竹青云直上，不时发出嗡嗡的响声，最后稳稳地收住空竹，我们哥仨随即排成一行鞠躬谢幕。

        演出结束后，观众盛赞表演成功，无疑给我们的心头平添了一丝喜悦。在人员少时间紧任务急压力大的情况下，彼此心往一处想，智往一处谋，劲往一处使，充分挖掘各自的潜力，终于圆满地达到了预期目的。