2017-01-29

【Aiden in English】

        I’ve always been on the Chinese Yo-Yo club since I heard about it in Guanghua Chinese School. Although many people have come and gone, I was the person who never quit. It really isn’t much to be proud of. Yet it’s a passion that I have, which is why I feel somewhat closer to the club than some other activities.

        It is also why I’m now its teacher assistant.

        Being a TA seems like a double-edged sword. I can learn and teach kids, which is oddly soothing at times, as well as follow a hobby that has grown on me. However, it requires many performances, and performances lead to disappointing failures. I think the thrill with the lights shining in your face is an interesting experience. The pressure mounted on the performers is exhilarating, and it really gives you a good scare when the Yo-Yo is in motion on a trick. There’s always that one factor of fear when your friend might mess-up. Funny thing is, usually when I feel scared for others, it’s me who screws up the show the most. Maybe I should do my job well and then worry about others.

        Chinese New Year has come around again, and none of the Yo-yo team is quite enthusiastic. We aren’t quite prepared, to say the least. Most of this year’s song entitled “Sky Is Blue” was about the blue sky, so we finally got down a similar costume for everyone: a white t-shirt and light blue pants. The pants were ordered from a website, which is kind of why they arrived so late. And that was only one of the minor problems. The song being played in the background was about 3 minutes long. We kept going over that limit. The thing is, with performances like the Gala, timing is the key. Therefore, in order to time everything out, we needed a signal to show where the ending was occurring. Not only for the performer but for the little kids as well. Because of the age gap, there were the more experienced folks like me who understood the outline of the show. Then there were the little kids, who basically frolic around in the background during the climax of the performance. This year’s preparation was the reason our teacher decided to not have younger kids or new additions to perform next year; some children just can’t be controlled. Luckily, there wasn’t much embarrassment on stage this time. Those who were expected to screw up pretty much screwed up. For once, I didn’t have any issues with my great combo that I did every year because I had nothing else to do. The highlight, however, came last, and it was a friend of mine performing double Yo-Yos. Its name is quite self-explanatory, as he circled two Yo-Yos on one stick for as long as he could, or until the end of the song. After messing up once, he quickly recovered and tried once more, in which he successfully pulled off a great series of tosses.

        As for the overall performance, I must say, it was one of our best ones yet. Simply because there were no areas where we felt embarrassed, the entire performance seemed to be in our control. It feels good to be able to go out into the lights and deliver.

【紅霞譯文】

        自從聽說賓州光華中文學校開設空竹班起，我便報名參與至今，其間有不少同伴像走馬燈似的來了去去了來，可我始終沒打退堂鼓，在此並非有意標榜自己，是熱情伴隨我體嘗到沒有其它任何運動所能替代的樂趣。

        這也是為什麼現在我又走馬上任當起空竹老師的助理。

        助教好比一把雙刃劍，一方面我可以邊學邊教孩子，這麼一來反倒意外地調和了上課節奏；另一方面我還能趁機發展自己的興趣愛好。抖空竹離不開舞台表演，而舞台表演勢必要面對挫折，鎂光燈下每幅攝人心魂的精彩畫面無不蘊藏着有趣的經歷。精神壓力促使演員興奮，刺激他們死死盯住急速飛轉的空竹，緊張狀態無可避免地導致同伴發揮失常，滑稽的是我杞人憂天，往往替朋友捏一把汗，結果自己出錯最多，結果自己最有可能出錯，或許我應該先做好分內工作，然後去助人為樂。

        農曆新年再度來臨，空竹班學生沒有表現出高度熱情，依我看大家準備得並不充分。這次舞台配樂為《天藍藍》，曲中大多描述藍色天空，因此我們決定統一服裝：白汗衫淺藍褲，褲子都是網購產品，到貨時間直逼登台日子，除此而外，其它一切按步就緒。串場音樂前後僅有三分鐘，但凡每次練習我們肯定超時，像這種大型文藝演出關鍵因素在於遵守時間，因此為了確保如期完成走台過程，我們安排一個暗號提示全班人馬做好收尾準備，這樣不僅對身經百戰的老油條有用，而且對初顯身手的嫩豆芽照樣管事。由於空竹班彼此之間年紀相差懸殊，以我為代表的老生派對登場一招一式早已心中有數，而活潑好動的後備軍時不時呆在藍天白雲背景屏幕前嬉戲玩耍，我們老師見狀橫定決心，來年避免啟用不知天高地厚的愣頭青兒，大庭廣眾面前有些小不點管不住自己真讓你沒轍，好在這回大家並沒有尷尬得下不來台，原來平日活蹦亂跳的小傢伙因為怯場而有所收斂。針對本人實況，我破天荒頭一次毋庸擔心全套組合，既然沒有推出新花樣，只好吃老本把看家本領拿來重新演示一番，然而最精彩的壓軸戲要算咱哥們抖的雙空竹。顧名思義，他讓兩個空竹圍繞一根棍子轉悠，直到曲終整個節目完畢，中間雖出過一次意外，但迅速找回感覺恢復競技狀態，並成功完成一系列高拋驚險動作。

        就整體表現而言，我承認今年恐怕是歷來表現最棒的一次，好就好在事後大家沒發覺有啥遺憾，每人都發揮出正常水平，眾目睽睽之下如願實現心中設想，着實讓人欣慰。

Today in History(歷史上的今天):

2008: 多米尼克首都羅索(Roseau)

Crosslinks(相關博文):

The 2016 Year of Monkey Celebrated w/ Yo-Yo(抖空竹過猴年)

The 2015 Year of Goat Celebrated w/ Yo-Yo(抖空竹過羊年)