Meeting Up With Zhangzhou City Xiang Opera Troupe (part 2)

There was no work today, but was told to go back to the office at 11 o'clock for an "opening ceremony" (a ceremony to just report to office at a auspicious timing and do a little bit of work before calling it a day). Since I had quite a bit of time before that, I thought I might as well head for the photo shop first to develop the photos I've taken over the past few days watching Zhangzhou City Xiang Opera Troupe's performance

I returned to the photo shop at 3pm to collect my photographs, and my heart sank when I saw my works. Many of the shots looked grainy, and some were so bad that I decided to take them off. I really hate my camera, as it is uncapable to taking pictures under low light conditions like a theatre performance. Either it gives you grainy pictures, or a blurred image

Putting my disappointment aside, I went next to the temple at Arumugam Road to look for the crew of Zhangzhou City Xiang Opera Troupe. One of their actors, Haibin, had actually asked me to go earlier so that he could teach me how to secure a "shuai fa" (long bunch of hair hanging from the scalp for male roles). However, when I reached the venue, it was all quiet. I found out from one of their admin crew that it was their rest time. I decided not to disturb his rest, and I sat at a corner and wait. Soon, some of the actors started streaming into the dressing room to prepare for their "ban xian" show which was scheduled at 5pm. As usual, Yuxiang was the among the first to start her makeup. Director Wu came in shortly after and I let him have a look at my photographs. Soon, everyone was flipping my photo album. They liked the photographs I had taken, and it somehow made me feel better. Xiaoyi, who had a mp3 player, even deleted some of the songs in it so that she could store the digital pictures I had taken of her

I went to look for Chen Bin in his room but he wasn't there. Instead I saw Ng Lim, an ex-actor with our troupe, as well as Weixiong, the scenographer. Weixiong was labelled as "first grade scenographer" by Amai and Mulan, as he single-handedly take charged of all the props and scenography works in the troupe. He told me it is a very tiring job, and if he has the chance to take a breathe, he's rather catch some sleep as well. And he doesn't just take charge of the scenography. He had to act minor roles on stage as well, and also to double-up as photographer at times. He had to do promotional and archival works too. He admitted it was tough, but he had to press on for the sake of his family and infant child.

As the time slowly approached 5pm, I decided to head for the stage to take pictures for their "ban xian" show (ceremonial show whereby the actors dressed up as various deities to give blessings). However, the show did not start until 5.30pm, as some of the crew thought it was to be held at 5.30pm. The ceremony ended at around 6pm and everyone proceed to the dining hall for their dinner. I did not want to dine with them, but the crew insisted that I eat with them and hence I obliged. I saw Haibin still working on something at the dressing table and hence I went over to take a look. He was mixing his makeup base. I was suprised by what he was doing, and asked him why couldn't he just buy a ready-made base instead. To which he replied that those ready-made ones do not have shades that matches his skin tone, and hence he prefers to do it himself. "Soemtimes for the passion of the arts, one really have to forgo his meals!", he said. Xiaoyun, who was just standing nearby, quipped that Haibin could just have the makeup base for dinner instead

At the dining hall, I saw Yaling with her makeup totally removed. I was suprised as she was supposed to be the lead for the night's show. I asked her about her makeup, and she replied that all the perspiration will ruin her makeup, and hence she'd rather remove them for now and then draw again after dinner. I'm impressed by that, as there's no way we amateurs can do that for time reasons. Throughout the dinner, everyone on my table (Xiuzhen, Yaling, Jianghai, Xiaoyun, Xiaoyi and Yiling) were speaking in Zhangzhou dialect, and I couldn't really understand fully due to their strong accent. Somehow I heard something like placing bets on 4D numbers. I didn't know they like to play such games too! Xiaoyun, who wasn't outstanding on stage, is a bubbly girl offstage. During the meal, she kept exclaiming that Singaporeans must be deities and consuming exlirs for food as Singaporeans don't seem to age easily and that they have such small appetite (refering to me, Amai and Mulan

After the meal, I went back to the dressing room to wait for Haibi, but he was nowhere to be seen. Hence I just sat aside observing how the actors dress up for their show. The dans were rather neat, as compared to those in Xiamen troupe. Although the wigs they used were of inferior quality, they looked alright on stage as they know how to comb and style them. Xiamen troupe's dans looked more messy as many of their actors simply mixed their real hair with clip-on ponytails and ready-made buns, and sometimes it can be real ugly. Some actors do not even use add-on ponytails even though they do not have long hair

I waiting for a long time before I saw Haibin strolling in. Obviously he had forgotten the agreement he made yesterday, but as it was close to the start of the show, I decided to come back another day to look for him. So today was sort of a wasted day as I did not achieve what I wanted to do, but at least I've managed to understand the people there more!