Benazir Bhutto killed in Suicide Attack

Newswires this morning are reporting that Benazir Bhutto, 54, the former prime minister of Pakistan, has died following a shooting and suicide bombing that also killed at least 15 other people at the rally where the attack took place.

Bhutto had only recently returned to Pakistan in advance of January parliamentary elections elections, surviving another attempted assassination in Karachi on Oct. 19.

Educated in America and England, Bhutto was the eldest daughter of prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was himself assassinated following a 1977 coup.

More reportage:

International Herald Tribune
Bloomberg
BBC
ABC News
Top News India

Frances Kai-Hwa Wang on Michigan TV?

Professional Journalist at Work: We are not sure, but you might possibly be able to see our own Frances Kai-Hwa Wang (or perhaps just her hand) on Michigan TV running/holding the microphone for the Q&A on this Public TV broadcast of University of Michigan Professor Nicholas Howson's UM ChinaNOW Theme Year Center for Chinese Studies Public Lecture of December 7, 2007, "China's Stock Exchanges and Domestic Capital Markets--Boom, Bust, and Bellwether?"
Michigan TV Channel 22 (Comcast cable channel 22)
Friday, December 21, 2007, 9:00 pm
Saturday, December 22, 2007, 2:00pm
or click here.

To see Frances Kai-Hwa Wang's calendar of REAL upcoming public appearances, check out her website, franceskaihwawang.com.

What is the top story of 2007 in Asian America?

Musings, as we read on the newswires the calls for editorial voting on the top news stories of the year for the papers' year-end editions...

What would be the top story in Asian America? A lot of our news was pretty bleak this year.

Northwoods or Virginia Tech shootings? Clinton campaign embarrassed by Norman Hsu? Tila Tequila gets her own show?


Maybe these were leavened by some other positive moments, too...

Bobby Jindal? PepsiCo Elects Indra K. Nooyi as Chairman of the Board? Hung Huynh wins Top Chef?

We're throwing it out there to some friends on our email lists, anyway, and may come back and write about it again for our ow wrap-up. But, we would also welcome any ideas you might care to drop here as well.

More about Hwang's Yellow Face

Following up on Frances' last post:

For those fans of the playwright, this week we'll be running a new interview. Check out the weekend culture supplement -- we'll leave it up on Asian American Village for a week or so.

Interview: Tony-winner David Henry Hwang
Plus, AP reviewer Michael Kuchwara's review of Hwang's new play, Yellow Face

David Henry Hwang's Yellowface at New York's Public Theater

YELLOW FACE
Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street , NYC
November 19 - December 23, 2007

Written by DAVID HENRY HWANG
Directed by LEIGH SILVERMAN
With NOAH BEAN, FRANCIS JUE, JULIENNE HANZELKA KIM, KATHRYN LAYNG, HOON LEE, LUCAS CALEB ROONEY, ANTHONY TORN

David Henry Hwang puts himself center stage with alter-ego DHH, telling his side of the explosive controversy stirred up when he led the protest against the hiring of Jonathan Pryce in the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon. Truth and fiction are hard to separate as Hwang gives us a funny and moving backstage look at his search to confront the roles that race and ethnicity play in America.

More info and ticket sales at publictheater.org.

Special AALDEF Night at the Theater on Thursday, December 6, 2007, 8 pm. Hwang will be on hand for a post-performance Q&A. Contact swesley@aaldef.org to purchase AALDEF tickets.

"Bumming in Beijing"

Contemporary Chinese Documentary Film: “Bumming in Beijing”
Monday, December 3, 2007, 6:30 PM - 10:30 PM, The Michigan Theater, 603 East Liberty Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

First a reception at 6:30pm in the lobby of the historic Michigan Theater with film scholar Berenice Reynaud and director Wu Wenguang. Then at 7:00 pm, a showing of contemporary Chinese documentary film, "Bumming in Beijing" (Director Wu Wenguang, China, 1990, 70 minutes, Mandarin with English subtitles)--a nuanced documentary account of the wanderings of five young artists who migrated to Beijing from the provinces during the heady years of the late 1980s leading up to and including the tragic confrontation in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Followed by Q&A with Reynaud and Wu.

Lecture: Floating, (In)visible, Off-Screen: Voices and Bodies in the New Chinese Documentary
Monday December 3, 2007, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, University of Michigan School of Social Work Building, Room 1636

Also, earlier in the day, Berenice Reynaud, California Institute of the Arts film scholar, will be speaking on contemporary Chinese documentary filmmaking. Based on the theories of Michel Chion, Pascal Bonitzer and Serge Daney on the relationship between image and sound, and in particular between the field of the visible ("on-screen") and the voice in cinema, Berenice Reynaud proposes to study the relationship between the voice and the body in the "New Chinese Documentary Movement." Coming after years of mainstream documentary, in which image and sound were superimposed together through a disembodied, all-knowing, official voice-over commentary, the independent video documentaries of the early 1990s on (starting with Wu Wenguang's "Bumming in Beijing") can be read as a series of multiple, sometimes contradictory strategies to reinsert the voice and attach it to a body. She will describe the evolution of the "movement" from this point of view, ending with new levels of sophistication (off-screen voices, voices in non-Chinese languages, voices that function as a "menace" threatening the integrity of the screen image.

For more information, check out the University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies.

Coalition Calls for Supreme Court to Strike Down Indiana Legislation

Release from the dedicated folks at The Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAvote.org), a national non-partisan, nonprofit organization that encourages and promotes civic participation of Asian Pacific Islander Americans in the electoral and public policy processes at the national, state and local levels:

CALLS FOR SUPREME COURT TO STRIKE DOWN INDIANA VOTER ID LEGISLATION

WASHINGTON, DC – Today leaders of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote), a non-partisan non-profit civic engagement organization, addressed the United States Supreme Court's consideration of an Indiana law that requires voters to present photo identification at the polls.

APIAVote has joined two amicus briefs filed by the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC) and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) with the Supreme Court against Indiana's restrictive legislation on voter identification. Both of these amicus briefs urged the Court to strike down photo identification requirements, citing their unconstitutional discriminatory impact on Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters. The constitutionality of Indiana’s voter ID requirements is being challenged in two cases, William Crawford v. Marion County Election Board and Indiana Democratic Party v. Todd Rokita. Oral arguments are scheduled to be presented on January 9, 2008. In addition to Indiana, several other states have enacted similar legislation which could be impacted by the Court's ruling.

"Many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are low income, limited-English speaking, and elderly voters. Instituting photo identification requirements at the polls creates unnecessary barriers that make it harder for our communities to exercise the right to vote," stated Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) and APIAVote Board member Gloria T. Caoile.

EunSook Lee, Executive Director of National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC) and APIAVote Treasurer noted: "There have already been longstanding calls for uniform and appropriate training for election day poll workers. These new identification mandates will undoubtedly lead to more confusion and opens the doors to cases of discrimination against minority voters by well-meaning poll workers navigating unnecessarily cumbersome election rules.

"No evidence exists to prove there is a widespread conspiracy to commit vote fraud," emphasized Bill Kaneko, board member of APIAVote. "Voter ID is a costly action to address a non-existent problem. At little or no cost, most voters can offer signatures and sworn affidavits to prove their identities.”

"Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have waited generations to gain a voice in the political process," said APIAVote Board Chair Vida Benavides. "The ability to vote in this nation's elections is one of the most fundamental rights that our Constitution affords. Our pursuit of liberty and democracy is at stake."

--- end release ---

“Realizing a New China”--Wang Dan to Speak at University of Michigan

Monday, November 19, 2007, 7:00pm
Michigan Law School, Hutchins Hall, Room 100

Wang Dan, who was one of the student leaders during the student democracy movement in China that led up to the events at Tiananmen Square on June 4, will be speaking at the University of Michigan Law School on “Realizing a New China.” Then a student at prestigious Beijing University, he was often considered the brains behind the movement. He rose to prominence advocating political reform and the rule of law in Reform-era China. Imprisoned twice after the events of June 4, 1989, Wang was exiled to the United States in 1998, and he is now completing a Ph.D. in history at Harvard University.

Sponsored by The Michigan Law School and the Center for Chinese Studies as part of the University of Michigan’s LSA China Theme Year. Free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the UM Center for Chinese Studies at 734-764-6308 or check out their website at www.lsa.umich.edu/chinanow.

Oppt'y - UCLA: 2008-09 Postdoctoral/Visiting Scholar Fellowship in Asian American Studies and Ethnic Studies

This opportunity release was sent in to the Village by friends at UCLA:

The Institute of American Cultures, in cooperation with UCLA's four Ethnic Studies Research Centers (American Indian Studies Center, Asian American Studies Center, Bunche Center for African American Studies Center, and the Chicano Studies Research Center) offers fellowships to postdoctoral/visiting scholars to support research on African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Chicanas/os. Each Center awards one fellowship for the academic year in a national competition.

The fellowship includes a stipend (which can be used as a sabbatical supplement) that ranges from $33,000 to $35,000 (contingent upon rank, experience, and date of completion of the Ph.D), up to $4,000 in research support, and health benefits. If applicable, the stipend is paid in the form of a reimbursement to the Fellow's home institution. Appointments are for a 9-month period beginning on October 1, 2008.

Eligibility: Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States and hold a Ph.D. from an accredited college/university (or, in the case of the arts, a terminal degree) in the appropriate field at the time of appointment. UCLA faculty, staff, and currently enrolled students are not eligible to apply.

IAC Postdoctoral Fellows/Scholars are to be in residence during their tenure and to make a contribution to the research activities of the sponsoring Ethnic Studies Research Center. Each fellow/scholar is expected to devote full time to study and research and accept no other form of employment. In the case of the Asian American Studies, the fellow/scholar will also teach a 10-week undergraduate OR graduate seminar based on his or her research with the Department of Asian American Studies.

Applications are due by January 11, 2008, and recipients are notified by mid-April, 2008.

For further information, please contact the Institute of American Cultures Coordinator or one of the IAC coordinators at the centers listed below. The application form is available online at: http://www.gdnet.ucla.edu/iacweb/applic.htm

Asian American Studies Center
ATTN: IAC Coordinator
3230 Campbell Hall
Box 951546
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1546
Telephone number: 310.825.2974

Bunche Center for African American Studies
ATTN: IAC Coordinator
160 Haines Hall
Box 951545
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1545
Telephone number: 310.825.7403

American Indian Studies Center
ATTN: IAC Coordinator
3220 Campbell Hall
Box 951548
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1548
Telephone Number: 310.825.7315

Chicano Studies Research Center
ATTN: IAC Coordinator
193 Haines Hall
Box 951544
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1544
Telephone Number: 310.825.2363

For General Information:
Institute of American Cultures
Coordinator
1237 Murphy Hall
Box 951419Los Angeles, CA 90095-1419
Telephone number: 310.825.1233
Email: iaccoordinator@gdnet.ucla.edu
UCLA . . . advancing excellence through diversity

Book: Asian American Assimilation: Ethnicity, Immigration, and Socioeconomic Attainment

Available @ Amazon Asian American Assimilation: Ethnicity, Immigration, and Socioeconomic Attainment

We were pleased to hear of the new book by a favorite past Village contributor, C.N. Le, director of Asian American Studies at U. Mass Amherst and the mastermind behind the excellent web site, Asian-Nation.org. Longtime readers may recall that Dr. Le, a sociology and statistics expert, tends to appear on the Village to help put some sense to numbers when new elections surveys, Census, employment and Asian American demographic data, although he has also written extensively on other aspects of (h)APA society and Vietnamese American culture.

In his new book, which uses comprehensive data from the U.S. Census, Dr. Le broadens the idea of assimilation to include socioeconomic and institutional examples of integration by analyzing outcomes such as income, occupational prestige, small business ownership, residential segregation, and intermarriage for five Asian American groups, with an emphasis on Vietnamese. The results show that many Asian Americans, especially Vietnamese Americans, have historically and continue to encounter several disadvantages, particularly compared to Whites, when it comes to achieving structural integration.

Nonetheless, Dr. Le observes, many have been able to overcome such initial challenges in a relatively short amount of time by using collective resources and maintaining ethnic solidarity to weave together a pattern of achievement, mobility, and tradition. In analyzing the interconnections between history, institutional conditions, and community solidarity, Dr. Le's book serves as a valuable reference point and resource for students, policymakers, and Americans from all backgrounds.

In this, the book adds hard evidence to the growing body of research and publications that have recently begun to chip away at the myth of Asian Americans-as-monolithic-Model-Minority. Other research we've covered include, most recently, a UCLA study on APA undergraduate educational attainment in particular.

Dr. Le's book was released by LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC as part of a New Americans series.

Jindal becomes first elected Indian American Governor

Well, for those who have been following our Bobby Watch, this past weekend's action in Louisiana answered our question.

Representative Bobby Jindal, Oxford-educated son of Indian immigrants, handily trounced a packed field of 11 opponents to become not only Louisiana's first non-white governor since the 1870s, but the first Indian American to be elected a state governor in U.S. history. He took 54 percent of the votes, which was enough to avoid a November 17 runoff.

According to the follow-up reporting by the Associated Press, Jindal, at 36 year, will also be the youngest state governor in the U.S.

Jindal had previously run for governor in 2003, losing to Kathleen Blanco by a narrow margin.

BTW, if you missed the Victory Speech...

9500 Liberty - Immigration Video Channel

What is 9500 Liberty? Call it “Macaca 2.0”.

We recently got a head's up from friends of the Village about an interesting project underway in Virginia that tries to bring some focus and dialogue to the immigration debates for those who want to give more independent thought to the issue.

A collective of activist filmmakers, many of them Asian Americans who had prominently pushed the charge to oust then-Virginia Senator George Allen during Macaca-gate, have again convened in the state to create a multivocal video documentary project about local government efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants in Manassas.

Calling itself 9500Liberty, the group has created a subscribable online video channel to form what it calls an "interactive documentary wall" comprising short guerilla videos that (to the group's credit) present multiple perspectives on the local immigration debate.

Although the project coordinators’ sympathies are clearly with immigrants in the area, 9500 Liberty publishes videos that convey the perspectives of both proponents and opponents of the anti-immigration measures. Videos range from interviews with Corey A. Stewart, Chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, to presentations given at public hearings to harrowing on-the-street confrontations between local whites and Hispanic and Asians.

The group has also crafted a network of discussions on Blogspot, Facebook, and MySpace as well as YouTube, aiming to “elevate dialogue…and inform the public, and investigate alternatives to the intense polarization that is hindering progress on the immigration issue.”

In this way, they say, they hope to help pre-emptively inform the public about a complex issue, rather than allow immigration to become the kind of emotional, polarizing issue in the next national election that gay marriage was in the previous one. Although some viewers may well leave the 9500 Liberty Channel still convinced of their own position on the immigration crackdowns -- whether pro or con -- the visit should leave them better aware of the real issues beyond the campaign rhetoric, and better equipped to make an independent decision.

Louisiana Watch: Jobs, and Could Jindal Just Plain Win?

It's been a while since we logged in here with a Louisiana note, although we've continued to run news tidbits in our ongoing "Bobby Watch" tracking gubernatorial candidate Bobby Jindal's continuing strong run up to Saturday's election.

Most recently, the AP is musing that Jindal Might Avoid Runoff for Gov, that is, "If he gets more than 50 percent of the vote in Saturday's primary, the 36-year-old, Oxford-educated son of Indian immigrants will become Louisiana's first nonwhite governor since Reconstruction and the youngest U.S. governor in office."

He would also become the first elected Indian American governor of a U.S. state. (Careful readers will recall that the title of First Indian American governor was recently scooped by New Jersey transportation commissioner Kris Kolluri.)

Turnout is already high in early balloting, propelled by a new law that "means anyone can cast a ballot during a designated seven-day period, without having to proffer an excuse or an explanation," according to The Times-Picayune's NOLA.com. So, keep an eye out on Saturday; history might just be made -- and early, to boot!

--------

ALSO

With its Katrina hangover not completely dissipated, Louisiana has a good deal at stake in the election. In a separate series this weekend, posted as a supplement in our Career Center news section, we're running an analysis of the jobs outlook in Louisiana, which on its flipside is paralleled by a serious labor shortage. We will also be highlighting Louisiana job opportunities that employers have posted on the job bank at IMDiversity.

Shen Wei Wins MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship

When Choreographer Shen Wei was recently in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for the University of Musical Society debut of “Second Visit to the Empress,” UMS President Ken Fischer was proud to announce that earlier that week Shen Wei had won the prestigious MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship.

Shen Wei, founder and artistic director of Shen Wei Dance Arts, is a choreographer who combines Eastern and Western influences and multiple artistic disciplines to create a bold and visually arresting form of dance-theater. Born in China’s Hunan province and trained from his youth in calligraphy, painting, and Chinese operatic performance, Shen Wei became a founding member of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, the first modern dance company in China, prior to moving to New York in 1995. Through choreographed movements that are precise and inventive, he and his dancers perform highly stylized steps and gestures inspired by Western dance traditions as well as Chinese opera, acrobatics, and martial arts. With the compositional rigor of a visual artist, he incorporates vivid colors, striking costume design, and imaginative use of space into theatrical works that are, at once, kinetic paintings. Staging his dances on a grand scale with a high level of production detail, Shen defies expectations with each new work. Folding (2000) begins with dancers draped in dramatic red against a shimmering blue backdrop and concludes with the chanting of Tibetan Buddhist monks, while his Rite of Spring (2003) offers a spare, minimalist approach to a classic modernist score. In these and other works, Shen Wei fuses a diverse range of art forms into an aesthetically striking dance language that is all his own.

Shen Wei received degrees from the Hunan Arts Academy and the Guangdong Dance School. He performed with the Hunan State Xian Opera Company (1984-1989) and the Guangdong Modern Dance Company (1991-1994) prior to founding Shen Wei Dance Arts in 2000. His company has performed in festivals and at venues throughout the U.S. and internationally, including the Lincoln Center Festival, the American Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, Sadler’s Wells, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, among many others. A painter as well as a choreographer, Shen’s works have been exhibited in New York City and Hong Kong. He is now based in New York City.

Central Asian music and poetry event

Spiritual Sounds of Central Asia:Nomads, Mystics and Troubadours
Alim Qasimov Ensemble, The Bardic Divas, Badakhshan Ensemble
Wednesday, October 24, 8 pm, Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Some of the world's most ancient and mysterious music and epic poetry comes to Ann Arbor in a remarkable concert featuring 18 of Central Asia's greatest singers and musicians, many of them appearing in the US for the first time. Performed against a backdrop of vibrant projected images, this concert includes artists from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kalmykia.

Showcasing some of the most exotic musical traditions on the planet, the concert includes the legendary mugham singer Alim Qasimov (Silk Road Project) in a program of riveting duets with his daughter, Fergane, accompanied by a four-man ensemble; trance-inducing mystical songs based on texts by classical poets Rumi, Hafez, and Nasir Khusrow, performed by the seven-person Badakhshan Ensemble; and the once-taboo, all-female ensemble, Bardic Divas. This multi-media performance includes supertitles and a two-camera live-video feed that projects close-up images of the musicians, as well a brief documentary film preceding each performance group.

check out http://www.ums.org/ for ticket info.

A Cambodian Magic Flute at University of Michigan

Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic Flute
Choreography, traditional music arrangements,and lyrics by Sophiline Cheam Shapiro; Performed by the Khmer Arts Ensemble (Phnom Penh)
Saturday, October 20, 1 pm [FAMILY PERFORMANCE]
Saturday, October 20, 8 pm
Sunday, October 21, 2 pmPower Center

The brilliant classicism of imperial Vienna meets the mythic-poetic splendor of ancient Angkor in Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic Flute, a contemporary re-imagining of Mozart's fantastical opera by Cambodian-American choreographer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro. Performed in the refined and elaborate movement language of the thousand-year-old Cambodian classical dance tradition and set to traditional musical motifs played out by a pin peat instrumental ensemble, 32 dancers, musicians, and singers take the stage to explore the themes of enlightened change and transformation that frame Mozart's masterpiece. Cultures meld as we follow Pamina's arduous journey to transcend the rivalries and betrayals from which she is born and seek out a middle path of justice, tolerance, and love.

Commissioned by Peter Sellars for his New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna, Pamina Devi is "a must see. Sophiline Cheam Shapiro's exotic realm of bejeweled dancers and formal patterns, full of elegance, filled the stage. Every finger of each backwardly arched hand, each raised foot while kneeling, all were accomplished with a calmly deliberate and beautifully fluid motion. This was an amazing experience." (Salzburger Nachrichten)In Khmer with English supertitles.

http://www.ums.org/ for ticket info.

Çudamani comes to University of Michigan

Çudamani: Odalan Bali
I Dewa Putu Berata, artistic director
Friday, October 19, 8 pm Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

The Balinese music and dance ensemble Çudamani (pronounced SOO-duh-mahn-ee) makes its UMS debut with Odalan Bali, providing a unique window into the spiritual and cultural source of Balinese performing arts. Inspired by Bali’s timeless cycles of ceremony and ritual, Çudamani’s work transports the audience from the everyday world with its virtuosic detail, emotion, and energy. An exquisite synthesis of music, drama, and movement, Odalan Bali captures the exhilarating splendor of the Balinese temple festival, bringing to life vivid tales of gods and heroes of Balinese mythology and history. From the clamor of villagers working at dawn to the calm of prayer and worship, and from the meditative resonance of voice and flute to the breathtaking dances for which Bali is famous, this original work traces the life of a ceremony, from the awakening of the ritual site to purification, and, finally, to spiritual union.The performance features dazzling dancers, glittering costumes, and the shimmering polyrhythms of gamelan music, a living tradition in Bali. Beyond mere aethetic entertainment, Balinese arts capure and amplify the shifting dimensions of human emotion, nature, the spirit world, and the cosmos. Go to www.ums.org for ticket info.

A Related Event:
Roundtable: Traditional Modernity: A Panel Discussion on Identity and Culture in Asian Performing Arts, Thursday, Oct 18, 4-5:30 pm, School of Social Work Building, Room 1636 (1080 South University Avenue), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
A panel of experts on Asian performing arts and theater practitioners will discuss the “identity” of contemporary Asian performing arts and social and cultural function of the performing arts throughout the Asian continent. A collaboration with the the U-M Center for Chinese Studies, U-M Center for South East Asian Studies, U-M Center for World Performance Studies, U-M Institute for Humanities, U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

Tallahassee Asian Festival Coming 9/29/07

Experience Asia 2007 - 3rd Annual Asian Coalition of Tallahassee Festival

Sharing the Asian Experience

Saturday, September 29

From 10am - 5pm

Downtown Tallahassee, Lewis and Bloxham Parks

(across from the Downtown Market)

• View Experience Asia 2007 Poster (PDF)
• Experience Asia 2007, Entertainment and Demonstration program (PDF format)
• Driving Directions to Bloxham and Lewis Park

Other Recent Readings of Interest @ IMD & the Village

• Milwaukee Launches New Asian Festival this Weekend
• IMDiversity Jobs QuickSearch Section: Jobs for US - Florida

University of Michigan Dragon Boat Festival Launches ChinaNow Theme Year

Dragon Boat Festival
Sunday, September 30, 10:00am-5:00pm
Gallup Park (2970 Fuller Rd.)

The first ever University-sponsored Chinese dragon boat race comes to Ann Arbor as part of a campus/community festival to launch the ChinaNow LSA Theme Year – a series of ground-breaking lectures, exhibitions, symposia, films, and performances building up to the 2008 Olympics.

Dragon boat races (the second most popular water sport in the world) are the heartbeat of the festival, a centuries old tradition in China. Teams of twenty paddlers per boat comprised of U-M departments, student organizations, and the community will race to drummer's beats in heats throughout the day. Activities on the banks of the river include a drum and gong procession (U-M Percussion Ensemble), lion dancing (Asian Martial Arts Studio), performances by high energy percussion group Groove, Chinese opera-style face painting, kite making, yo-yo spinning (Ann Arbor Chinese Center of Michigan), food, and more. The festival is a green event to bring about greater awareness of natural resources, particularly water.

A collaboration with the U-M Center for Chinese Studies. Part of the ChinaNow LSA Theme Year series of outreach events.

Shen Wei Dance Theatre, "Second Visit to the Empress"

ANN ARBOR, MI (August 13, 2007) – Chinese choreographer Shen Wei makes his University Musical Society (UMS) debut with Second Visit to the Empress, a work that marries the traditions of Chinese Opera with contemporary dance. The three performances, Friday, September 28 through Sunday, September 30, open UMS’s 07/08 season in Ann Arbor’s Power Center for the Performing Arts. In addition to his trademark visual and modern movement style, Shen Wei brings nearly ten years of opera training at its highest level in his native China to this production. Considered one of the best written music and vocal pieces in the entire Chinese Opera repertory, Second Visit to the Empress is a pillar of the Beijing Opera canon. Shen Wei’s production represents the first known new staging of the work in over 200 years.

For Shen Wei Dance Arts, Second Visit to the Empress represents a multi-year dedication to the celebration of a traditional form rarely seen in the West, and increasingly neglected in China. The overall vision at once recalls and re-casts the form — a treasure of world heritage — through the lens of Shen Wei’s landmark visual style. As such, the dance-opera represents Shen Wei’s most “total” work to date.

The four traditional Beijing Opera luminaries appearing in this production — Ms. Zhang Jing, Mr. Deng Mu Wei, Mr. He Wei, and Ms. Song Yang — are widely regarded as seminal interpreters of the repertoire. Each has a knowledge and aptitude for the form unavailable to non-native performers. Because Second Visit to the Empress features an unusually demanding vocal score, each vocalist was selected for his or her mastery of roles embodied by distinct vocal styles: the wife (female soprano); the intellectual/philosopher advisor (male soprano), and the military advisor (baritone).

The production is fully-staged, including sets, costumes, and make-up design by Shen Wei, and lighting by Jennifer Tipton. The challenging music is played by sixteen musicians (on twenty traditional Chinese instruments). A corps of twelve dancers form a characterless visual counterpart to the score, embodying the music through movement.

The music and lyrics to Second Visit to the Empress were developed approximately 300 years ago by anonymous artists. Zhenguo Liu revised the music for this new production and Shen Wei edited the lyrics. Original material was taken from the Anthology of Classical Peking Operas.

Shen Wei’s production of Second Visit to the Empress was performed at the Lincoln Center Festival in New York City in July. The work premiered in 2005 at the American Dance Festival. University Musical Society (UMS) hosts the only other U.S. engagement this season.

For performance tickets or additional information, contact the University Musical Society at 734-764-2538 or online at http://www.ums.org/.