#Nutcracker Chinese Dance

[balanchine-ballet-master]

The Story of the Original "Tea" Dancer

There was a delightful story in the Times on February 4th about George Lee, on whom Balanchine created the Tea variation in The Nutcracker. Here it is.

From Ballet to Blackjack, a Dance Pioneer’s Amazing Odyssey

George Lee was the original Tea in “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.” A documentary filmmaker found him and a lost part of ballet history in Las Vegas.

By Siobhan Burke Feb. 4, 2024

Among the blaring lights and all-hours amusements of downtown Las Vegas, in a sea of slot machines at the Four Queens Hotel and Casino, George Lee sits quietly at a blackjack table, dealing cards eight hours a day, five days a week, a job he’s been doing for more than 40 years.

Lee, 88, was likely in his usual spot when the filmmaker Jennifer Lin was sifting through old photos at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in 2022, wondering what had become of a dancer with a notable place in ballet history. Pictured in a publicity shot for the original production of “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker,” in the role known as Tea, was a young Asian dancer identified as George Li.

For Lin, a veteran newspaper reporter turned documentarian, the picture raised intriguing questions. In 1954, when the photo was taken, it was rare to see dancers of color on the stage of New York City Ballet, the company Balanchine co-founded. Who was this young man, this breaker of racial barriers, this pioneer? Was he still alive? And if so, what was he up to? “I became absolutely obsessed with trying to find out what happened to George Li,” Lin said in a video interview.

In just over a year, that obsession has blossomed into a short film, “Ten Times Better,” that chronicles the unexpected story of Lee’s life: from his childhood in 1940s Shanghai, where his performing career began; to a refugee camp in the Philippines, where he fled with his mother, a Polish ballet dancer, in 1949; to New York City and the School of American Ballet, where Balanchine cast him in “The Nutcracker” to “Flower Drum Song” on Broadway, his first of many musical theater gigs; and ultimately, to Las Vegas, where he left dance for blackjack dealing in 1980. (He changed the spelling of his last name in 1959, when he became a United States citizen.)

The film will have its premiere on Feb. 10 as part of the Dance on Camera Festival at Film at Lincoln Center. Lee, who last visited New York in 1993, will be in town for the occasion, an opportunity for long-overdue recognition.

“So many years I haven’t done ballet,” Lee said over coffee at the Four Queens on a recent Sunday, after his shift. “And then suddenly Jennifer comes and tries to bring everything up. To me, it was like a shock.”

George Lee today. He has been a blackjack dealer in Las Vegas for more than 40 years. Photo: Saeed Rahbaran for The New York Times

But Lin’s interest has been welcome. “Jennifer is so perfect, she knows exactly everything,” he said. “She knows my background more than I do.”

Lin was not the only one who had been searching for Lee. In 2017, while organizing an exhibition on “The Nutcracker,” Arlene Yu, who worked for the New York Public Library at the time and is now Lincoln Center’s head archivist, was puzzled by the relatively few traces of him in the library’s vast dance collection.

“I think I’d tracked him down to 1961, but after that, it was really hard to find anything,” she said. “Whereas if you look at some of his peers in ‘The Nutcracker’ in 1954, they went on to careers where there was a lot more documentation.”

Lin’s fascination with Lee emerged through her work on another film, about Phil Chan and Georgina Pazcoguin, the founders of Final Bow for Yellowface, an initiative focused on ending offensive depictions of Asians in ballet. The role of Tea, a divertissement historically rife with such stereotypes—in Balanchine’s canonical version of “The Nutcracker” and others—has been a flashpoint in those efforts. Chan, too, had been struck by the 1954 images of “The Nutcracker,” which he came across during a library fellowship in 2020.

“I’m like, wait, there’s actually a Chinese guy,” he said — as opposed to a non-Chinese dancer with the saffron makeup or heavily painted eyes or even the artificial buck teeth worn in some old productions. “Who is this guy? And why do I not know about him?”

The "Tea" variation in The Nutcracker at City Ballet in 2015. The dancers are Ralph Ippolito, Claire Von Enck, and Baily Jones. Photo: Andrea Mohin for The New York Times

Lee, in his heyday, was a dancer to know. At just 12, he was already winning public praise. In a preview of a recital of the King-Yanover School in Shanghai, the North China Daily News called him an “extremely promising young Chinese boy, whose technique is of a very high standard.” A reviewer wrote that he “already may be said to be the best Chinese interpreter of Western ballet.” (Lee saved these newspaper clippings and shared them with Lin when they eventually met.)

Born in Hong Kong in 1935, Lee moved to Shanghai with his mother in 1941, when Shanghai was under Japanese occupation. During World War II, his father, a Chinese acrobat, was in Kunming in western China; he died in an accident on his way to visit Lee in 1945.

Lee’s mother, Stanislawa Lee, who had danced with the Warsaw Opera, was his first ballet teacher; as a child, he would follow along with her daily barre exercises. Shanghai had a significant Russian population, and with that a robust ballet scene. To earn money, Stanislawa arranged for her son to perform in nightclubs—“like a polka dance, or Russian dance, or sailor dance,” Lee said. The clubs would pay them in rice.

Little George Li in his Shanghai days. Photo: George Lee private collection via the NY Times

Fearing the Chinese Communist Party’s takeover in 1949, the two evacuated to the Philippines. An expected four months as refugees turned into two years. In 1951, an American friend of Lee’s father sponsored them to come to New York, where he introduced Lee to the School of American Ballet, City Ballet’s affiliated school.

As Lee narrates these twists and turns in the film, one memory anchors his recollections. Before they immigrated, his mother issued a warning. “You are going to America, it’s all white people, and you better be 10 times better,” he recalls her saying. “Remember that: 10 times better!”

The footage of Lee in his 20s suggests he took that advice to heart. In television appearances — with the company of the ballet star André Eglevsky, and in a number from “Flower Drum Song” on the Ed Sullivan Show — his power and precision dazzle.

“He was good; he was really good,” Chan said. “Clean fifth, high jump, polished turns, stick the landing—the training is all there. He’s already 10 times better than everybody else.”

In a 1979 interview heard in the film, the former City Ballet soloist Richard Thomas, who took over the role of Tea, raves about Lee’s peerless acrobatic jumps: “He was wonderful! Balanchine choreographed a variation for him that none of us have ever been able to equal.”

As Lee remembers it, Balanchine spent 15 minutes with him in the studio. “He said, ‘What can you do good? Show me what you can do good,’ so I show him something,” Lee said. “I did things like splits and double turns, down and up, turn again like a ball, and that’s it. He picked up some things and put them together.”

George Li as a student at the School of American Ballet. Photo: George Lee private collection via the NY Times

He recalled that during a “Nutcracker” dress rehearsal, the City Ballet makeup artist put him in full yellowface, and Balanchine insisted he take off the makeup. “He is Asian enough! Why do you make him more?” he remembers Balanchine saying. Lee was costumed in the Fu Manchu mustache, queue ponytail and rice paddy hat often associated with the role, now widely critiqued as racist caricatures. But he said he didn’t take offense. “Dancing is dancing,” he said.

Lee performed in “The Nutcracker” as a student; he was never invited to join City Ballet. But he clearly excelled in his classes and onstage. For that, he credits his strong foundation of Russian training in China — and his mother’s exacting standards. He can still see her standing in the studio doorway at the School of American Ballet, observing closely.

“She was watching the class and then would go home and tell me, ‘You did this wrong or that wrong, you got to do it this way,’” he said. “So I really worked hard, and I was good.” (His favorite teacher at the school was the demanding Anatole Oboukhoff: “He always wanted more, and that’s why I liked him very much.”)

To make a living Lee turned to musical theater, performing in shows like “Baker Street” on Broadway and the cabaret “Carol Channing with her 10 Stout-Hearted Men,” which opened in London. He pieced together jobs for more than 20 years, often unsure of what would come next.

Lee in flight in a production of “Flower Drum Song” in Las Vegas in the early 1960s. Photo: George Lee personal collection via the NY Times

He was dancing in a Vegas revue, “Alcazar de Paris,” now in his 40s, when a blackjack dealer friend suggested he go to dealer school. “I can’t dance all my life,” he remembers thinking. He decided to give dealing a try and soon landed a job at the Four Queens. Aside from four years at another casino, he has worked there ever since.

In December 2022, he got a voice mail message from Lin. With her reporting skills and some crucial assists from Yu, she had determined that he lived in Las Vegas. Of the five phone numbers she found for George Lees, four led nowhere; his was the last she tried.

When they finally connected, she put her other project on hold to focus on his story; she and her small creative team had a final cut by November. “George is 88, and I wanted him to be able to enjoy this moment, where people recognize him for his dancing,” she said.

As he prepares to return to New York, Lee said he felt gratified, most of all, for his mother.

“I’m proud for her that I didn’t let her down,” he said. “It makes me feel better to look up at her and say: ‘Look, mother, now you see what’s happening, what you did for me. You gave me all the good foundation, everything. Through you, I’m here now.’”

George Lee today. Photo: Saeed Rahbaran for The New York Times

#Balanchine #George Lee #George Li #Nutcracker ballet #Balanchine's Nutcracker #Asian stereotypes #Nutcracker Chinese Dance #New York City Ballet #NYCB #Ten Times Better #ballet film #Saeed Rahbaran #Andrea Mohin

[uselessdancedata]

Slawomir choreographing Chinese feels so icky to me knowing how he feels about asians 😬😬

what does he feel about asians 😭

#i mean other than how goofy his chinese dance choreo is #i feel like thats quite standard with the nutcracker #you have to accept a little bit of tastelessness #i am chinese btw i just dgaf #LMAO

[s-n-arly]

For Twin Cities Folks Looking for a Nutcracker Experience

For locals who would like a Nutcracker experience this holiday season, I recommend this one. St. Paul Ballet's big winter production, Nutcracker Reimagined, has one show this coming Friday and two shows on Saturday. This is their 25th anniversary show and it will be at the O'Shaughnessy in St. Paul.

CAAM Chinese Dance theater is delighted to provide the Chinese dance, Beijing Opera Beauty Forever for these performances. I will reprise my role as the achetype of the female general.

Tickets are priced on a pay what you can scale, and can be purchased through the O'Shaughnessy box office.

#not writing #dance #Ballet #Chinese dance #Nutcracker #St Paul Ballet #SPB #CAAM-CDT #Twin Cities #Performance #Low cost tickets

[fleetshotter-minstrel]

#the nutcracker #chinese dance #ballet #youtube #pyotr ilyich tchaikovsky

[nnicholasluck]

Good morning! & happy Sunday :)

Day III of learning the Chinese Dance.

What a joy to play!

#pianoplayer #piano practice #music #pianolove #classical #tchaikovsky #the nutcracker #chinese dance #practice

[eulalielatibule]

The Nutcracker Headcanons- The Land of Sweets

Do people write fanfic about ballets? I dunno, but I am today so here we go-

🍬 The Land of Sweets is a Fairytopia. There are different types of fairy powers and groups. I picture it as similar to the Tinkerbell movies where a fairy is born and they're given a group to join based on their natural abilities and talents.

🍭 Their whole thing is candy. They grow candy, harvest it, and it's what everyone in the Kingdom eats. Some candy, like cotton candy, can even be made into clothing and other items.

🍬 The Snowflakes are in charge of protection and guarding. They are the knights and soldiers of the kingdom. They are the ones who lead Clara and the Nutcracker to the land of sweets when they wind up lost in the forest. The leader of them is General Blanc.

🍭 The Royal Family are the Sugarplums. There is Queen Bon-Bon (the sugarplum fairy,) her husband, and their kids; one of whom is the prince who gets turned into the Nutcracker.

🍬 The Dewdrops are in charge of distributing the candy to neighboring kingdoms. Their leader is Duchess Rose, who I like to think is Queen Bon-Bon's best friend.

🍭 The Marzipans and Candy Canes are farmers. They are the head ones in charge of making sure that the candy farms are in check and going well for best candy production. Marzipan leader is Lady Douce (douce means sweet in French, as the marzipan dance is sometimes called the French variation) and the Candy Cane leader is Lady Myata (mint in Russian.)

🍬 There are three sources of liquid in the kingdom. The hot chocolate sea, the coffee waterfall and the tea river. They are where the sprites live.

🍭 The Coffee sprites' leader is called Viscountess Yashrab (drink in Arabic;) Hot chocolate, Baroness Cacao (cocoa in Spanish;) Tea, Countess Chá (tea in Chinese.) They all manage their respective land and make sure everything goes smoothly.

🍬 There are more groups too, as there are many jobs to do in a kingdom. But that would take forever to go through lol these are just the main ones.

🍭 The Prince is the heir to the throne and Clara becomes a fairy and the queen when they marry. I picture it like when Thumbelina gets wings when she marries Cornelius.

🍬 Since ballet is very female dominated, The Land of the Sweets is a matriarchy because I say so. Very Barbieland.

🍭 Clara is allowed to become the next queen because of the fact she helped to defeat the Rat King, who was the Kingdom's biggest enemy.

#ballet #the Nutcracker #the Nutcracker headcanons #my writing

[fiddler-sticks]

I'm pretty sure I already know what the most popular two answers will be (flowers and sugar plum), but I just want to know. When I think of The Nutcracker, I think of Snow and the pas de deux, but I know I'm different lol

#berry's babble #music stuffs!!!! #the nutcracker #ballet #classical music #tchaikovsky

[dove-da-birb]

My Vinyl Collection!

*because idk I want to list things; I'll try to include the year it was published as well

Warning LONG LIST that I nearly cried writing because WHY are classical songs SO DAMN LONG?!

The Philadelphia Orchestra with Eugene Ormandy *unknown date

Afternoon of a Faun (Debussy)

Daphnis and Chloe, No. 2 (Ravel)

La Mer (Debussy)

William the Overture [Philadelphia Orchestra with Eugene Ormandy, again] *unknown date

Offenback: Orpheus in the Underworld

Smetana: The Bartered Bride

Thomas: Mignon

Suppe: The Beautiful Galatea

Highlights from the Sleeping Beauty Ballet by Tchaikovsky [Rias Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Charlier] *1957

... it doesn't list the songs ...

Tchaikovsky's Greatest Ballets: Suites from The Nutcracker/Swan Lake [Arthur Fielder/Boston Pops] *unknown date

The Nutcracker

Overture

March

Spanish Dance; Arabian Dance; Chinese Dance; Trepak; Dance of the Mirlitons

Waltz of the Flowers

Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy; Coda

Final Waltz

Swan Lake

Waltz

Dance of the Little Swans

Pas de deux

Hungarian Dance

Spanish Dance

Neapolitan Dance

Final Scene

James Last in Concert *unknown date

Side 1

Theme from "Elvira Madigan", Andante from the concert for piano and orchestra no. 21 in C. major, K. 467. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Presto from the symphony no. 7 in A major, Op. 92. Ludwig van Beethoven

Romance for violin and orchestra in F major, Op. 50. Ludwig van Beethoven

Impromptu no. 2 in A flat major, Op. 142. Franz Schubert

Air from the suite no. 3 in D major, BWV 1068. Johann Sebastian Bach

Impromptu no. 3 in G flat major, Op. 90. Franz Schubert

Side 2

Adiago from the sonata "Pathetique" no. 8 in C minor, Op. 13. Ludwig van Beethoven

Slavonic Dance no. 10. Antonín Dvořák

Andante from the violin concerto in E minor, Op. 64 Felix Mendelssohn

Prelude 1 in C major. Johann Sebastian Bach

Andante from the symphony no. 5 in C minor, Op. 67. Ludwig van Beethoven

Ballet Music from "Prince Igor". Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin

April in Paris [The Melachrino Strings and Orchestra with Trio Musette de Paris] *1963

April in Paris

The Song from Moulin Rouge

Autumn Leaves

C'est si bon

J'attendrai

Madelon

La Seine

The Poor People of Paris

Clopin Clopant

Mon manege a moi; I love Paris

In a French Nursery Garden;

Sur le pont D'Avignon; Au claire de la lune; Frere Jacques

La Mer (Beyond the Sea)

The Piano Classics [unknown artists and date, European Import]

Fur Elise [Ludwig van Beethoven]

Impromptu Op. 142 no. 2 [Franz Schubert] Moment musical no. 3

Traumerei from Scenes of Childhood [Robert Schumann] The Prophet Bird from Woodland Scenes

Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 [Frédéric Chopin]

Liebestraum [Franz Liszt]

"Raindrops" Prelude [Frédéric Chopin]

"Tristesse" Etude [Frédéric Chopin]

Barcarolle [Frédéric Chopin]

Clair de Lune [Claude DeBussy]

A Piano Invitation to the Dance [Ann Schein] *unknown date

Weber-Tausig: Invitation to the Dance, Opus 65

Medtner: Danza Festiva, Opus 38

Halffter: Dance of the Shepherdess (Danza de la Pastora)

Bartok: Roumanian Folk Dances

Bizet-Rachmaninoff: Minute from "L'Arlesienne"

Chopin: Waltz in D flat major, Opus 64, no. 1 ("Minute) | Mazurka is A flat major, Opus 59, no. 2 | Mazurka in F sharp minor, Opus 59, no. 3 | Polonaise Fantaisie in A flat major, Opus 61

Sander Van Marion: Improvisaties op het orgel in de Evangelisch Lutherse Kerk, Den Haag *unknown date (realized this was religious after further inspection, oh well, it's organ??? music)

PS. 72 ,,Laat Ons De Grote Naam Bezingen"

,,Als Stormen Woeden"

,,Loof De Koning, Heel Mijn Wezen"

,,Heer Van Uw Kerk"

,,Komt Laat Ons Voortgaan Kinderen"

,,O Hoogt" En Diepte Looft Nu God"

PS. 25 ,,Here, Maak Mij Uwe Wegen Door Uw Woord En Geest Bekend"

,,Alle Volken, Looft De Here"

,,Jezus Ga Ons Voor"

,,Neem Heer Mijn Beide Handen"

,,Wat De Toekomst Brenge Moget"

Lawrence Welk Polkas *unknown date

Hoop-dee-doo

Barroom polka

Julida polka

Dakota polka

Laughing polka

Emilia polka

Tinker polka

Kit Kat polka

Chopsticks polka

Russian Folk Songs [assorted choruses] *circa Soviet Russia

The stage coach is racing [Vot mchitsa pochtovaya]

Through the village [Vdol dyerevni]

Oh, my sweetheart [Ekh ty, duschechka]

The week [Nyedyelya]

The shades of night are falling [Noch uzh nastupayet]

Along the dusty road [Po pylnoy doroge]

Vanya can't sleep [Vanye nochenku nye spitsa]

In the Zhiguli hills [V Zhigulyakh]

The wide steppes [Shirokiye styepi]

Oh, you mists [Oi, tumany moyi]

Moravian polka [Moravskaya polka]

The chain-gang [Kolodniki]

@krenenbaker

#dove's vinyls #why does this one dvorak photo look like leonardo dicaprio? #DEAR GODS THIS TOOK FOREVER

[marianorth12]

Ballet the Nutcracker

Chinese dance (tea ) 💚🍵

French dance (marzipan )💙🍨

Dance of the Sugar Plum fairy💜🫐

Spanish dance (chocolate )🩷🍫

Arabic dance (coffee)❤️☕️

Russian dance, trepak (caramel candy)💛🍭

#my art #art #ballet #artists on tumblr #nutcracker #nutcracker art

[ask-sebastian]

first, two songs from my favourite ballet.

Love ballet!

#sebastian's musical owls #you're instrumental #ominisss #the nutcracker op 71 act II...coffee - tchaikovsky #the nutcracker op 71 act II...tea - tchaikovskey #the firebird suite finale - stravinsky

[partrin]

Hi!! :D for the music ask game how about 16, 22 and 28 ;)

hey mag!!! hehe thank you for sending an ask. oh my god the ones you picked were tricky, but let's see...

16. one of your favourite classical songs

i'll be honest..... i hate classical music HAHAHA. but if i really had to pick one, it'd be the "dance of the sugar plum fairy" from the nutcracker—but only because it reminds me of my childhood (i vaguely recall having seen the nutcracker musical at the age of like, eight? i was enthralled). other than that, classical music is just.. elevator music to me (sorry classical fans)

22. a song that moves you forward

a senior of mine in secondary school (or what most call high school) sent me this song—"lift" by shannon noll—when i was having a really hard time at home and ever since then, i've been listening to this song whenever things get really hard. the lyrics are so uplifting without being too in-your-face, overtly positive. i had a crush on that senior for years because of this (lmaaaaaaooooooooo i am embarrassed). the opening goes:

"i know you're hurting. feels like you're learning 'bout life the hard way and it ain't working. seems like forever that you've been falling. it's time to move on; your life is calling. this was never meant to be the end. close the book and start again"

28. a song by an artist with a voice that you love

i'm gonna go ahead and share a chinese song that i really love. it's called "年少有为" ("if i were young") by li ronghao and.. i don't know, i just personally like the lyrics and the way he sings it like he's wistful abd yearning for love lost. it's about a person experiencing a break-up and feeling regret over not being able to achieve the dreams they said they would with the person they love.

the chorus loosely translates to:

"if i were young, promising and confident, i'd understand what is precious. those beautiful dreams; i didn't hand them to you. i'll feel ashamed for the rest of my life"

bonus! here's wang yibo (the actor that played lan wangji in the untamed/chen qing ling) singing the chorus (his voice is so soothing):

hehe thanks for asking! ❤️

#personal #partrin answers shit #as someone who enjoys listening to music.. answering these questions brings me a lot of joy

[lizzybeth1986]

Hana Lee: Music Headcanons

Note: Wherever I've placed numbers before a word, it means I've placed additional notes to explain it at the end of the hc.

These hcs are closely related to the universe of my Eleanor's Kitchen series, as well as to the series I hope to write in the future for Hana and Kiara's romance - Petals and Thornes

Childhood

• Xīnghǎi initially had an old piano left behind by his younger sister, Xīngxià, who played a number of both Western and Chinese instruments (piano, acoustic guitar, bawu flute, guzheng, erhu). She wasn't exactly very welcome in the family (seen as a bit of a black sheep), but she did visit more regularly once Hana was born.

• Hana's name among her paternal relatives is Méihuā Her gū gu Xīngxià admits that she and Lorelai used to listen to a lot of shídàiqǔ music (1) around the time of Lorelai's pregnancy, and a favourite song of theirs was Li Xianglan's "Méi huā" (Plum Blossom).

• Hana herself loved old Shanghai jazz as a child and smuggled casettes from cousins whenever she could manage (it was the 90s!). By this point, Lorelai couldn't stand listening to any of those songs and attributed her temporary fascination for them to pregnancy hormones.

• Lorelai was far more invested in getting Hana to listen to more Western classical music. Thankfully for her, little Hana had an appetite for that too. In her early years she was more fond of tunes that had a tinge of humour (like Chopin's Valse du Petit-Chien) or a touch of fantasy (like the compositions from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker). As she grew older and lonelier, her tastes began to veer towards more melancholy compositions (Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Symphony No 7 in A Major, Op.92, and Weber's Clarinet Concerto No. 2, 2nd movement, being her favourites)

• Her parents were interested in getting Hana a good musical education, but were far more invested in her dancing, since in Lorelai's opinion that was the one skill she couldn't do without in a noble court. Gū gu (2), on the other hand, understood Hana's love for music right away and privately nurtured it.

• Xīngxià wouldn't start on piano lessons straightaway...to whet Hana's appetite a little she would start her on finger exercises and the basics but not on any actual sheet music for a week. This ensured not only that Hana's interest was piqued to the point where she didn't want to wait, but also that she got a strong base knowledge that would remain with her for the rest of her life.

• The lessons were kept a secret precisely because of how Lorelai and Xīnghâi typically handled teaching Hana any skill. They expected and sometimes demanded perfection, and Hana was often so scared of making mistakes she would freeze in the middle of whatever she was doing. Of course, by the time Lorelai did find out, at age 8, Hana had progressed far beyond even her aunt's expectations and was now showing interest in composing her own music.

• After a few years of public performances on the piano, Hana begged her aunt to teach her to play the guzheng. She desparately wanted to branch out into traditional Chinese instruments by then.

• Public performances started out with family gatherings first - which Hana enjoyed coz her relatives were warm and boisterous when they heard music - then to guests at her mother's parties, then full pledged performances at more formal occasions.

• The more performances Hana was made to do, the less time she got to spend on exploring the music for herself or branching out to other instruments or styles, and the more Xīngxià and her parents clashed. When her aunt finally left Lorelai yelled at her retreating figure, Thank God you're leaving, I can get my daughter a real music teacher this time.

• Hana always knew that her parents didn't understand her love for musical composition. She never begrudged them that. But seeing her mother speak so cruelly to her aunt - the only person who truly made the effort - with her father not saying a word, made her understand that they didn't care. Music wasn't something they respected, it was just a way to get extra social currency. And she could never allow for her music to be reduced to that.

• Barely a year after that, Hana stopped enjoying her public performances. 6 months after that year, her parents, humiliated by her worst performance at a luncheon, finally stopped asking.

• Hana never lost touch with her passion for composition. She had a small notebook where she wrote down her ideas. If there was one regret she had as an adult, it was that she couldn't branch out more, especially to instruments from her natal home.

• When she was 6 she joked to her grandmother that she wanted to write a series of compositions one day, all based on the desserts Nǎinai (3) would make her. "Mooncake Minuet", "Sachima Sonata" and "The Egg Tart Symphony", just to name a few.

• Hana's reward for a good lesson was often a trip to one of the teahouses in the area (her favourite being the open-air one that we see in canon). This gave her exposure to the Jiāngnán Sīzhú (4) folk style of music, as that was what she most commonly heard during her visits. The delicate yet lush notes of the dizi flute, the erhu and other instruments she couldn't name, stayed with her for a long, long time.

Secret Composer Headcanon:

• Hana's first foray into film composition came at the most inconvenient time - she was pregnant with her first child and just bursting with ideas, but had no intention of ever being put in the spotlight for her music again.

• Not like composing for film would necessarily do that, but Hana was nervous nonetheless.

• A friend of a friend of a friend of Joëlle's needed music for their film at short notice, as the composer they'd arranged bailed at the nth moment before the project hit the floors. Seeing the urgency of the situation Hana agreed, on the condition that she be kept completely anonymous, with only her mother-in-law and her wife Kiara to vouch for her credibility. It was a risk, but the producer trusted Joëlle, and Kiara clearly knew what she was doing.

• The spotting session (where the composer and team jointly see the film and discuss the score) was pretty tricky to arrange, but they managed it without being identified, and Hana got several excellent ideas in the course of watching, along with detailed notes on what they needed. She spent two months on research (most of the movie was situated in an enchanted garden), and three on actually composing.

• The final compositions were delicate, ethereal, and many critics later claimed they felt transported into the world of the enchanted garden on the strength of the music and cinematography alone. The film was a blockbuster, and the music recieved all sorts of awards addressed to the very elusive "Azahur Aelia", who always had a Cordonian from a different part of the country represent her on stage each time.

• While she had to rest a few months after that was over, having just given birth, there were a small number of producers who remembered her music and wanted her for projects. That was how, once her daughter Chaima turned three, she was able to get back to doing compositions.

• A distant cousin of hers from her mother's native province Bethulia, Bahar (5), is a programmer who helps her with the more technological aspects of her work. Her contributions greatly ensure she's kept largely anonymous except to very few.

• Hana's "stage name" is a tribute to both Kiara and Xīngxià: the first name was a reference to orange blossoms, Kiara's favourite flower, and the second to summer, her Gū gu's most beloved season.

• Kiara had long arranged for a secret alcove behind the library at Castelserraillan, so Hana could play whatever she wanted, jot down ideas, get more instruments - basically spend time just doing music her way, at her own relaxed pace. It had worked, because Hana was more ready to create than she had been at any time in her life. For a long time no one, not even close family, knows of it.

• She once roped in the equally mysterious "Cordonian Quartet" (6) for an album in honour of that year's Five Kingdom's Festival. It was a sellout and not a soul suspected that royalty was involved, because that's how good Hana and her team got at working undercover 😎

• Wanting to celebrate Cordonia's cultural diversity, she once produced an album of lullabies from every province in Cordonia in all their regional languages. Whether it was Lythikos' (less violent - "I'm not putting breastfeeding mothers through your more aggressive compositions, Olivia!") blood hymns, Fydelia's pastoral songs, the Portavira's coastal folk, or the more earthy melodies of the Fire Tribe descendants: the album was celebrated for its soothing feel and its seamless enmeshing of different musical styles. (7) Many parents recommended it overseas too.

• Hana tries not to take on too much work, as along with her familial and ducal responsibilities, she also wants to dedicate a little time to learning instruments and musical genres from other cultures. These interests seep into "Azahur Aelia"'s compositions, which are often praised for being eclectic and exciting, always promising a new experience each time.

• Her favourite instrument outside of the piano remains the guzheng. The first time she successfully plays a song, she sends a video of it first to her Gū gu, then to her father and mother. She often tells her children that the sounds remind her of flowing water.

--

Notes:

1. Shídàiqǔ is a type of Chinese folk/European jazz fusion music that originated in Shanghai, China, in the 1920s. Learn more about this genre here.

2. Gū gu - Mandarin for father's sister

3. Nǎinai - Mandarin for paternal grandmother

4. Jiāngnán sīzhú is a genre of chamber music played indoors in refined, small ensembles. Learn more about this music form here and here.

5. Bahar is the daughter of Italian statesman Francesco de Rosa (readers of Eleanor's Kitchen may be familiar with him 😁) and his wife Perizaad Dastur, who is Lorelai's cousin.

6. For those who don't remember, Liam, Maxwell and Drake spoke in TRR2 Ch10 of having a quartet in their younger years with Bertrand.

7. The inspiration for this hc came from an Indian album of lullabies called Vatsalyam by Bombay Jayashri. This collection features lullabies in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam, Brajbhasha, and Kannada (and was a personal favourite of mine when I had my daughter 😁).

#long post #hana lee #hanaleeappreciationweek #HLAW #the royal romance #the royal heir #the royal finale #HLAW Day 1 #HLAW Day 1: Music #lizzybeth1986 #content: headcanon

[mmmmalo]

Hiveswap Reread Pt. 1

Current takeway is that in the same way that Psycholonials focuses on China paranoia (plot: a leftist Chinese-American infects the world with revolution alongside the "China virus" of Covid 19) Hiveswap is very much about Red Scares directed at Russia, Cold War nuclear anxieties, and those fears' persistence past the end of the USSR. Like the game's set in '94, but Jude still won't touch Tetris cause it's got Commie germs.

Trolls emerge from anxieties, so the red scare may go a ways towards explaining why Fozzer is a communist (until he isn't) and Boldir took her wardrobe from a SPY VS SPY cartoon. The structural power of slurs in Homestuck trained me to seek potential terms of perjoration so I looked up Russian stereotypes and was reminded of the country's popular association with bears, which turned my thoughts toward Bronya Ursama (ursa mama > mama bear). It turns out "nyanya" (няня) is a Russian word for babysitter! and "bronya" (броня) itself means Armor. My first instinct was to read Armored Mamabear as a reference to Alphonse Elric, since Bronya's clapping motion is reminiscent of the alchemical prayer performed by those who attempt Human Transmutation -- a suitable topic for the brooding caverns -- and Alphonse in particular dreamed of motherhood, repeatedly storing life in the belly of his casings. There's even a moment where you the reader "CLAP YOUR HAND over your mouth to keep from GAGGING", implicitly connecting Bronya's gesture to an Alternian paradigm of birth, vomiting.

But perhaps instead of "vomiting", we should say "purging": the name "Armor" also seems to designate Bronya as a feminine Stalin (meaning 'Steel'). "There's no leader, but do as I say" positions Bronya as leader within a very old joke mocking the persistence of heirarchy in a political system (Communism) ostensibly aimed at eliminating class division. "Protect the Mothergrub" becomes "PROTECT THE MOTHERLAND". Bronya's pronounced terror towards possible purges marks her as a stereotypical subject of Stalinism, but she's also positioned as the purger: "babysitting" acquires a morbid connotation through Alternia's deadliest ass, such that Bronya's odd sense of responsibility (she says she can't be friends with someone she can't TAKE CARE OF) implies not only a need for control but also a need for killing power in all relationships. Only trust who you can crush.The successful route (which avoids purges!) involves persuading Bronya to relinquish her iron grip and trust the People to lead themselves. The route looks at Stalin and goes I Could Fix Her.

I laughed the moment I started Bronya's route: her designated song, the Phantasmagoric Waltz, sounds like it came straight out of the Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky's famous ballet. The joke suggest Joey's love of ballet might function as a signifier of Russian culture in Hiveswap -- and perhaps her love of tap dance would likewise become an American signifier? Joey's dream of uniting the dance styles would then suggest achieving unity of opposed political entities... but I worry that "unity" implies "domination". Joey shuns guns but her tap shoes are sometimes discussed as though they are guns, eg when Joey claims they would blast a pile of garbage apart. So the (eventual, not yet) combination of dances would come to represent war? More to that point:

My initial notes emphasized the element of interactivity, but if the gyroscope functioned as a representation of an atom, this would effectively be saying that Joey's tap shoes are nukes? (This approach is colored by One Piece, which uses a large orrery within a Tree of Knowledge shaped liked a mushroom cloud to represent nuclear capability. ) In which case "unity" would mean outright destruction.

Either way, Joey's itchy trigger toes become parcel to the general air of (nuclear) war anxiety that pervades the story. I suspect Joey's outspoken hatred of animal death is similarly a reaction to Laika, the dog who died aboard Sputnik-2 (one of several test satellites whose flight path above the US initiated panic over potential orbital missile strikes). The flashlight is our satellite symbol: Jude's treehouse (like Terezi's before him) locates him metaphorically in the numinous aether*, using a flashlight to blink morse code messages like a satellite beaming information down to Earth. When Joey finds her own flashlight, she refers to it as a tomb for all the Pogs she finds inside instead of batteries. Pogs means dogs here: it's a nightmare of finding a satellite filled with dead Laikas. Puppy Surprise is having puppies!

* I also wonder if (again inflected by One Piece) if Jude's burning fall foliage might represent a mushroom cloud? But I'll focus on the other approach for now.

So a fear of orbital missile strikes (and an urge for preemptive strikes?) is linked to the weaponization of the flashlight. One of the paintings in the hallway features a horse scared of lightning (violence from above!), the bolts of which Jude has stickered over with an alien invasion (violence from above!) whose tractor beams of abduction resemble the rays of a satellite flashlight. Unsure what to make of Joey turning the invasion into birthday party though...

Brief diversion from Red Scare speculation: the game seems to imply that Jude's pet is Lord English? in addition to being a serpent, as others have already concluded. The toy castle at the foot of Jude's door, the one with Lord English's winking face for a gate, has a counterpart across the hall: in the other painting (Venus of Urbino), a dog at the foot of the bed has been modified with a sticker of a winking dog's face. The shared expression marks Lord English as a pet... but just as importantly, the parallel draws a line between the reposed/nude Venus ("churched up" with some clothing by a prudish/bashful Joey) and Jude's room. 5 interpretive angles occur to me, not necessarily mutually exclusive:

1. The myriad KEEP OUT signs on Jude's door can be superimposed onto Venus, relaying a sense that Joey views her attraction to women as improper (as the clothes she drew on might've already indicated), and/or a sense that the world around Joey disapproves

2. The nudity is superimposed on Jude, suggesting a repressed attraction to her brother. Earlier Joey expressed annoyance that the clouds (juxtaposed with Jude's tree house) were "ephemeral and UNTOUCHABLE" a sentiment which if redirected at Jude suggest annoyance with the incest taboo.

3. The two above combine into an antisemitic gesture, a desire to "church up" (ie convert) the Jews. This relies on pun drawn from Alternia: "archery" is rendered Jewish by fixating on the "ARK" component, part of Alternia's tongue-in-cheek depiction of a post-ChristianGenocide world. The plush Sufferer in the hall (struck by one of Jude's many arrows) invokes this facet of the fantasy -- it also meshes with the fear of Russian missile strikes invoked by Jude, perhaps leaning into the old conspiracy theory that Communism was a Jewish plot.

4. Supposing for a moment that Joey were a trans girl, we could integrate Lord English (or rather, the serpent he represents) into the equation: the phallus becomes the guard dog of femininity, the beast preventing its attainment... a glimpse into Joey's school life reveals that kids call her a POSER when she tries to talk about GAMES, which might be leveraged towards Joey experiencing transphobia: the association of girls with roleplay is part of Alternia's underlying transphobia, as best I can tell. Unless it's just plain old misogyny to say girls are categorically "false"? Perhaps both...

But there's a bit on the staircase to the attic where Joey remarks she would like the plush caterpillar more if it were to spin a chrysalis (ie become a fairy), which again scans as trans imagery in the context of the house's immersion in Alternian lore... I presume the remark is self-reflexive, but I suppose Joey might simply like if all icky boys became girls, Jude included? But then after saying that dancing on the stairs is dangerous (you could break your legs!), she dances ballet for the caterpillar alone and incurs the risk -- this scans as an invocation of Tavros, whose accident was parcel to Alternia's denigration/depictions of f*gs (read as a blanket term for "feminine men"... though it's possible "masculine women" are being denigrated in the same breath? Bluh)

5. Back to the Red Scare: in the wake of Bronya and the Mothergrub, perhaps we might read Venus as representative of the Motherland! The apparent desire for union with the feminine (in terms of romance or identity) would fall victim to the same violence haunting the unity of tap and ballet: it means destruction, conquest! Those godless (ie Jewish??) communists need to be Churched Up, PERMANENTLY....

...or something like that, that's my understanding of the conspiracies at play so far. Next time, we go downstairs!

#hiveswap #antisemitism #joey #jude #bronya #slav mapping #nukes

[kubrick06010]

##Tracks escuchados en Breaking Bad.

Season One:

Gnarls Barkley, “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul”

Mick Harvey, “Out of Time Man”

Ticklah, “Nine Years”

In-Crowd, “Mango Walk”

Koop, “Koop Island Blues”

Clyde McPhatter, “You’re Moving Me”

Working For a Nuclear Free City, “Dead Fingers Talking”

Darondo, “Didn’t I”

The Motels, “Suddenly Last Summer”

The Silver Seas, “Catch Yer Own Train”

Season Two:

The Walkmen, “Red Moon”

The Be Good Tanyas, “Waiting Around To Die”

Nancy Sinatra, “It’s Such a Pretty World Today”

Alvin Red Tyler, “Peter Vendor”

Calexico, “Banderilla”

TV on the Radio, “DLZ”

Blue Mink, “Good Morning Freedom”

The Platters, “Enchanted”

Wang Chung, “Dance Hall Days”

The Outlaws, “Green Grass & High Tides”

Season Three:

America, “A Horse With No Name”

ZZ Top, “Tush”

Amboy Dukes, “Loaded For Bear”

Buddy Stuart, “In the Valley of the Sun”

Prince Fatty, “Shimmy Shimmy Ya”

The Association, “Windy”

Buddy Stuart, “Sun Shine On Me”

Stan Getz, “Lee”

Son of Dave, “Shake a Bone”

Beastie Boys, “Shambala”

Season Four:

Fever Ray, “If I Had a Heart”

El-P, “Flyentology (Cassettes Won’t Listen Remix)”

2 Live Crew, “Hoochie Mama”

Melani L. Skybell, “Days Like This”

Ana Tijoux, “1977”

Pretty Poison, “Catch Me I’m Falling”

Thomas Dolby, “Hyperactive!”

Pretenders, “Boots of Chinese Plastic”

Walter Wanderley, “Crickets Sing For Ana Maria”

Thee Oh Sees, “Tidal Wave”

Season Five:

The Doors, “The Crystal Ship”

Mack Owen, “Somebody Just Like You”

The Peddlers, “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever”

Knife Party, “Bonfire”

Queen, “Lily of the Valley”

The Monkees, “Goin’ Down”

Alan Parker + Alan Hawkshaw, “Clear Waters”

Duke Ellington, “Overture (Nutcracker Suite)”

Tommy James & The Shondells, “Crystal Blue Persuasion”

Nat King Cole, “Pick Yourself Up”

Bonus Tracks:

Alexander, “Truth”

Honey Claws, “Digital Animal”

Say Anything, “Baby Girl, I’m a Blur”

Danger Mose + Daniel Luppi (feat. Norah Jones), “Black”

Apparat, “Goodbye”

Fujiya & Miyagi, “UH”

Quartetto Cetra, “Crapa Pelada”

Timber Timbre, “Magic Arrow”

Los Zafiros, “He Venido”

Los Cuates de Sinaloa, “Negro y Azul”

#Breaking Bad #Songs

[alsjeblieft-zeg]

161 of 2023

How much as your life been influenced by other cultures? [True or False]

Created by joybucket

🇫🇷 France 🇫🇷 You've had a French manicure. You like to eat French toast. 🥪 You like to eat French fries. 🍟 (except that they’re not even French) You've ordered French dip at a restaurant. You've taken a ballet class. 🩰 Something you own has a picture of the Eiffel Tower on it. You've either visited Paris OR you'd like to visit Paris. You like to eat croissants. 🥐 You know how to French-braid hair. You've had your hair French-braided. You've been to a live performance of the Nutcracker. You've tried macarons. (didn’t like them) You've made your own macarons. You like macarons. You've worn a beret. You can speak French. (well, it’s debatable XD) You took a French class in school. (mandatory here)

🇨🇳 China 🇨🇳 You own something that was made in China. You love Chinese food. 🥡 🥢 You've eaten at a Chinese restaurant. You've been to a Chinatown in a big city. You know how to eat with chopsticks. 🥢 You own a Chinese paper lantern. 🏮 You know what your Chinese zodiac sign is. You've read Chinese historical fiction. 📕 You've flown a dragon kite. 🐉🪁 You celebrate the Chinese New Year. 🧧

🇯🇵 Japan 🇯🇵 You like to read anime/manga. You've dressed up as an anime character. You've been to a cosplay event. You like to draw anime characters. You've listened to Jpop music. You like Japanese street fashion. You've tried sushi. 🍣 You like sushi. 🍱 You've tried pockey. You like pockey. You think kimonos look cool. 👘 You've worn a kimono. 👘 You've taken a martial arts class. 🥋 There are cherry blossom trees in your neighborhood. 🌸 🍒 You love cherry blossoms. You've been friends with a Japanese exchange student. You've shopped at a Sanrio store. You've ordered something online from an Asian website. You've experimented with the feng shui style of decorating. You've used the Tokyo Tower emoji. 🗼 You know what "konichiwa" means. You've tried jasmine green tea. 🍵 You've drank Arizona Green Tea. You've tried origami. You know how to make a paper crane. You've sang karaoke at a karaoke bar. 🎤 You think Japanese symbols look really cool.

🇨🇳🇯🇵🇹🇭🇰🇷🇰🇵 Asia 🇻🇳🇰🇭🇹🇼🇲🇾🇵🇭 You like Indian food. 🍲 You like Thai food. 🍲 You've tried yoga. 🧘‍♀️ You regularly practice yoga. 🧘‍♂️ You've experimented with Buddhism. 🕉 You're a Buddhist. You like elephants. 🐘 You own a shirt with an elephant on it. 🐘 You've experimented with Hinduism. 🕉 You're a Hindu. You own a pair of pants with elephants on them. 🐘 You've ridden an elephant. 🐘 You like to drink green tea. 🍵 You like Yogi tea. ☕️ You own a set of matryoshka dolls. 🪆 You like to watch sumo wrestling. You have an Asian symbol tattooed on your body. You own a set of Japanese dolls. 🎎 You've worn a sari.🥻 You've read Indian historical fiction. You've read Japanese historical fiction. You own something that was made in Taiwan. You own something that was made in Cambodia. You own a Buddhist statue. You've taken a belly dancing class. You've worn a shimmy belt. You like Indian music. There is a park with a pagoda in your neighborhood. You've had an Asian friend. You've saved a fortune from a fortune cookie that you really liked. 🥠 You're on a quest to find spiritual enlightenment. You've tried to balance your chakras. You've burned incense. You've made curry. You like curry. You've used the spice Turmeric. You own something made of bamboo. You own something that has an Asian symbol on it. You've played the flute.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 You speak English. (obviously lol) You like to drink tea. ☕️ You like English Breakfast Tea. ☕️ You've been to London. You want to go to London. You've had your picture taken next to a red telephone booth. You like to eat scones. You love British accents. You like English muffins. You own something with a picture of either Big Ben, a red telephone booth, or a British guard on it. 💂‍♀️ You've read English historical fiction. You own something with the British flag on it. 🇬🇧 You like the British flag. 🇬🇧 Your country's flag has the colors of the British flag on it. 🇬🇧 You've attended a university that had a big Clock Tower in the middle of campus. You've read the Harry Potter series. 📚

🇩🇪 Germany 🇩🇪 You know someone who is German. (well, my mum is half-German if it counts) You learned about the Holocaust in school. You've been to Germany. You've been friends with a foreign exchange student from Germany. You've been to a town that is known for its German architecture. You had to read The Dairy of Anne Franke for school.

🇮🇪 Ireland 🇮🇪 You like Celtic music. 🎻 You know someone who can play the violin. 🎻 You've taken violin lessons. You've taken an Irish dance class. You've tried Irish soda bread. ...and you liked it. You celebrate St. Patrick's Day. You have red hair. 👩‍🦰 You like redheads. You've dyed your hair red. You know the legend of St.Patrick. You've been to a pub. 🍺 You've been to Ireland. 🇮🇪 You want to visit Ireland someday. You've danced an Irish jig. You've found a four-leaf clover. 🍀 You own a claddagh ring. You've tied a Celtic knot. You've worn a kilt ....or any plaid skirt. You know how to play the bagpipes. (I wish) You like the color green.

🇲🇽 Mexico 🇲🇽 You love Mexican food. 🌮 You like tacos. 🌮 You've owned a chihuahua. You've played the maracas. You like to eat beans. 🫘 You've worn a sombrero. You've worn a shirt with bright-colored embroidery on it. You can speak Spanish. You took a Spanish class in school. You like sugar skulls. You've had a birthday party with a piñata. 🪅 You've hit a piñata at someone else's birthday party. 🪅 You've met someone named Maria. You like Mexican music. You know someone who can speak Spanish fluently. You know how to count to ten in Spanish. You've had a friend who's Mexican. You've been to Mexico.

#survey #bolding survey #themed survey

[pluffpluff]

Ballerina Bethany

Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without the Nutcracker, and this year Ballerina Bethany is dancing the lead role. Mom and Dad are so proud, they had a toy maker design a wooden nutcracker, a stuffed Mouse King and porcelain dolls of the Chinese and Spanish Dancers to present to Bethany on opening night. Oh how surprised she will be!

Please be very careful with scissors!

#paper dolls #Agere #agere community #sfw agere #sfw little blog #agere positivity #safe agere #agedre community #agedre #sfw little community #sfw age dreamer #Age Regression #age regressor #age dreaming #christmas #childlike #agere comfort #agere blog #kidcore #printable activity #age dreamer #agere christmas