CNY goes on

Phew, just back from the ongoing Chinese New Year festivities. Spent the evening watching child acrobats doing the usual child acrobat stuff – no less impressive for having seen it all before. Next, a master face changer – a performer wearing traditional chinese opera costume, changing the mask in blink of an eye – but impossible to tell how he does it, and no sign of where the new mask came from, or the old mask went. I read somewhere quite recently that this skill is considered a national cultural treasure, to the extent that the Chinese government has forbidden it to be taught to outsiders, including a Hong Kong film star (possibly Tony Leung, though I can’t remember for certain) went to China to study traditional skills. Anyway, after that, on to a musical drum and cymbal performance. Excellent stuff, and all free.