Bengfort.com

If there is one concept the Chinese will hold onto for the rest of their existence on earth, it is the firm belief in strength in numbers. In so many ways, quantity is more highly valued than quality. This is seen in all aspects of life, from the amount of dishes a Chinese person will order when he is hosting a dinner (half of which goes wasted because no one can eat an entire table covered in food, but the point is to show that you have enough money to waste food) to the amount of waitstaff at any given place (half of which are doing absolutely nothing because there are twice to three times more waitstaff than actual customers), to the big cultural performances where the focus is on sensory overload rather than quality entertainment. And this is just from personal experience, I won’t go into past historical instances where certain leaders didn’t mind killing thirty million or so people simply because he had a couple billion more in reserve. Quantity. The Crux of China.

If I were deaf and blind all my life, then miraculously got healed, and then attended the Guangdong Tourism Festival Opening Ceremony, I’m pretty sure my head would literally explode. My brain would overheat and burst into flames from the amount of sensory information bombarding my nerve ensors. At least a hundred things were happening at once. There were light shows, fireworks, blaring music, 500 dancers, acrobats and pyrotechnics on stage at any given time. You had no idea what to watch! There were lots of cool stuff, including acrobats riding around the stadium on horses to the beat of thundering army music that could have motivated the terra cotta warriors to come to life, there were fire breathers, there were martial arts demonstrations, dancers of course, singers, it was wild. One of the coolest things was that there was a wire that stretched from one end of the stadium to the other, and these “fairies” (girls in beautiful flowy dresses) would fly by sprinkling glitter, and would dip and twist and turn like they were attached to nothing. It was very Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon esque, when they are flying through the air and sword fighting. And of course, last but not least, JACKIE CHAN! Everyone went wild when he came out. He didnt put on a Kung Fu demonstration unfortunately, but sang a duet with some other chick who is a popular Chinese singer. He was actually a pretty good singer. And, I heard Jackie Chan speak Chinese for the first time in my life!! All the movies I have seen him in he has spoken English or been dubbed. He speaks fantastically easy to understand Chinese. I wish all Chinese people spoke like him, he was so clear, enunciated and distinct. It was like I was hearing my own native language, I comprehended everything without even straining to understand him. It was fabulous. Anyway, it was a cool event, even if it did make my brain hurt by the end, especially after the firework finale which probably used up all the fireworks in the whole Guangdong Province.