China Pearl's Blogs: 2011

From September 2011 to October 2011 we delivered Middle Autumn Festival workshops, performances and the final showcase 'Moonlight Reveries' in Liverpool funded by Arts Council England, Liverpool PCT and Merseyside Police Authority. Here is the report for the project.

1. In September 2011 we delivered a number of workshops and performances in various places across the city of Liverpool, including:

• Chinese dance, music and singing performances and

storytelling and dance workshops at Hope Street Feast on 18th

September;

For our performances at Philharmonic Hall, please click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiFdokHIKas&feature=related & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3hBul1Ccr4

• Chinese music and dance performances and storytelling

workshops at Zoe's Place Baby Hospice and Church View

Nursing home at 19th September.

Zoe's Place Baby Hospice

Church View Nursing Home

• Chinese music and dance performances and storytelling & lantern making workshops at Mary Seacole House Mental Health Day Care Centre and Croxteth K.I.N.D.A Youth Club on 20th September;

Mary Seacole House Mental Health Day Care Centre

KINDA Croxteth Youth Club

• Chinese storytelling and lantern making workshops at World Museum Liverpool on 24th September;

• Chinese dance, music and singing performances and a dance workshop at Bold Street Festival on 25th September;

Here are some comments from the participants of the workshops:

" A really wonderful workshop that was enjoyed by the whole family. Many Thanks!"

"Super time! Worked for all the children from 12 months to 7 years. Good teacher who involved everyone really well. Thanks very much for providing it. We will be back!"

" Everyone had a lovely time and the children all loved the music and dancing. Thank you for coming along." --Zoe's Place

"Excellent day, really enjoyed it. skipped my own group to join in. Real pleasure." --Mary Seacole House

"Love the dancing and felt like home in the way I got involved."--Mary Seacole House

"An excellent session. I came along with four grandchildren aged 4, 7, 8, 11. All kept fully involved. The two boys told me they enjoyed making the lanterns and thanked me for bringing then to the session. Thank you very much."

"Milie enjoyed her time here today. The workshop was a really enjoyable time. Thank you!"

"I felt so happy with the music and dance. Thank you!" ---Church View Nursing Home

"Aimee and Erin liked the atmosphere and thunk their lanterns."

" Emiley, Connor really enjoyed the story and lantern making. I was like a big kid myself making mine. Thanks!"

"Thank you very much. The session was interesting and very good for the children."

"Sydne, Lydia and Olivia really enjoyed making their lanterns and was interested in the story. Lovely staff. Thank you!"

2. We produced a final show 'Moonlight Reveries' Middle Autumn Festival Show on 1st October 2011 at the Capstone Theatre. The show had two halves; in the first half, we had a short film about different groups or people in Chinese community in Merseyside, musical performances from the Chinese harp, western harp and collaboration between the two, a very famous Chinese ancient poetry about the festival both in English and Chinese followed by three Chinese singing rendition about the moon, which the theme of the festival; in the second half, we performed a multimedia dance piece about the myth/origin of Middle Autumn Festival.

On the evening, we also provided samples of moon cakes, a traditional cake for Middle Autumn Festival, with Chinese tea for audience to enjoy before the show and during the interval. Also we displayed the lanterns made by Mary Seacole House members and KINDA Croxteth youth club members at the entrance of the theatre from the workshops we delivered with them in September. We had altogether 92 people coming to the show on the evening including some groups who took part in the film and workshops we invited. The audience was a real mix of different ages, races, gender, backgrounds and also from across the whole England including Liverpool, Manchester, Lancaster and London.

Click here for highlights from the show: http://youtu.be/HcpRrzDh3IQ

After the show, we received very positive feedback from the audience. Here I have listed a selection of the feedback:

"What a wonderful evening! The whole production could not have been bettered. Please please more performances-Liverpool has been waiting for something like this for a very long time. Come back soon!'

"Deserves more support. Everything superbly done. Thank you!"
"Amazing performance great insight into Chinese culture."
"Beautiful music and superb dancers, it is a very enjoyable night."
"Great, fab, so relaxing, would love to come again."
"Cannot wait for the next one!"
"Wonderful show. We appreciate the hard work."
"It is a wonderful show which transmitted Chinese culture and I enjoyed it very much!"
"Great show! I really love the songs about moon. Make me missing hometown. "

We are very grateful to all the support we received for this projects from Arts Council England, Liverpool PCT, Merseyside Police Authority, MDI, Liverpool Confucius Institute, Hope Street Ltd, Valley Community Theatre, BBC Radio Manchester, Radio City 96.7, BBC Radio Merseyside. Without the support we could not pull off the project. As a Chinese, I feel very honoured to receive the trust and support for me to promote Chinese culture, which I am very proud of and passionate about. I am sure all the beneficiaries from this project are appreciative to the support to make it happen. So thank you very much all the funders, supporter, artists, staff and audience.

Fenfen Huang
Director of China Pearl

Dragon Boat Festival Chinese arts & culture event was a good success on 12th June 2011 at CUC. We are very grateful to all the organisations including CUC, Merseyside Police Authority, Liverpool Confucius Institute and Parr Street Studios, and people who have supported this event.

Here are some comments and photos from Dragon Boat Festival on 12.06.2011 at CUC we would like to share with you:

"This was fantastic and my students had a good experience of Chinese culture in this session and they all enjoyed it so much. I am sure the students have benefited greatly from these cultural experience and they love the activities."

"Fantastic and unusual workshops, really enjoyed it. Please put us on your mailing list."

"Thank you. Very interesting and informative."

"Very good event, would certainly like more of these and loved the workshops."