It’s a slightly slower week because of the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday.
Two of the four concerts this week feature traditional Chinese music — one at the prestigious Carnegie Hall, the other by a community ensemble in Chinatown serves the community and cherishes its roots. Here at Beyond Chinatown, we tend to focus on the contemporary (and sometimes esoteric), but these concerts reveal the traditional Chinese music’s diverse reach and importance to different people. The other two concerts showcase young talented musicians from Taiwan who are doing non-traditional things like performing with a tango musician or leading a jazz ensemble with a vibraphone. We are always interested in seeing what the current generation of musicians and other creative people are up to.
South of Gold Mountain is reminiscent of David Henry Hwang’s The Dance and the Railroad
On the film side, 14 Blades (锦衣卫 / 錦衣衛) has a single screening at Museum of the Moving Image, and audiences in America will get to see Women Who Flirt (撒娇女人最好命 / 撒嬌女人最好命) before audiences in China.
This year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade will feature a Chinese-themed float. We’ll post about it once we get more details from the organizers.
Our exhibition calendar has been updated with all current shows. Bring friends and relatives when you visit.
We’re looking for contributors! If you would like to do a write-up or contribute photos for an event, please email us at beyondchinatown@gmail.com.
Be sure to check this site, our Facebook page, or Twitter account regularly for articles and new events. If you’re so inclined, we also send out a weekly newsletter. Sign-up below.
Upcoming Events
1) 14 Blades (锦衣卫 / 錦衣衛) – 14 Blades, starring martial arts hero Donnie Yen,Vickie Zhao, and Sammo Hung, is a soaring wuxia fantasy with swords, crossbows, and shades of Sergio Leone. In the ancient deserts of Northern China, Qinglong is a legendary imperial guard. Betrayed by the emperor’s evil uncle, Qing must join with outlaws against former comrades to ensure the empire is once again in safe hands. (Museum of the Moving Image)
Friday, November 21, 7 PM
Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Ave, Astoria
$12/admission; $9/seniors and students; free/members at the Film Lover level and above
+++++
2) South of Gold Mountain – Dedicated men and women, lured to America by the promise of gold and committed to making a better life for their families. This beautifully historic tale told through dance will delight your senses as it unfolds through contemporary dance and score that blends unlikely traditions: Chinese music with Deep South Blues.
Friday, November 21, 7 PM
Saturday, November 22, 7 PM
Chen Dance Center, 70 Mulberry St.
$15/general admission; $12/students and seniors
+++++
3) Music From China 30th Anniversary Concert – Celebrating 30 seasons of performing contemporary Chinese music, Music From China presents world premieres of works composed for Chinese and Western instruments by Chen Yi, Eric Moe, Huang Ruo, Zhou Long, and Wang Guowei. Composers inspired by Chinese culture give new voices to age-old instruments as they create unique sound worlds.
Friday, November 21, 8 PM
Carnegie Hall, 7th Ave at 57th St.
$25/admission, student and rush tickets available
+++++
4) 2014 Taiwan Rising Stars Classical Music Concerts II – An afternoon of passionate tango and the world premiere of Rain over Taipei with JP Jofre (Bandoneón), Weiyin Chen (piano), Nan-Cheng Chen (cello), and Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu (violin)
Saturday, November 22, 2 PM
Taiwan Academy, 1 East 42nd Street,
Free Admission, but RSVP to 0573@tpecc.org or by this form requested
+++++
5) Chinese Music Ensemble Of New York 2014 Community Concert – Performances by the ensemble and student musicians include:
喜讯到边塞（乐队）/ 喜訊到邊塞 (樂隊) [Good News Reaches the Borderlands, orchestra] 阿细跳月（乐队） / 阿細跳月 (樂隊) [Jumping Dance of the Yi Tribe, orchestra] 三六（弹拨乐队） / 三六 (彈撥樂隊) [a Jiangnan small ensemble tune, plucked string ensemble] 牧民新歌（笛子） / 牧民新歌 (笛子) [New Herdsman’s Song, dizi] 龟兹舞曲（琵琶） / 龜茲舞曲 (琵琶) [Yi Tribe Dance, pipa] 郿鄠调（二胡） / 郿鄠調 (二胡) [Meihu Melody, erhu] 小开门（京胡) / 小開門 (京胡) [a Beijing opera tune, jinghu] 阳关三叠（管子）/ 陽關三疊 (管子) [Three Variations of Yangguan, guanzi]
小开门 / 小開門:
Sunday, November 23, 2:30 PM
High School for Dual Language & Asian Studies, 350 Grand Street
Free
+++++
6) Yuhan Su Quintet w/ Sara Serpa – Vibraphone player Yuhan Su (蘇鬱涵 / 苏郁涵) and her quintet team up with singer Sara Serpa for a blend of jazz, classical, modern, and East Asian music. In 2013, Su’s album Flying Alone was nominated for Taiwan’s Golden Melody Award for Best Album of the Year and Best Composer.
Ongoing Films and Shows
1) Wang Jianwei: Time Temple Exhibition Related Events – The Guggenheim has two ongoing programs presented in conjunction with the exhibition:
- The Morning Time Disappeared – Inspired by Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis (1915), this 55- minute film explores the transformation of contemporary China and looks at how the boundary between reality and fiction becomes blurred and abstracted. Like Kafka’s novella, the video positions itself in a state of imaginary realism. (Guggenheim)Daily at 1 and 5 PM through February 15, 2015
New Media Theater, Guggenheim Museum
Free with admission - Exhibition Tour in Mandarin – Guggenheim gallery educator Fuchiawen Lien focuses on themes and artworks in the exhibition Wang Jianwei: Time Temple.Every Saturday at 12 PM through February 15, 2015
Guggenheim Museum (Meet at the entrance to the exhibition in Tower 2)
Free with admission
2) Women Who Flirt (撒娇女人最好命 / 撒嬌女人最好命) – Romantic comedies generally aren’t our thing, but we’ve been personally assured that this is a good one. The film revolves around co-workers and longtime friends Angie (Zhou Xun (周迅 / 周迅), Cloud Atlas) and Marco (Huang Xiao Ming (黄晓明 / 黃曉明)); when Marco announces he’s seeing someone, it sends Angie on a mission to save him from his new and manipulative girlfriend Hailey (Tang Sui (隋棠)). With the help of a circle of friends led by May (Xie Yi Lin (谢依霖 / 謝依霖)), Angie tries to convince him she’s the one for him.
Opens at AMC Empire 25 in Times Square, College Point Multiplex Cinemas, and other AMC Theatres around the US and Canada on November 26, in time for the Thanksgiving holiday and two days before it opens in China.
Showing its interest in the English-speaking market, China Lion has released a trailer narrated in English:
Exhibitions
We’ll post a new round-up of exhibition reviews for the current crop of shows.
Closing soon:
Lu Yang Video Room (Ventana224, 11/23) (review)
Lu Zhang: All the Lost Souls (张璐: 所有丢失的灵魂 / 張璐: 所有丟失的靈魂) (Stephen Romano Gallery, 11/30)
—
Opening and newly added:
Shien-Mao Lin (林憲茂 / 林宪茂) Solo Exhibition (Hwang Gallery, 12/2 – 12/21)
Let us know if there’s something people need to see.
—
Visit the exhibition calendar (http://ow.ly/pxe9o) for details for the following shows below. As always, check the museum or gallery’s website for hours of operation. We’ve noted exhibitions for which a review has been published.
Lu Yang Video Room (Ventana224, 11/23) (review)
Lu Zhang: All the Lost Souls (张璐: 所有丢失的灵魂 / 張璐: 所有丟失的靈魂) (Stephen Romano Gallery, 11/30)
ESC: Digital Artworks by C.J. Yeh (The Museum of FIT, 12/13)
Transformation (白猿涅槃) – Recent works by Wu Jian’an (邬建安近作 / 鄔建安近作) (Chambers Fine Art, 12/20)
Wang Mansheng & Zheng Xiaohua: An Exhibition of Chinese Calligraphy (C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University, December)
Inside Outside (Klein Sun Gallery, 1/3/15)
Hsu Kuohuang: Views of Taroko Gorge (M. Sutherland Fine Art, 1/31/15)
Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao’s New York: Assembled Realities (Museum of the City of New York, 2/15/15)
Sui Jianguo – Blind Portraits (Doris C. Freedman Plaza (SE entrance to Central Park at 60th and 5th), 2/20/15)
Wang Jianwei: Time Temple (Guggenheim Museum, 2/26/15)
The Art of the Chinese Album (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3/29/15) (WSJ Review)
Phoenix: Xu Bing at the Cathedral (Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 2015) (review)
Waves of Identity: 35 Years of Archiving (Museum of Chinese in America, 3/1/15)
Memory Prints: The Story World of Philip Chen (Museum of Chinese in America, 3/1/15)
Polit-Sheer-Form-Office: Polit Sheer Form! (Queens Museum, 3/8/15)
Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion (New York Historical Society, 4/19/15)
Mao’s Golden Mangoes and the Cultural Revolution (China Institute, 4/26/15) (review)
Image: Polit-Sheer-Form-Office Do the Same Good Deed performance in Times Square, December 3, 2014 (photo by Andrew Shiue)