Book of Mountains and Seas review – puppets and percussion, Mandarin and a monkish chorus
Ruo, who was born in China and lives in the US, writes assured, distinctive music, fusing east and west in a way that feels natural and authentic. Here, he deploys an array of tuned and untuned percussion instruments, some of them used in traditional Chinese orchestras, but most familiar to western ears. Gongs, finger cymbals, marimba and Tibetan singing bowls put in appearances, yet all are used sparingly. Vocally, too, there's a certain austerity, whether in sober chant or rhythmic chatter. Melismatic melodies and ululating choruses lend cross-cultural spice to Ruo's musical melting pot.
The work tells four tales drawn from Chinese myths transcribed in the fourth century BC. Judiciously chosen, their contemporary resonances range from the climate crisis to the boundless hubris of humankind. In the first, the death of the hairy titan Pan Gu creates sun and moon, mountains and rivers, and finally humans. The second tells of a drowned princess reborn as a vengeful bird. The third relates how 10 over-enthusiastic suns are whittled down to one to prevent them burning up the planet, and the fourth how the dim-witted giant Kua Fu tries and fails to capture the sun that remains.
The choir, robed like monks and with only their faces illuminated, tackle the intricate lines with confidence and a sure sense of pitch, singing in a combination of Mandarin and an unfathomable made-up language. The former appears now and again as surtitles, the latter does not. It is left to Twist and his puppeteers to tell us what is going on, which on the whole they do with craft and clarity. The imagery for tales one and two is a trifle plain: the story of the embittered bird and the ocean is told with little more than a crimson-fringed kite and a rippling white sheet.
The propulsive fourth story, however, where the deconstructed fragments come together to create the sun-hunting giant, is visually arresting. But it's the stately progression of the 10 lanterns in the third tale, where graceful movement echoes music of piercing beauty, that lingers longest.
At the Lyceum, Edinburgh, until 16 August
All our Edinburgh festival reviews
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
29 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Now it's about personal happiness': popular Granny Wang dating show belies China's plummeting marriage rate
The crowd is sweltering under a red and gold awning, but Granny Wang has them rapt. Packed into the space in front of the 62-year-old's small stage, and spilling out on to the wooden bleachers above, hundreds of people have gathered to hear Granny Wang – real name Zhao Mei – play matchmaker to young men and women at a daily show in a theme park in Kaifeng, an ancient city in central China's Henan province. One man who volunteers to be set up comes on stage and tells Zhao that a previous relationship broke down due to a lack of time. 'Well, now that you've met your ideal partner here, you'll have the time,' she assures him, and the crowd cheers. Zhao has played the character of Granny Wang for eight years and introduced the matchmaking element of her show in 2023 – which brought her viral fame. Last year she went from having a few hundred thousand followers on Douyin, a Chinese social media app similar to TikTok, to more than 7 million, and has been called 'China's Cilla Black', a reference to the late host of the British TV show Blind Date. But with some audience members arriving several hours early and enduring the mid-August heat to grab a front-row spot for the raucous and somewhat camp performance, Zhao could just as well be Henan's Madonna. Most of the people in the audience are families looking for a way to entertain their children during the school holidays. But it seems that about one in five of them are looking for love. 'I just do not want to stay single,' said Wang Mengjia, 18, after an unsuccessful spin on Zhao's stage. Zhao has revived the character of the village matchmaker, a role that is going out of fashion now that many people meet online, through friends – or, increasingly, not at all. While there is a growing 'love industry' of matchmaking services from local governments and commercial enterprises alike, would-be cupids face an uphill battle in China's cities where the marriage market is increasingly being shunned altogether. Despite Zhao's packed shows, China's marriage rates have plummeted to record lows, a trend that is increasingly treated as a national crisis. Last year, the number of registered marriages dropped by a record 20%, falling to just over 6m, down from 7.7m in 2023. Compared with a decade earlier, the number of couples tying the knot each year has halved. The trend is particularly apparent among urban, educated women. More than 40% of urban 25- to 29-year-olds have never married, up from 9% in 2000, according to analysis from Wang Feng, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine. Some of this is because of China's ageing population. Decades of the one-child policy, which was scrapped in 2016, forced the population into decline, meaning that the pool of people of marrying age has been shrinking. But, analysts say, demographics alone don't explain the trend. 'The deeper change is in attitudes,' said Lijia Zhang, a writer who is working on a book about marriage in China. 'In the past, when the country was poor, marriage was an economic necessity … Now it's about personal happiness, more than anything else, not filial duty or social obligation. Many urban, educated women no longer see marriage or motherhood as essential to a fulfilling life.' Hao Jingyi, 19, agrees. 'If I don't meet someone suitable, I would enjoy more freedom and comfort living alone … women are increasingly disappointed with men these days,' she said, as she waited for Zhao's show to start. The Chinese government hopes to change her mind. China's leader, Xi Jinping, has called on women to 'actively cultivate a new culture of marriage and childbearing' and has promoted a more traditional, patriarchal type of politics. China's leadership is ideologically opposed to singledom and officials have a practical concern: falling birthrates. Even people who do couple up are increasingly rejecting parenthood, as young people – women in particular – worry that childrearing is too expensive and competitive. Last year China's birthrate was just 6.77 births per 1,000 people, a slight increase on 2023's record low of 6.39 but still dramatically lower than the figure from a decade ago. The Chinese authorities have introduced a slew of policies at national and local levels to encourage marriage and childbirth. This year the government rolled out an annual childcare subsidy of 3,600 yuan (£370) until the age of three and several provinces offer bonuses or extra holiday days for newlyweds. But many women feel it is not enough. Practicalities aside, there are other factors driving these trends. In July, the Chinese internet was briefly abuzz with the news of chat groups on the encrypted messaging app Telegram which, according to Chinese media reports, contained tens of thousands of Chinese men who shared pornographic pictures and videos of women, often taken without their consent, in the 'MaskPark tree hole forum'. Women were outraged, with many feeling that the authorities did not do enough to protect them from sexual harassment. Violet Du Feng, a Chinese film-maker whose latest documentary, The Dating Game, follows men enrolled in a dating camp, said there was an increasing ideological gap between the sexes. She said the imbalance created by the one-child policy – there are now more than 30 million more men than women in China – had led to 'dissatisfaction about gender equality'. But while feminist activism used to be quietly tolerated, in the past decade the Chinese Communist party has cracked down on civil society, and the space to protest against issues such as sexual harassment has virtually disappeared. 'Typically, in a more democratic society, you can point your finger at power,' Feng said, 'but in China, you cannot.' So, 'people are just pointing their fingers at each other. That creates even more extreme hostility between men and women.' It's not just women who are tired of the pressure to marry. Zhang Hongguang, 21, from Shandong province, attended Zhao's event with his sister, who had persuaded him to join her in renting fancy-dress costumes for the outing. But the next day he had to return to his home town to grudgingly attend a blind date arranged by their parents, who had paid a matchmaker to set him up with someone. 'I don't like it, but it was the only way my parents had,' he said, adding that he preferred to just stay at home with his cat. His sister, Zhang Hongqian, a 24-year-old pilates teacher, had also been forced on several unsuccessful blind dates by their parents. 'I'm not in a rush to find a partner,' she said. 'If I can avoid getting married, I'll choose not to get married.' Additional research by Lillian Yang
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
What links Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Ariana Grande? The Saturday quiz
1 Which singer was officially declared a national hero of Barbados in 2021?2 What made a landfall on 29 August 2005 near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana?3 Which film immortalised the phrase 'chicken jockey'?4 What is the oldest surviving work of Islamic architecture?5 Ian Martin was the swearing consultant on which TV series?6 What are China's two special administrative regions?7 Skeet and trap are disciplines of which Olympic sport?8 What organisation did Harry Pollitt lead for almost 30 years?What links: 9 An American Tragedy; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Mrs Dalloway; The Great Gatsby; The Trial?10 The Beatles; John Travolta; John Lennon; Frankie Goes to Hollywood; Madonna; Ariana Grande?11 Reeves; Reeve; Cain; Routh; Cavill; Corenswet?12 Iquitos; Leticia; Manaus and Macapá?13 Adam and Eve; Four Horsemen; Praying Hands; Rhinoceros; Young Hare?14 Giuseppe Savoldi (Napoli) and Olivia Smith (Arsenal)?15 1960s TV witch; daughter of Prospero; North Carolina's largest city; Stephen King's first novel? 1 Rihanna.2 Hurricane Katrina.3 A Minecraft Movie.4 Dome of the Rock (Jerusalem).5 The Thick of It.6 Hong Kong and Macau.7 Shooting.8 Communist Party of Great Britain.9 Novels published 100 years ago: Dreiser; Loos; Woolf; Fitzgerald; Kafka.10 Had No 1 and No 2 singles at the same time.11 Played Superman on film and TV.12 Cities on the Amazon river: Peru; Colombia; Brazil.13 Albrecht Dürer works.14 First million-pound male/female footballers (paying club).15 Sex and the City leads: Samantha; Miranda; Charlotte; Carrie.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
'Genre-defying' BBC Proms concerts planned for Bristol Beacon
The chief executive of one of Bristol's leading venues has said he is "very proud" to welcome back the "genre-defying" BBC Proms. Alongside its traditional home at London's Royal Albert Hall, Bristol Beacon is set to host a weekend of events from 22 to 24 August. Sprawling out from the main concert hall to the building's public spaces and beyond, the performances will encompass everything from a performance by the Danish National Vocal ensemble to a classical DJ set. "Bristol is a really vibrant musical city," said Simon Wales, Bristol Beacon's chief executive. "There's a huge amount going on here, and our Proms weekend is a really kind of genre-defying combination of all different types of music, from local artists to international," he added. It is the second year in a row that the Bristol Beacon has hosted the classical music festival, following its long-awaited reopening in November 2023. "This is a venue, a resource, that Bristol should be really proud of," Mr Wales said. "It really is one of the best music spaces in the country, and the Proms means that we can show it off to its full extent." As well as entertaining those in the venues themselves, many of the performances will also be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 - making them accessible to listeners worldwide. "Last year in 2024, it was the first Proms [in Bristol], and so there was a lot for everyone to learn about how to make all the spaces work for the live broadcasts that were going out," Mr Wales said."I think everyone will find it much easier this year. There'll be a bit less last-minute problem-solving." 'Absolutely right' While the events planned for the bank holiday weekend do include the traditional performances normally associated with the Proms, Mr Wales explained that the programme aimed to challenge preconceptions of classical music. "We really are reflecting some of the diversity and adventure you find in the Bristol music scene," he said. "This is a civic venue, it's owned by Bristol, and we as a charity are here to ensure that we welcome everyone to all types of music. So, this partnership with BBC Proms feels absolutely right."
