Guangzhou and Jackie Chan

I have to get something off my chest first. I SAW JACKIE CHAN!!!!! He was very small on a gigantic stage, but he was there and so was I. We were in the same zip code.
Now let me tell you how I gained this cool, Chinese experience. The Shenzhen Education Bureau offered us CTLC teachers a chance on Friday to attend a concert in Guangzhou, several hours drive from Shenzhen. I should add that this was totally and completely free. The Bureau paid for the round trip charter buses, the big dinner in Guangzhou, and the concert tickets. We didn't pay one cent. This was such a nice gesture of the Education Bureau. We were not the only people doing the trip from Shenzhen to Guangzhou; there were at least six other buses. I was amazed the restaurant we ate at could cope with several hundred foreigners and Chinese at once. We didn't have to wait long for our food to appear, and the food was pretty tasty.
The concert was the opening ceremony of the Guangdong International Tourism and Culture Festival, PPRD Tourism Promotion Convention (广东国际旅行文化节暨泛珠三角旅游推介大会). Before the concert, a small Chinese man stood on the stage and gave us cheering practice. Every audience member got a small bag of goodies on their seats. Inside were two items that Chinese people use to cheer performers: inflatable noisemakers and a light-up light saber. "Yi, er, san" and the crowd banged the noisemakers together. Next, we were taught to wave our light sabers in unison. You would never do that in the States. I guess individuality is not looked well upon, even at concerts. Or maybe we had to practice because Party officials were in the audience. It might be embarrassing to the Party if Chinese people were not in sync at a purely entertaining event.
The ceremony started with a bunch of local Party officials giving speeches about how great Guangdong is and how much the country has advanced since Deng Xiaoping's economic openness policy (改革开放). I had never heard such patriotic language before. It was quite different.
Then came the parade. Since it was a tourism festival, there was a float parade representing all of the major cities in Guangdong Province. I noticed that most of the floats showed aspects of Buddhism, like people standing on a lotus.
After the floats, the actual concert got underway. All of the singers were Chinese, and I didn't recognize any. Some were famous enough for the Chinese audience members to applause when they heard the names, but not famous enough for them to cheer during the song. I don’t know how great it is to be semi-famous in China. The stage was too big for just one singer, so there was a shit-load of backup dancers. Hundreds of people in costume attempting to dance in sync. And what would a Chinese concert be without fireworks? It would not be Chinese, I can tell you that. Almost every song was accompanied by some fireworks display. But fireworks can be overwhelming. The poor woman who sang the finale was drowned out. Now we’re at the moment of Jackie Chan. He had the weirdest backup dancers: hands. Some poor bastards danced around as smiley, gigantic hands with legs. Their arms were inside hands costume. What happens if they fall down? Does someone have give them a hand? (bad joke) He was the second-to-last performance, which was not the best decision. People left after he finished “We Are Ready.” This song was to mark one year before the Beijing Olympics. It is impossible to attend a concert in China without listening to some Olympic song. It’s a tad annoying hearing the same three songs over and over.
The concert ended and we took the bus back to Shenzhen.