Children's Day

June 1 is International Children's Day and it's a big deal here in China. School is cancelled and all the kids are taken out to play, eat at KFC, etc. by their parents. It's also a time when all the schools will put on programs. Performances are huge in Chinese culture, so it's important for every kid to have some kind of skill in singing, dancing, or playing an instrument.

Sophia had been practicing for several weeks the little routine her class was doing for the big performance at their preschool. Each day she'd come home and march around the living room while I hummed some music to give her a beat. The theme of the whole show was about the Revolutionary days of Mao Zedong. Oh joy. The teacher said that Sophia had some trouble with the routine and thought maybe it was because Sophia didn't like the Revolutionary music. But I was pretty sure it was because it was just a little too hard for Sophia. You see, she's in the class of 4-year-olds, but she's only 3. We did this so that she could be in the same class as her friend RuiRui. Well, on the day before the performance, Sophia came home and said that she had done a great job practicing waving the flag. "What?" I said, "You're not doing the dance anymore?" Sure enough, the next morning we went to the school to watch the program and when it was time for Sophia's class, she was the first one to march onto the stage, waving a big red flag. She was dressed in the old blue Revolutionary uniform and called herself a "captain." She then moved to the back of the stage while the rest of the class came on the stage and did the whole dance routine. Sophia just stood in the back the whole time waving her flag back and forth. I laughed to myself. She loved it though and had a great time!!!

One of our students from 2004 now works at an English tutoring company for little kids. Their company was also putting on a big show this day and they asked if Sophia could perform. I didn't want to parade Sophia around if she wasn't up for it, so I asked her permission. I explained that there would be lots of people there watching her and she'd have to be alone on a big stage, but she was thrilled and wanted to do it. I was surprised, but I think the performance at her school went so well that she's now eager to perform. Ha! So she prepared some motions to the song Oh, Mr. Sun. Unfortunately, the song wouldn't play on their computer so I ended up having to go on stage with her and sing the song while she did the motions. I also had Elise with me, so Elise ended up coming on stage too. She was holding a balloon and she just stood next to us and stoically swayed back and forth the whole time. In the end it was another interesting and fun experience, thanks to living in China. The girls were awarded with huge stuffed animals from the staff.