I Have A Life.

杖頭木偶戲(Stick Puppet)The puppet was very beautiful! With two sticks and his left hand, the master control the movement of fingers, head and body of the puppet. The puppet then spinned a handkerchief on its finger, took another handkerchief from a pocket of its dress, danced, flipped its body, picked up flowers and so on. The puppet behaved just like a naughty young lady. What else could those puppets do?Change its face.When the two men preformed the skill of changing face. We have already thought that was exciting. Now the master was controlling the motion of the puppet with both his hands, but at the same time he preformed changing masks with the puppet like a real human. What a skill the master has!

This is the end of 蜀風雅韵 series. If you go to Cheng Du, will you pay 120RMB to watch this show?

變臉(Changing Face)

Changing face is the most familiar Chuan performing art for people in Hong Kong because not long ago there was news about a Pop star Andy Lau tried to learn the technique, but he was refused by the master of changing face.

There are two changing face masters in my photos. They walked around the stage. Suddenly, without touching anything on their faces, they magically changed their masks to other masks. Each of them changed about 6 or 7 masks, then we finally saw their own faces. However, the most mavellous things were just about to happen. Without touching anything with their hands, they put one of their masks back to their faces, and then again the other. How come they can do that!手影戲(Hand Shadow Show)

Many of us know how to make some hand shadows when we were kids. The performer that night was also very young. The background music reminded me the widelife on grassland in Africa. He made a lot of vivid hand shadows of animals. Dog could bark and make face to viewers. Hens fought together, then became an owl. Rabit and horse were running. Wolf came out and ate the rabit. We all know how to play hand shadows, but not in his extent.

To be continue...

Photo In 蜀風雅韵 by D70 with AI 80mm-200mm/f4.5@80mm, f4.5, 1/250s, ISO1600, MF, M-mode metering, Hand-hold"蜀風雅韵" (Shu Feng Ya Yun) is the only large-scaled Si Chuan operatic training and preformance center existing nowaday. It was established one hundred years ago. It is inside the city of Cheng Du. We went to watch their traditional preforming art show at the night.





We arrived at the operatic circle at 7:30pm. We were asked to pay extra 120RMB. We wondered if the show worths it because we have seen enough lousy shows in China, but the tour guide insisted that is a must-see show, so we were all there except one guy want back to hotel after dinner. I can tell you now, this is a show I highly recommemd. If you are in Cheng Du for the first time, don't miss it.By the way, the toilet there was very dirty. You don't eat anything strange before you go to the show. Look at the photo on the right. Here was where we sat. The guy is "D", my brother. You can see that we were quite far from the stage, but actually we were at the middle of the hall. There were a lot of people sitting futher away. Fortunately I had a zoom tele lens with me.



Before the show, I was given a fan and a pile of bookmarks of facial design of Chuan Opera.



It was hot there, so the fan was useful. During the show, we were served with tea and peanuts. Some ladies dressing traditional clothes were walking throughout the hall to refill the tea into our cups. They hold tea-pots which have a mouth longer than my arm but very thin. The shadow in photos shows a lady and tea pot with long mouth (the long straight thin shadow crosses with the mic stand).



To be continued...

After travelling one and a half hour from Cheung Du by car, we arrived at City of Hill Happy. A monk in ancient time came to this place and turned the hill into a buddha statue to stop flooding of that area. Therefore there is a statue as big as a hill sitting beside the bench of river.The Buddha statue was near the bench of river. You can walk to the buddha statue. I recommend you to pay some fee to watch the statue from ship.







If you have a telescope with you, take it to the ship. There are a lot of small statues on the wall of the cliff. Many of them have been worn out or broken, but it is not bad to take a look to them. I used my tele lens as a telescope. The ship was shaking and I forget to set the shutter speed, so the photo quality for those close-ups is not very good. Therefore, when you take photos on ship, don't forget to beware of shutter speed if you use tele lens.



Autumn and winter are the better seasons to visit the statue and to take photos. It is too misty in summer.

李白故居(Home of Li Bai)

I never expect to see any impressive historical temples, buildings or homes of famous historical characters of ancient China. Most of those valuable cultural treasure had been wrapped away by the hurricane of the Cultural Revolution(文化大革命). However your tour guides would always tell you that they were damaged by Japanese in the WWII, or they just shut their mouth.

That house of Li Bai - one of the most renounced anicent poets in Chinese history - was occupied by someone until recent years. I noticed the house was once unskillfully painted to red. Indeed, Chinese before the turn of PRC doesn't like to paint their house to red very much. People in Ching Dynasty may paint their houses red sometimes, but not earlier. It is because that is the color of fire which may be bad for Fung Sui (風水). Almost everything in the house has been removed. Things left in the house ware damaged somehow. The house was recently retouched and painted to brown.

You can see the craft on the picture. That was the only thing I found in the house worth me to take a photo because it really gave me the feeling of ancient culture - the influence of culture from the west (I mean India and other countries on the Silk Road). I found it on the roof of something look like a staple.

Anyway, it does not worth visiting.

When I was walking on the trail, I was super lucky to meet six Tibetians (西藏人). Two men dressed like tibetian monks, holding a DV. Two women wore beautiful traditional clothes. Two old ladies wore modern sport wears.





So I stopped a little bit to block people behind me to get some distance between tibetians and me to shoot their clothing. However, I only got pictures from their back because I didn't want to do anything offensive to those people. I can tell you there is nothing special from the front, the red cloth covered everything on her shoulder and beast.



Her clothes is shining like silk, and the pattern on it is very beautiful and complex. You can see that her dress consists of a upper part and lower part of two layers, and they are all sawed in one piece. The outer layer is wider, covering the front part of the leg and tied with strips at the back. The under layer, I guess, may cover only the back of the body and be tied at the front because I could not notice any button or zip on the dress. She might broken her dress on the trail, someone used a green nylon thread to tie her dress. There is also some pattern of tibetian letters on the red cloth on her shoulder.

This series of journal is about my journey in Jiu Zhai Go. However, up to this day, there has been only one landscape photo of the valley posted. It seems that I took all my camera in vain. Of course not. Anyway, the weather was cloudy and misty, and it was sometimes raining. I was also frustrated by the crowd of tourists. I took only a few photos on landscape in Jiu Zhai Go.

五花海子(Five Flowers Lake)・九寨溝・四川

By D70 w/ AFD 18mm~35mm@24mm & f8.0People living in Jiu Zhai Go call lake as "海子"(son of sea). The Five Flowers Lake is very shallow and clear.

珍珠灘(Pearl Beach)

Can you remember the movie "卧虎藏龍"?

Highlander Cattle is a special spiese of long-hair cattle found in Scotland of Britain. Many years ago I saw one during my field trip and took a photo.

On the highland of Si Chuan, I saw an animal which is very similar to Highlander Cattle. People in Si Chuan call it "雪山牦牛" - Cow with long hair of snow mountain(?). Why snow mountain? Look at the color.

(photo by D70 w/AFD 18mm~35mm@f8.0) Look at the clothes of the man. That is tranditional pattern on clothes.Interesting, isn't it? It seems that cattle on highland always has long hair.







Minority in Si Chuan (藏族人) use this hairy cattle's meat to make a special kind of food called "牦牛肉"。



牦牛肉 is supposed to be wet. For easy handling, I bought only dry 牦牛肉.



My mother tried it. She said it is tastey and good to eat with congee.



There are many brand names of 牦牛肉 in market, but some of them use the meat of common cattle meat. Be careful when you are buying.

My photo records are one of the main content of this blog, so let me talk about photo-shooting equipments with me in Si Chuan.



D70 & AFD 18mm~35mm



I knew that I would mainly take landscape photos. Wide-angle lens is something I must take, and wider is better. So I picked Nikkor 18mm~35mm which is 27mm~52.5mm on D70. I still had 28mm on D70, not bad.



Another reason why I wanted 28mm lens so badly is that it makes me able to shoot "I have been here once" photos for my family on busy streets. In Mainland China, people do not care if you are taking photos, and they just pass in front of your camera when the street is busy. 28mm lens let me stand right in front of my folk, so no one can pass in front of me, but I still can cover upper half of my folk's body in the photo, not only the head.



a compact file camera & a compact DC



I let my mother take a compact film carmera, then she could enjoy taking photos, and I could have a "handy-n-quick-action" film camera.

Moreover, my brother took a compact DC, so I didn't bother to take a compact DC with me. If I want to use one, just take his.



FM2



I still needed a back-up camera to deal with unexpected or difficult situations because I may not have second chance to visit such a far-away place. When talk about travelling back-up camera, FM2! This cam can keep shooting unless you have no film or blow it up. I also gained the capability of shooting with 18mm wide angle.



AFD 50mm/1.8 & AI 80mm~200mm/4.5



I struggled if I should take a close-up lens and a tele lens. Close-up lens seemed not necessary, and I hate the weight of tele lens. Finally, I had still taken AFD 50mm/1.8 for close-up purpose because this lens is light and small.



Althought worrying about the weight and size of tele lens, AI 80mm~200mm/4.5 was also with me. Because of having it, I was able to take close-up photos of "Buddha Statue of Hill Happy" and to shoot more than 100 nice photos 30 metres away from the stage when I was watching Si Chuan's famous "changing face" show. I used ISO1600 of D70 all the way that night. That was a very enjoyable evening.



CPL & Cokin P-series ND8 Gradual Grey & "+3" Close-up filter



Things I didn't bring - Tripod and External Flash Unit. The result let me know that I have nothing to regard for not taking them.



Someone may think a compact high-power-zoom DC with a tripod can do the same thing as D70 with a tele lens in Chuan Opera Show. However, it is not true. The actors and actresses move and dance quickly. Slow shutter speed won't get clear image of moving objects, and flash light can't reach 30 meters away.

Although it was summer, but the temperature of Jiu Zhai Go Area was between 15-20 degree C. My mother and I did not turn on air-condition at night because we felt very comfortable at this room temperature.For people from Hong Kong, the temperature was similar as that of autumn in Hong Kong. However, the hills were green, and flowers're blooming angrily. When the bus left Cheng Du (成都) and climbed up to the highland, I saw a lot of beautiful flowers along the road, but I didn't have chance to get off the bus to take some photos.When I was in the valley, I still was not able to shoot flowers because people filled all trails in valley like fillings in an apple pie. I had no space to stand and had to keep moving forwards.At sunset, it started raining. People found places to hide or just got back to hotel as my team was waiting for lost members at a bus stop. I finally had time and space to shoot those sweeties.



All 3 photos From 九寨溝

By D70 w/AFD 50mm/1.8@F8.0

From 九寨溝(Jiu Zhai Go Valley) in 四川

By D70 w/AFD 50mm/1.8@f8.0



I have planned to write some journal for my experience in 四川 (Si Chuan). However I am now sick, so I am too tired to write long passages.



I post a photo of mushroom today. I will start the series of journal as soon as I get well. This series is going to be interesting. I promise.