By Hwa Rogers
FINALLY, after weeks of frantic preparations, the big day is here. My colleague and I are escorted to the playing field to watch the Chinese Dragons arrive. Hundreds of people are lining the road up to the campus, waiting and watching excitedly as black limousines stream in bearing the VIPs.
Simultaneously, huge quantities of firecrackers are being set off. They come in long, red strips coiled up like mini firehoses.
One end is swiftly unfurled, quickly lit and off they go – pao, pao, pao!
As the excitement is mounting, suddenly a great cheer goes up as the dragons appear. The dragon wielders sweep in proudly, holding their dragons aloft, marching under the grand, square portal to the university.
This is embellished with Chinese characters, based on the original calligraphy of Chairman Mao, written in 1951, of which the university is inordinately proud.
The Chairman was from Hunan and later my students will take me to visit Shaoshan, his birth place and home village, a day’s trip away from the campus.
When the dragons reach the square, which features a striking, abstract steel sculpture in the centre called ‘Life Force’, they begin their inaugural dance.
There are two dragons and two teams: one of men wearing yellow and the other of women dressed in red.
Coordinating the undulating and graceful, circling of these dragons is no easy task and I feel that the women show better form. After several minutes, they take a well-earned break.
A Volunteer’s Story: Teaching and Travels in China’ by Hwa Rogers
amazon.com.au/Volunteers-Story-Teaching-Travels-China/
