Red Detachment of Women
Originally uploaded by jiulong. Last night I saw one of the most brilliant, audacious and in-your-face pieces of political satire imaginable in China. And it was performed by a troupe of Cuban lap dancers at a sleazy cabaret club in the Beijing Russian ghetto of Yabaolu. A few of the editors from work went to the Elephant Club, down a dark side street among all the hole-in-the-wall shops selling fur coats, and which is full of dodgy-looking Russian businessmen and women. The Elephant is decorated in a florid Muscovite style and has old Russian movies and Russia's answer to CNN playing on big screens. They do a great all-you-can-eat [and drink] buffet for 58 kuai, which we tucked into with gusto. We'd just finished our mixture of east and west food when the buffet area was cleared away and turned into a stage. On came some go-go girls wearing skimpy purple tinsel bikinis, to do a bit of pole-dancing. Because they looked vaguely European we thought they were from Uzbekistan or some other down-on-its-luck part of the Russian empire. But then they returned to do turns from different parts of the world. They did cowgirls [just like that scene in Apocalypse Now], some cheesy rhumba, Riverdance and even a bit of belly dancing with a black guy playing the role a hareem overseer. But they save the best for last. Suddenly the stage was lit up pink and on strode the same girls in Mao uniforms, complete with red armbands and red stars, brandishing fake rifles. To the accompaniment of the earnest revolutionary music from Red Detachment of Women, they did a suggestive sado-masochistic piss-take of the whole thing, bumping and grinding and using those rifles in very suggestive ways. To cap it off the brought out the "bad landlord", who was played, in a stroke of brilliance, by the same black guy, dressed in a confucian gown and topped of with a Fu Manchu cap and pigtail. They chastised and criticised him and he responded with a "What? Why me? What have I done?" bemused and pained look on his face that could have been straight out of a Mel Brooks movie.
He was "executed" and then all the dancers returned on stage holding up a huge picture of Mao. But at this point the music switched from revolutionary chorus to a techno blast version of "Fight the Power". It was awesome. I don't think the Russians got it, but the Chinese present certainly did, and had looks of shocked bewilderment and mischievous grins on their faces. Us western Europeans were just cacking ourselves.
Being a twerpy reporter at heart, I went backstage to find a troupe of Cubans hurriedly packing their bags to go to another engagement at the Tropicana Club. Only one of them, Cesar the black guy, could speak English. He said sorry they couldn't stay and chat, but spoke long enough to say that they'd been in Beijing a year and had come up with the Red Detachment finale themselves as they knew it well from their own Cuban education. Cesar translated my words of thanks and appreciation into Spanish for the girls stuffing themselves hastily and quite revealingly into ordinary clothes. They all said gracias and disappeared into the Beijing night. Delicious.
posted by Zhuan Jia at 9:01 PM
