Chinese Press Coverage of The
Delegation
http://www.qnsb.com/space-298-do-blog-id-126233.html
http://zjdaily.zjol.com.cn/html/2010-01/04/content_218354.htm?div=0
http://zjdaily.zjol.com.cn/html/2010-01/04/content_218353.htm?div=-1
English Translations of Chinese Press Coverage
Youth Times newspaper …2010-01-03
Tonight's Wonderful Performance Given by American
Dancers (Original)
Yesterday they had a "competition" with Youth Times'
readers in dance previously
It's said that there is no boundary between music.
Yesterday afternoon, during
the meeting between Youth Times' readers and YEA which was held by the
newspaper and Hangzhou Grand Theater, young
people from two countries who did not know each other before interacted
excitedly together impelled by music. Finally,
all the young people even formed a circle and competed
hip-hop with the energetic African drum sound.
The whole environment is rather fervent.
American
Youth Ensemble of Atlanta (YEA) was founded in
1990.It is an organization which offers young people free trainings on
performance and art. YEA has been awarded
“Coming Up Taller” award from the President’s Committee for the Arts and
Humanities and has given performance to more than 1 million audience in
America, Europe,
Africa. This is their first trip to China.23
young people of YEA will give a performance of school music and hip-hop
culture in Hangzhou Grand Theater tonight.
In
order to communicate with each other between two countries without
difficulties,10 lucky readers which were selected by Youth Times can speak
English very well. Some are white-collars in
foreign-invested enterprise, some are young
students in the college and some even have had cultural exchange in the US
before. Perhaps people in Hangzhou are shy
because at first the communication was not very smooth though they are
good at English. By contrast,
guests from the US were very active and turned from a
guest into a host to ask questions to readers related to China,
such as which kind of music do Chinese young people
prefer; is there any professional artistic
performance school in Hangzhou. And one of them
asked curiously that didn't you listen to traditional music since when she
was in the shop in Hangzhou, all the songs
played were European and American pop music and she though young Chinese
people listened to Chinese traditional music.
These
kinds of questions have aroused Youth Times' readers' interests and they
thronged to answer them. A beautiful female
white-collar even sang a traditional Yue play "Butterfly Love" and people
screamed by the wonderful song. The American
guests then introduced an African drum brought from the US.
The kind drum is decorated by tracery and unlike
Chinese gong and drum, it is not played by
drumstick but by hands' soft beats. By beating
softly, dynamic rhythm can be produced.
After American drummer's improvisation,
a senior college student from Zhejiang University
showed a part of popin. This college student
will study interpretation in the US in June this year has aroused all
young people's enthusiasm of dance and readers' nature has been set free.
All of them formed a circle and began to dance,
including "Nobody" which is quite popular in China now,
Michael Jackson's famous moonwalk,
high challenge hip-hop and so on.
All young people are exceedingly happy.
President
of Arcom Group,
Glendon Thompson who was in charge of the cultural exchange said all the
performers of YEA were very curious with Hangzhou.
On the first day when they arrived in Hangzhou,
they did not only have rehearsals but also went to
shopping in the silk market. They learned how to
bargain by using calculator. A girl has spent
100 RMB on a cotton nightgown. And the
interpreter Lv
Bingbing smiled, we have arranged them to watch
a new Hangzhou local Yue play " Abusive Wife" to show them traditional
Zhejiang's culture.
#######################################
Zhejiang Daily newspaper…2010-01-03
Dance and Music, Celebrate
the Precious Time of Youth
--An Interview with the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta on
their first
trip to China
Hangzhou,3rd
in January
“We’ve come to make the world feel better !"23
American young people of Youth Ensemble of Atlanta (YEA) will give
wonderful performance in Hangzhou Grand Theater tonight with this
enthusiastic song during their first trip to China.
Melodrama, hip hop dance,
Christmas song--this group of youth's professional
concord, enthusiastic dance,
amazing expressive force on the stage will let the
whole theater be full of vigor.
YEA has been awarded “Coming Up Taller” award from
the President’s Committee for the Arts and Humanities and has given
performance to more than 1 million audience in America,
Europe, Africa.
Whereas, this professional
performance group's members are young people,
mainly middle school students who take part in it during their spare time.
What kind of organization on earth YEA is?
How can they cultivate this kind of youth's group?
With lots of questions,
reporter saw a unique American style's "Youth of Songs and Dances".
"Our
goal is not to create great shows or produce talented artists,
YEA’s primary programming goal is to develop youth with
the skills and desire to succeed at whatever they do in life. "The leader
of YEA, Debi told our reporter when having an
exclusive interview.
According to what Debi has introduced,
YEA was founded in 1990,an organization which offers
free free performance trainings to young people.
And the only judgment of whether people can join in it or not is depending
on whether they have the enthusiasm for music and art and the persistence
in it for a very long time. Now,
YEA's members come from different schools in Atlanta,
aging from 8 to 24.They rehearsal and perform during
weekends and festivals. What's more,
Debi said some of the members have already won Grammy,
some joined in Broadway, some
are producing movies and more than 80% members work in the artistic area
after graduation from college.
In
China, many parents are worried that if their
children are fond of art too much, academic
study may be ignored. Consequently,
children will be good at nothing.
Parents in the US are seemingly worried about it too.
But YEA's children have proved to their parents that
their choices are right. Diamond,
a 13 years old member of YEA knows her own mind.
She said sometimes members of YEA need to sacrifice
their sleep in order to focus both on art and academic study at the same
time. Apart from performance and rehearsal,
she is learning how to play electronic organ in her
spare time. What's more,
she is trying to create her own music.
To
encourage young people to create and focus on social problems is an
important way of YEA on helping children grow up.
"Creativity and social responsibility are of vital
importance in any area in the society. "YEA
always offers opportunities to children to produce issue-oriented play,
including local violence,
AIDS and so on. Some members of YEA nowadays who
have already entered into college told the reporter that what they learned
from YEA is not only art but self-management.
Among them, some study film,
some study psychology, some
study public relations, but they still remain in
YEA because they can feel love and strength here.
Businesses and
entrepreneurs seeking business relationships with Chinese counterparts,
please send your company information to:
Glendon Thompson: 404-444-1372 ;
gthompson@arcomgroup.net
2010: Youth
Ensemble of Atlanta performing at Zhoushan, Zhejiang
2010: Youth
Ensemble of Atlanta performing at Ningbo, Zhejiang
2010: Youth
Ensemble of Atlanta performing at Hangzhou, Zhejiang
2010: Youth
Ensemble of Atlanta performing at Hangzhou, Zhejiang with organizer
Glendon Thompson- (2nd left kneeling)
2010: Youth
Ensemble of Atlanta performing and interacting with Chinese youth,
Zhejiang
2010: Youth
Ensemble of Atlanta performing and interacting with Chinese youth,
Zhejiang
2010: Youth
Ensemble of Atlanta performing, Zhejiang
2010: Youth
Ensemble of Atlanta performing, Zhejiang
2010: Youth
Ensemble of Atlanta performing, Zhejiang
2010: Youth
Ensemble of Atlanta performing and making friends with Chinese youth,
Zhejiang
2010: Youth
Ensemble of Atlanta performing and making friends with Chinese youth,
Zhejiang
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