Olympic Opening Ceremonies and Nutcracker on Ice

I missed the opening ceremony of the olympics when I was in the states this summer so I bought a DVD of it. WOW! It was neat even though there were a few slow spots. I was impressed how it appealed to my western taste, but had so many Chinese elements in it. I reminded me of many Chinese shows I have seen here, but was missing (thankfully) the loud MC blasting the dramatic chinese speaker.

I took my three oldest kids (10, 9 and 7) to a Russian troupe doing Nutcracker on Ice. Don't know why it was in Sept. but we'll take it anytime we can get it. It was different, pretty, and fun for the kids. Life is so different for the chinese now that it was 15 years ago. When Scott was here in the early 90s, he only saw gray and blue clothing without much variety. Now, here I am sitting in the theater thinking, "I am in China (although Shenzhen functions capitalist), watching Nutcracker on Ice with people wearing elaborate costumes and sticking their bare ballet legs into the air. This never would've been allowed back in the 70s or 80s. It would've been considered evil Western influence". China has come so far and the government seems to be trying to hold a balance between keeping things stable and letting the people take care of themselves.

They do block some internet sites, like Wikapedia and blogspot (although we can post, but just not see). These have been unblocked for the past couple of months (for the olympics?) so we'll see what happens when the ParaOlympics are over next month if they revert back.