The Maowie Zowie good time!

So the second weekend I was here... A guy I work with, Chris Bishop, was scheduled to leave. There was a big dinner planned for him the morning of his last day. We were told that it was really far away, and that it was sooo amazing that we had to come. "It's all about the cultural revolution and stuff! You will miss out! It's so rare! We will never go again!" The only resistance I had towards it all (cause I'm down for whatever) was that we were scheduled for our first Chinese class at school, which we pushed so hard to get a trial lesson before we paid, and had it all scheduled... but I called and got the date moved to a Monday... so all was safe. So some people from the office piled into someone's Peugeot mini-van... 9 people in it... no seatbelts! But it was ok, cause we didn't really go about 20mph. Anyway... we get there and after a salute at the door this is what we saw.


So, these are pics that someone managed to snap at the restaurant. It was very forbidden to take pics there and the guy who took these got yelled at. I actually didn't have a camera at this point. Once we sat down, everything was out of my hands. There is a huge show that happens at seven o clock. And all through the ordering process (which I had no part in because it was all in chinese) there was an auction happening for scrolls and paintings with calligraphy on it. It was a very high pitched woman, that rambled on for what seemed forever. It became a buzz of noise after a while. Then the real show started. The red flags got passed around. The stinky tofu (that's what it's called) came to the table. Some of my co-workers were absolutely enthralled with the music. Some were looking around very perplexed. I kinda sat there with my mouth open grinning at the stage. I'm easy to entertain. There was all sorts of food brought out. It was a blur after a while. Then they started with the beer. Many bottles.

I think the craziest thing throughout it all was the spirit from the whole place. When common hymn's and whatnot came up, there was a sea of red flags being snapped in sync. Some of my co-workers knew the songs... but they became a mess of high pitched vibrato singing that I coudn't understand. I really equated the whole experience to Medieval Times in the States. Very theatrical... but no other color knight except red... and the knight is Mao. People were requesting songs by the end, paying about 500 quai for one song, about $75 bucks. Needless to say, unless they were going to bust out a little John Denver "Country Roads", I wasn't forkin over my sheckles... Praise Mao!