The Golden Tour has got interesting and found its feet at long last. The first performances have been given in Shenzhen and it is loud and lurid to say the least.
As so often happens in China, what happens around the show is just as incredible, maybe even more crazy, than the show itself. This one was a real battle to pull off. The festival as a whole had a lukewarm welcome from the authorities, shopkeepers and security guards, in spite of the fact it was publicly funded. The child-friendly events happening in designated squares were fine but the dazzling, enigmatic golden tour was barely tolerated.
The audio side of the show broadened out into a celebration of kitsch. More specifically, songs which were already kitsch and were then given a DJ remix which made them only more kitsch still. What's more, there were examples from different countries, including China like the song below. While the music is terrible, it is not so much worse than what you might hear at many tourist attractions here. It was therefore safe to play, even though the intent was satirical. In the context of this gentrified neighborhood, however, the sound of vulgar Chinese music was particularly grating as it reminds people too much of the grannies who dance to it in public squares up and down the country.
The text is where this one pushed the limits. Delivered with a broad smile, it consisted of introductions and commentary to various parts of this newly-built ancient town. The area is contradictory: it is presented as an historic walled town in the ultra modern city of Shenzhen. What's more, it was until recently a run down neighborhood for migrant workers where what little history that was left, was neglected and tumbledown. Since property developers moved in, it has been restored, augmented and turned into a model community. The neighborhood has a political significance too. It is claimed as the oldest settlement in the area and therefore the root of all culture not only in Shenzhen but the root of Hong Kong and Macau too. There are a lot of texts online that push this politicized archeological line. These were one part of the mix I auto-translated, turned into a speech file, then repeated the audio of from a set of headphones.
So too were there out of date descriptions from official newspapers that flatly contradicted some of the contemporary narrative as well as plain marketing speak from the property developer which moved it into corporate branding, art speak and nationalism. Throw this all together and give it a kitsch veneer and you have The Golden Tour. I'm lucky I got away with it, to be honest! I delivered it in broken Chinese the first day and that was a harsh show but when done in English, with a child friendly smile, using official information only, it was just about OK.
I ended up being shadowed by security guards itching to stop it, having to do it with minimal amplification, off the main locations and constantly moving. Part of the problem with the neighborhood is that it has been accorded this political and commercial significance and that makes it far less amenable to public art events. The shop owners want the public that an art event brings in, but they don't want the actual art. The type of art that is suitable for this type of place becomes more and more narrow and official in style too. I saw the same thing happen in Shanghai's Xintiandi which has become a rather arid site of red tourism and shopping. Next, I will have to make The Golden Tour somewhere a bit easier to work in. It may be time to bring the formula to Europe, for example. After all, the soundtrack had plenty of Eurokitsch like this:
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