Enter the dragon.
Newport Mesa has just kicked off Ancient Paths, Modern Voices, a six-week extravaganza showcasing the riches of China’s artistic, musical and cultural traditions.
The festival should bring much excitement and fanfare to the area, as a procession of Chinese artists, musicians and other performers splashes down here during the coming weeks.
This cultural coup, which can only help foster warmer Sino-American relations, was pulled off in no small measure through the clout of the Segerstroms, the family who largely built Costa Mesa into what it is today.
I intend to see action filmmaker John Woo’s war epic “Red Cliff.” I also want to catch one of tonight or Saturday’s performances of the Quanzhou Marionette Theater. But I’ll be sure not to miss Saturday and Sunday’s ping pong diplomacy rematch at South Coast Plaza (which was built, of course, by Henry Segerstrom).
Ping pong players will be battling it out as they commemorate the watershed 1972 opening of China meeting between President Nixon and Chairman Mao. I’m a sucker for presidential biographies and all the intrigue and machinations of global power plays between the superpowers.
Lest we forget
The page one headline for Thursday’s package of stories that introduced the Chinese festival fittingly referred to our Chinese visitors as ambassadors of a “first-rate culture.” China’s culture is very old and rich, indeed, but as a representative of the fourth estate, a free speech institution, I would be irresponsible to fail to remind this newspaper’s readers that the system of government and human rights record of the world’s most populous country is far from first-rate.
The Chinese artists, musicians and other performers who are coming to town are expressing themselves freely, so I would hope. And they’ll be visiting a country whose democratic system and freedoms of expressions are enshrined in the Constitution. The Chinese government often has lashed out at the West for criticizing its poor rights record at home, and for interfering in the internal affairs of other nations with which it trades and engages in relations.
China in the early 21st century wields so much influence in the world that, it could be argued, the People’s Republic is now the sole economic superpower. But its dictatorial behavior has rubbed off on smaller and more vulnerable countries that have been pulled into Beijing’s orbit.
