That's a lot of hands that... can't hear.
July 10, 2005 6:57 PM Subscribe
The Thousand-hand Bodhisattva dance is performed by 21 deaf, Chinese dancers. (NLTH: "Not Literally a Thousand Hands") Via octopus dropkick
Technically speaking, that should be 'Guanyin' and not 'Kannon,' since this is Chinese usage - but I'm just picking nits.
posted by bokane at 7:42 PM on July 10, 2005
posted by bokane at 7:42 PM on July 10, 2005
This is from this year's televised Lunar New Year Gala on CCTV - there's a good writeup of it here. The rest of the 5-or-so-hour-long thing was kind of disappointing, as I recall. Lots of bad techno and lame comedy.
posted by bokane at 8:13 PM on July 10, 2005
posted by bokane at 8:13 PM on July 10, 2005
Not Literally a Thousand Hands
Really... I thought to myself "damn, they're 958 hands short!"
posted by clevershark at 8:17 PM on July 10, 2005
Really... I thought to myself "damn, they're 958 hands short!"
posted by clevershark at 8:17 PM on July 10, 2005
I was thinking, how do they sync up to this music? Then I thought, oh yeah, they're deaf. Killer.
posted by fungible at 9:33 PM on July 10, 2005
posted by fungible at 9:33 PM on July 10, 2005
This is from this year's televised Lunar New Year Gala on CCTV - there's a good writeup of it here. The rest of the 5-or-so-hour-long thing was kind of disappointing, as I recall. Lots of bad techno and lame comedy.
I kept my tape of the show pretty much just for this performance. It's a good program to tape and fast forward through; kind of reminiscent of the 70s era variety programs from US TV, although a lot more patriotic, and the hostesses changed costume every 10 minutes. As I recall, CCTV 9 had the program either dubbed or subtitled in English, and most American cable and satellite TV systems seem to carry CCTV 9 these days, so it's pretty accessible (if obscure in the US).
Don't forget the obligatory appearance by Jackie Chan (singing, no less). His segment was ok, and there was an acrobat troupe that I enjoyed (can't find any stills or video for them), and one or two other musical bits were ok.
I was thinking, how do they sync up to this music? Then I thought, oh yeah, they're deaf. Killer.
In the full program they explain this (and had a short segment about sign language): If you look carefully, you can see some people in white standing at the corners of the stage. They cue the performers to keep things synced with the music.
posted by doorsnake at 11:18 PM on July 10, 2005
I kept my tape of the show pretty much just for this performance. It's a good program to tape and fast forward through; kind of reminiscent of the 70s era variety programs from US TV, although a lot more patriotic, and the hostesses changed costume every 10 minutes. As I recall, CCTV 9 had the program either dubbed or subtitled in English, and most American cable and satellite TV systems seem to carry CCTV 9 these days, so it's pretty accessible (if obscure in the US).
Don't forget the obligatory appearance by Jackie Chan (singing, no less). His segment was ok, and there was an acrobat troupe that I enjoyed (can't find any stills or video for them), and one or two other musical bits were ok.
I was thinking, how do they sync up to this music? Then I thought, oh yeah, they're deaf. Killer.
In the full program they explain this (and had a short segment about sign language): If you look carefully, you can see some people in white standing at the corners of the stage. They cue the performers to keep things synced with the music.
posted by doorsnake at 11:18 PM on July 10, 2005
Does anyone have a direct link? moz complains about a plug-in being missing, and IE dosn't load the page at all.
posted by delmoi at 11:21 PM on July 10, 2005
posted by delmoi at 11:21 PM on July 10, 2005
My roommate Tian watched that New Year Gala about four times -- CCTV repeated it a lot for a few days. He got a lot more out of most of the proceedings than I did, but I was awed by this dance, especially when he told me they were deaf. It must have required a lot of practice (and a visual cue pointed toward the stage). I also liked when Jackie Chan sang a song.
posted by jenovus at 11:22 PM on July 10, 2005
posted by jenovus at 11:22 PM on July 10, 2005
On (tardy) preview, I see doorsnake beat me to both mentioning the visual cues and the Jackie Chanvaganza. Oh well.
posted by jenovus at 11:23 PM on July 10, 2005
posted by jenovus at 11:23 PM on July 10, 2005
delmoi: the Adblock extension is incredibly handy for situations like that, since you can click the Adblock button and it'll show you the full URL of the movie. I typically copy/paste into wget from there, and cancel out of the Adblock dialog.
(and this is the URL you want for this particular movie)
posted by ubernostrum at 5:03 AM on July 11, 2005
(and this is the URL you want for this particular movie)
posted by ubernostrum at 5:03 AM on July 11, 2005
I had to wait till I got home to see this. Definitely worth the wait. A human kaleidoscope. Amazing. This makes an otherwise sucky day not suck so much. Thanks.
posted by missbossy at 8:15 AM on July 11, 2005
posted by missbossy at 8:15 AM on July 11, 2005
Wow, that was crazy cool.
Is it wrong if I kept thinking about how hot that woman in the front was?
posted by papakwanz at 10:09 AM on July 11, 2005
Is it wrong if I kept thinking about how hot that woman in the front was?
posted by papakwanz at 10:09 AM on July 11, 2005
Papakwanz, yes.
posted by of strange foe at 3:07 PM on July 11, 2005
posted by of strange foe at 3:07 PM on July 11, 2005
Papakwanz, no. No! A thousand times, NO!
posted by brundlefly at 4:01 PM on July 11, 2005
posted by brundlefly at 4:01 PM on July 11, 2005
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For more on thousand armed Kannon and why she can be shown with just 42 arms check out this page (scroll down to the section on Kannon).
posted by Alison at 7:35 PM on July 10, 2005