Looking Back
Content
Looking Rizal¶s Chinese soap By Philippine First
Back Ambeth Daily Posted 06:26:00 Ocampo Inquirer 02/09/2011
Filed Under: history, Jose Rizal, Theatre, relationships and dating TRANSIT TIME in airports today usually take an hour or two in air-conditioned comfort. If you happen to be traveling on business or first class, you can wait in a semi-private lounge that has food, showers, Wi-Fi connection and even massage and spa treatments to keep you from fretting about idle time. Jose Rizal always traveled first class because he was one Oriental who didn¶t want to be treated shabbily. It made sense to pay a bit more²if you remember Titanic the movie, people in first class were evacuated from the sinking ship first; everyone else had to fend for themselves. Rizal spent a few days in Hong Kong in February 1888 waiting for his connection to Europe and left us with his impressions of Chinese New Year. In his diary, Rizal wrote a very long handwritten account of a Chinese play or opera that he attended in the company of a friend who provided a running translation of everything that went on in Chinese. The story is complicated: ³A very poor but studious student looks for work. His father dies blessing him. Upon wishing to sell his body in order to bury his father, he encounters a merchant who gives him money. He becomes the future son-in-law of this rich merchant. The latter leaves his wife and daughter with a maid and undertakes a journey. There is a bad student, son of a mandarin, who falls in love with the fiancée of the poor student and he proposes to the stepmother to marry him [off] to her daughter, saying that he is rich, etc. The avaricious stepmother accepts and she tries and wants to compel the poor fiancée to withdraw his proposal, alleging poverty, etc. The fiancée does not want to do so, for he says that he has given 300 pesos in advance. They get angry in their dispute and she demands that he sign an agreement stating that he is withdrawing, but he does not want to do it. She calls her stepdaughter and wants her to persuade her fiancée, but she refuses. She beats her. He calls the rich suitor and the two men engage in angry dispute and they beat each other and after kicking each other, he [the poor student] writes the agreement and signs it, in spite of the protests of the girl who lodges on the floor and cries. He hands over the agreement to his rival. But the young woman snatches it away and tears it. The rival wants him to sign another agreement, but he does not want [to] any more. They beat each other several times. The stepmother picks up two brooms and wants to strike him [the poor student]. He snatches them and chastises the two on the belly and the body until he drives them away. His fiancée then gives him money so that he may flee and take his examination. He leaves. The stepmother and the rival plot to compel the young woman to marry him [the rival]. She lashes him, but exasperated, she accosts them both with blows with a stick and they run away. ³Both plot, but the maid hears them and the young woman escapes dressed as a student who is going to take an examination, with her umbrella, money and gown.
³Armed with a sword he [the bad student] pursues his rival, the poor student, meets him and rouses him, but a saint protects him and hides him from the other who finds nothing else but the money which he takes to the stepmother. ³Led by the saint he [the poor student] is conducted to the garden of a rich man who has left his wife, daughter, and servant. The daughter falls in love with him, and through the maid, she gives him money, advises him to continue his studies, and then marry her. He accepts and leaves. ³The girl¶s father finds the other disguised [the first girlfriend disguised as a male student] and takes her to his home and marries her to his daughter to the regret of the latter. She [the first girlfriend] accepts in order not to reveal her disguise. They marry but the bride intoxicates her and she falls asleep. When her cap falls, they discover that she is a woman; they explain and they relate their love affairs and they become very friendly. ³The naughty student and the stepmother fall in love with each other and the husband [the rich merchant], returning from his journey, surprises them. They quarrel and the student kills him and she flees. ³The other student, who is a mandarin, is going to fulfill his promise and asks for the hand of his second sweetheart and it is granted. On the wedding night, she introduces her friend [the first girlfriend] to him and the old lovers recognize each other. The woman tells him [the second father] about his [the poor student¶s] adventures. He marries the two and punishes the guilty. ³In the Chinese theater when what is said is an aside, the actor pretends not [to] hear it or see it, and he turns his back. When one rides a horse, he carries only a whip and this means that he is going horseback. When he enters a house, he raises a foot. To represent the raising of a curtain, closing of a door, etc., they make the appropriate gesture in the air. The actor who dies on the stage rises immediately and hides. Vomiting is portrayed, the wedding bed, the maid leads both to the room with a lantern. Red is the color of the wedding gown. The bride covers her face with a fan even in front of her husband. The wedding ceremony is performed by kneeling and invoking the divinity.´ I will ask Dr. Kit Navarro or Ellen Palanca of the Leong Center for Chinese Studies in the Ateneo de Manila University if they recognize the above play, to provide more context to Rizal¶s diary.
Back Ambeth Daily Posted 06:26:00 Ocampo Inquirer 02/09/2011
Filed Under: history, Jose Rizal, Theatre, relationships and dating TRANSIT TIME in airports today usually take an hour or two in air-conditioned comfort. If you happen to be traveling on business or first class, you can wait in a semi-private lounge that has food, showers, Wi-Fi connection and even massage and spa treatments to keep you from fretting about idle time. Jose Rizal always traveled first class because he was one Oriental who didn¶t want to be treated shabbily. It made sense to pay a bit more²if you remember Titanic the movie, people in first class were evacuated from the sinking ship first; everyone else had to fend for themselves. Rizal spent a few days in Hong Kong in February 1888 waiting for his connection to Europe and left us with his impressions of Chinese New Year. In his diary, Rizal wrote a very long handwritten account of a Chinese play or opera that he attended in the company of a friend who provided a running translation of everything that went on in Chinese. The story is complicated: ³A very poor but studious student looks for work. His father dies blessing him. Upon wishing to sell his body in order to bury his father, he encounters a merchant who gives him money. He becomes the future son-in-law of this rich merchant. The latter leaves his wife and daughter with a maid and undertakes a journey. There is a bad student, son of a mandarin, who falls in love with the fiancée of the poor student and he proposes to the stepmother to marry him [off] to her daughter, saying that he is rich, etc. The avaricious stepmother accepts and she tries and wants to compel the poor fiancée to withdraw his proposal, alleging poverty, etc. The fiancée does not want to do so, for he says that he has given 300 pesos in advance. They get angry in their dispute and she demands that he sign an agreement stating that he is withdrawing, but he does not want to do it. She calls her stepdaughter and wants her to persuade her fiancée, but she refuses. She beats her. He calls the rich suitor and the two men engage in angry dispute and they beat each other and after kicking each other, he [the poor student] writes the agreement and signs it, in spite of the protests of the girl who lodges on the floor and cries. He hands over the agreement to his rival. But the young woman snatches it away and tears it. The rival wants him to sign another agreement, but he does not want [to] any more. They beat each other several times. The stepmother picks up two brooms and wants to strike him [the poor student]. He snatches them and chastises the two on the belly and the body until he drives them away. His fiancée then gives him money so that he may flee and take his examination. He leaves. The stepmother and the rival plot to compel the young woman to marry him [the rival]. She lashes him, but exasperated, she accosts them both with blows with a stick and they run away. ³Both plot, but the maid hears them and the young woman escapes dressed as a student who is going to take an examination, with her umbrella, money and gown.
³Armed with a sword he [the bad student] pursues his rival, the poor student, meets him and rouses him, but a saint protects him and hides him from the other who finds nothing else but the money which he takes to the stepmother. ³Led by the saint he [the poor student] is conducted to the garden of a rich man who has left his wife, daughter, and servant. The daughter falls in love with him, and through the maid, she gives him money, advises him to continue his studies, and then marry her. He accepts and leaves. ³The girl¶s father finds the other disguised [the first girlfriend disguised as a male student] and takes her to his home and marries her to his daughter to the regret of the latter. She [the first girlfriend] accepts in order not to reveal her disguise. They marry but the bride intoxicates her and she falls asleep. When her cap falls, they discover that she is a woman; they explain and they relate their love affairs and they become very friendly. ³The naughty student and the stepmother fall in love with each other and the husband [the rich merchant], returning from his journey, surprises them. They quarrel and the student kills him and she flees. ³The other student, who is a mandarin, is going to fulfill his promise and asks for the hand of his second sweetheart and it is granted. On the wedding night, she introduces her friend [the first girlfriend] to him and the old lovers recognize each other. The woman tells him [the second father] about his [the poor student¶s] adventures. He marries the two and punishes the guilty. ³In the Chinese theater when what is said is an aside, the actor pretends not [to] hear it or see it, and he turns his back. When one rides a horse, he carries only a whip and this means that he is going horseback. When he enters a house, he raises a foot. To represent the raising of a curtain, closing of a door, etc., they make the appropriate gesture in the air. The actor who dies on the stage rises immediately and hides. Vomiting is portrayed, the wedding bed, the maid leads both to the room with a lantern. Red is the color of the wedding gown. The bride covers her face with a fan even in front of her husband. The wedding ceremony is performed by kneeling and invoking the divinity.´ I will ask Dr. Kit Navarro or Ellen Palanca of the Leong Center for Chinese Studies in the Ateneo de Manila University if they recognize the above play, to provide more context to Rizal¶s diary.
