The LongBow Papers

Liberal-oriented columns, commentary and archived articles on national and international news, politics, and the communication arts--with emphasis on China--by Joseph Bosco, author, journalist, director and actor; Professor of Drama and Communications at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Sunday, December 23, 2007

No Blue Christmas in Beijing

8:59 PM

It's been awhile since I've posted to these pages. Most everyone who knows me even casually knows of my decades of the Christmas Holiday blues, begun the midnight after Christmas, 1975, when my father was killed by a train on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. But that is not the reason for my absence from LongBow this Holiday Season; that thing is gone, for reasons better recounted at another time, perhaps another venue, but gloriously it is gone.

Yes, Hell, internal and seemingly eternal, is the only way I can label almost all of October and November, 2007. But, as said, that is gone--not the problem, mind you, just my attitude towards it.

I am about as happy and fulfilled as it gets in my work and in my personal life again, just very busy. Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra, after two months of work, went before an audience a few nights ago on the main stage here at BFSU and did so rather well, folks say. I won't know until I see the video of the 3-camera-shoot, from which we will edit and produce a 20-minute movie on DVD for our entry in the first round of the Fourth Chinese Universities Shakespeare Festival.

So, kind of at the last minute, I am posting a genuinely Happy Holiday Season greeting for the first time in way too long. However, it ain't original, I didn't do it. In fact, I am shamelessly recycling a Holiday Season greeting in total, even the caption, sent to me by Edie McClurg, one of America's most gifted actors, a dear, dear friend:

This is fun and nice! Click on the dogs, two at a time, until you have the puzzle solved and then you will see the card. I've come down with bad cold and am very behind on my holiday tasks--so forgive me if I don't send a real card in hand to you this year. Please know I am thinking of you & wish you well for a Wonderful, Prosperous New Year! Love, Edie McClurg

Merry Christmas

Click

Now, as proof that all is well, that I still exist in the flesh, below is a photo taken only days ago by a very kind and special friend (who is also shy and asks for no attribution). The picture was taken for a few reasons. The most compelling was that I would know where I was and how to get there again. It was also to note one of the more important construction projects propelled by the coming Olympic Games that is up and running now--another Subway Line and stations for a spiffy clean and rider-friendly system that is already overloaded and is just not going to be enough to handle the crush coming in 2008... .

But, then, this is China; here, the impossible (or its relative equivalent) is always only a mass-effort away at any moment and occasion under siege. So, who really knows how it will all shake out...?

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year