Wednesday, January 23, 2008

O tempora, O mores (Cicero)

from Latin ... can be translated as "Different times, Different manners"

Yesterday night was our company's "Chinese New Year Party". It is customary here that each company holds dinners or parties to celebrate the incoming lunar year and we are no exceptions.
This week is a "tour de force" of 3 different parties/dinners for different branches in different locations and luckily I skipped another 2 dinners earlier in the month. Usually it all ends up in heavy drinking, lucky draws, pictures with the staff, too much eating, etc.

Anyway, yesterday was the time of the party for our Dongguan factory workers: a 3 hours show for everybody and families, with dancers, games, singers, lucky draws, clowns, etc, etc, in front of an audience of around 1500 people.

I did not follow directly choice of the "artistic program", so it is amazing to notice how much the habits have changed in China in the 10 years I am around here.

there was a time ... we normally had shows of singers of classical chinese music, wearing traditional "chipao" dresses. Maybe also dancers of traditional chinese dance, with folklore costumes...

it comes 2008 and the dancers are very very "skimpy" dressed !!!!
it is really a sign of the changing times...


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No, actually. It can't be translated that way. "O tempora, o mores" CAN be translated as "Oh, the morals of these time!"

You may be thinking of "L'autre temps, l'autre mores."