Zigu Shen, Chinese Opera, Porcelain & John Carter

Yesterday we went on a search for a statue of Zigu Shen, aka Ceshen Tzu-Ku Shen, Keng San Gu Niang and Mao Gu Qi Furen, the goddess of the latrine and concubines. We don’t think we are ever going to find a statue of her. The people at the Chinese gods shop had never seen a statue of her. And, we found out that she is not a Buddhist, but is a Taoist goddess. But, from the shop we did find out that there was going to be a free Chinese Opera that night.

So, last night we went to the Chinese Opera. Couldn’t understand a word, but it was colorful and funny. We knew the plot was similar to a melodrama. The opera was loud and noisy because of the high pitched gongs, other instruments, and with loud high pitched Chinese voices. Chinese operas were originally acted by all men and in this opera the women actors had painted sideburns as if they were men. It was at the Kuching Hong San Si Temple, which is a Taoist temple. This temple’s host deity is Kong Teck Choon Ong, who is a transformation of the human being Kuo Chung Fook, who is worshiped in the Fujian province of China. The opera was part of his birthday week celebrations.

We are thinking that a lot of the Ming porcelain that we thought was from China was actually made by Chinese living in other countries, such as Indonesia. We went to an antique store here and the owner related an exhibit that had been at the Sarawak museum on Ming porcelain that said that the Chinese had established porcelain factories in SE Asia wherever they could find kaolin, which is a main ingredient in porcelain. The Chinese had porcelain factories throughout the area, and especially in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia where they exported the porcelain to other parts of the world, but mainly to Europe.

Because of this we have become interested in the town of Singkawang, near Pontianak, Indonesia. This town makes the Ming blue and white porcelain and has for centuries. We saw what was called a dragon kiln, which is a long narrow tunnel shaped kiln, at the ethnographic museum in Pontianak.

Earlier in the week we went to see the movie “John Carter”. We didn’t think it was that good. But the view from the cinema on the 9th floor of a parking garage is great. The building is confusing to us. In the basement is a food court, on the ground floor are a few shops, with more vacancies than occupied, and only the parking between the first floor shops and the ninth floor cinema.

Before the movie we stopped for drinks and met an American couple from Houston.