Journey to the East

VAUGHAN WINTERBOTTOM

YOU can use chopsticks; at least you wont starve to death” – is per-haps not the passionate argument in favor of studying abroad in China. But this facetious remark, made to Elyse Ribbons by a friend as she was tackling a pot of instant noodles in a dorm room at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, was the beginning of a decade-andcounting China adventure for the Detroit native.

In 2001, Elyse, an Arabic major, had made all the arrangements to study abroad in Cairo. When the program was cancelled at the last minute, she was left plan-less in the U.S. with no student housing and no chance of enrolling on time for the new American semester.

“My friend – the chopstick joker – was a Mandarin major, and convinced me to go with him to China for a semester of anthropology under the Burch Fellows program. At the time, I think I could muster up three pieces of knowledge about China – the Great Wall, bound feet and Mao Zedong.”

Now, having spent close to 10 years in Beijing, saying she knows a bit more about the country is a wild understatement.

I met Elyse at the second round of the recent Mandarin Star competition for foreign students in Beijing. She was the first contestant up for the afternoon session of the second round, which saw 60 students make Chinese-language video introductions to their campuses and present them to each other at the competition. Assessment was based on how well a student answered questions about another students video, which he or she watched, together with judges and the audience, on stage. Donning a flowing gown redolent of the American flag, Elyse wowed with her mellifluous command of Chinese, and won a place through to the final. She was eventually selected as one of the competitions winning Mandarin Stars.

But the celestial sobriquet doesnt do justice to Elyse, who is somewhat of a modern-day renaissance woman. Now in her 10th year in Beijing, she boasts an eclectic array of occupations, including radio host, theater producer and playwright, actress, singer, professional MC, model, translator, journalist, author and businesswoman.

At the Mandarin Star competition, she represented the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts, where she is currently one of only two foreigners studying for a Master of Arts in Peking Opera. The video she produced for the competition shows her in a Peking Opera workshop training in this infamously rigorous discipline, serious practitioners of which usually train from age 4-5. Shes been learning for two years, and obviously has a talent for it.

“When I decided to come to China, I thought it would be an interesting six months and that would be that. I never imagined Id be in the country for a decade and build a life in Beijing,” says Elyse.

“I fell in love with the capital when I arrived in 2001, and on heading back to finish my studies in the U.S. I changed my major to Asian Studies with Chinese.” After graduating in 2003, she went straight back to China: “It was quite easy to find a good job teaching English at the time – a lot of foreigners had fled the specter of SARS in the country.”

After a short stint in pedagogy, which seems like the prerequisite profession for most foreigners who craft long-term careers in China, Elyse took up a job at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. “I had a passion for intercultural communication – I still do – and thought I wanted to work in the State Department. It took me four years there to realize government work wasnt for me,” she confesses.

In 2006, while still working at the embassy, she wrote her first play. Titled I Heart Beijing, Elyse produced the play herself and it ran at the HART Centre for the Arts in Beijings avant-garde 798 art district. Presenting a poignant and hilarious take on the intertwining of Chinese and foreign lives in Beijing and the fun and fireworks that ensue, I Heart Beijing was a big hit.

Thanks to that success, Elyse quit her job at the embassy and established her own theater company, Cheeky Monkey Theater. She has gone on to write and produce a series of wellreceived productions through Cheeky Monkey, a name she chose because she says it translates well into Chinese – and because shes primatal by Chinese zodiac. Some of the companys notable plays, which she usually writes in a combination of English, Chinese and “Chinglish,” include Kung Pao Shakespeare, Green Eyes on Chinese, Lethal English and Iron Brothers.

“The beauty of the plays Cheeky Monkey produces is that theyre cross-cultural. We draw expat and Chinese audiences alike. I like to think were doing our part to enhance communication between China and the West.”

“The shows also travel well – hopefully well be taking Green Eyes on Chinese overseas soon, possibly to Hawaii. Its about my experience of learning Chinese over the last 10 years; a sort of personal homage to the language and culture of the country I now call home.”

Elyse says that the theater scene in Beijing is small and theres a lot of room for improvement in the quality of shows. Plus the money isnt good:“I took drama studies on the side in college, but never really thought of theater as a money-making career. Im still not sure it is one– like many playwrights and performers, Ive been forced into an array of side professions to support my itch to scribble and perform.”

Some jobs have been quirky – the kind, she says, you only find yourself doing in China. “At the Olympics in 2008 I was recruited as the spokesmodel for the beach volleyball competition. In one photo shoot, the photographer decided I wasnt tanned enough, so he literally painted me brown. The only problem was that I was in a white Bikini; I was forbidden to sit down or place my arms by my sides the whole day. The photos turned out fine though,” she laughs.

Other jobs have been more in line with her interest in inter-cultural communication, performance and language. Currently, she is co-host of a radio show on China Radio International 90.5 FM in Beijing called Laowai Kandian, or International Opinion. “Together with a Russian and Serbian girl and the young Chinese co-host, we discuss international and domestic current events from our own perspectives. One recent discussion was about the opening of a nude beach in Guizhou. As you can image, there were differences of opinion.”

Her bilingual hosting skills also have put her in high demand around Beijing and beyond. Multifarious MC gigs this year have included the Bachelor and Bachelorettes Charity Auction at the Beijing Hilton, the popular Beijinger magazines 9th Reader Restaurant Awards, and a dinner for 80 leading Chinese businesswomen at the Zhou Enlai Peace Institute in Hawaii.

Elyse also somehow finds time to work as international communication advisor to Yan Jiehe, a prominent Chinese businessman whose company, China Pacific Construction Group, builds key infrastructure projects all over China. “A highlight has been interpreting for Bill Clinton, who attended a gala dinner organized by Mr. Yan in Shanghai. I was trying very hard to accurately convey Mr. Yans respect and esteem... Mr. Clinton was very understanding. The Clinton Foundation is doing very good work in China and Im excited that my boss might be working with the former U.S. President on some projects,” she says.

With so much on her plate, perhaps its a surprise that, two years ago, Elyse decided to go back to school.

“I got into Peking Opera through a friend, and the more I learned, the more fascinated I became. As my 30th birthday approached, I realized that my physical window for learning to perform the opera was narrowing. And so, as many of my foreign friends were heading back home to “do something serious,” I enrolled as a student of Perking Opera (performance) at the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts.”

Shes now 32, and in the second year of her three-year course. She says its incredibly demanding: “Most of my classmates are 17 or 18 years old and have been performing Peking Opera for over a decade. Theyre just built for it – short and superhumanly fl exible. Im behind, but Im trying hard and my classmates are encouraging.”

“I dont think Ill ever perform Peking Opera professionally,”she admits. “For me, its a passion. Theres just so much culture and history wrapped up in Peking Opera. When you know the stories on which operas are based, they take on a whole other dimension. Most people who watch Peking Opera know the plots back to front. They come to see how performers interpret the characters. Its a divergence from Western plays, operas, novels and fi lms – we like to know who killed whom, who loves whom. Chinese audiences know the story; theyre more interested in performers personal interpretations.”

Elyse hopes to use her Masters degree from the National Academy of Chinese Theater Arts as a conduit to bring her interest in Peking Opera and Westernstyle theater together. She has already finished translating and editing a Chinese version of Fame, the Musical, which she will submit as her Masters thesis.

“In the Chinese version, the ballet studios of the original are swapped for a Peking Opera rehearsal hall. Its sung in a Broadway style, but with Peking Opera elements mixed in. But where theres hip-hop in the original, theres hip-hop in the Chinese... Its a real fusion of styles.”

Elyse is currently negotiating the Chinese rights for the play, and she hopes to put on a run of about 100 shows throughout the country next year. She already has a big-name Chinese producer on board, and will assume directing responsibilities herself. “Im not known on Broadway, but producers who have brought shows to China know my track record of localizing projects here... Its going to be a blast,” she grins.

Also planned for next year is publishing a Chinese-language memoir of her decade in China. The book will be based on anecdotes on life in China from her blog, I Heart Beijing, named after her first play. “One anecdote – a true story –is called ‘Why my Chinese boyfriend dumped me for Stinky Tofu. If you want to fi nd out why, youll have to buy the book when it comes out,” she tells me. Ill have to learn a lot more Chinese fi rst, I inform her.

Its obvious that Elyse has no plans to return to America just yet.

As for family, she says she sees them when she can. It helps that Sinophilia seems to run in her family: “My younger brother has been studying Chinese since high school. Nowadays, hes a Taiji fanatic, and is hoping to start a Masters degree in it this year. He moved to Beijing two years ago and is also in for the long haul.”

“Its lamentable that so many people leave China after only a short stay here,” Elyse adds. “And its worse when they claim to be China Hands based on that short stay. Ive been here 10 years and Im still learning new things about the country every day.”