(CN) Shanghai Bull Fighting

[Guest guest]

Tuesday, September 28, 2004 South China Morning Post

 

SHANGHAI

Carmen, please hold the bull by MARK O'NEILL

 

One day last month, as people in Shanghai were reading their

morning news, they read the astonishing announcement that a bullfight would

be held in the city's 80,000-seat sports stadium in early October.

 

It was to be the first bullfight held anywhere in China. Zhou

Weifeng,

the promoter, said he had invited three of Spain's top matadors to come and

fight the bulls to the death. His company is well known for bringing major

foreign cultural events to the city.

 

 

But then things started to go wrong. The city's quarantine bureau said

it would have to approve the import of any bulls, but that bulls from Spain

were banned because the country was tainted with mad cow disease. How about

Chinese bulls from the southern province of Yunnan, the promoter wondered?

" Not fed and raised in the right way, " retorted the Spanish side.

 

No problem, said Mr Zhou: " We will bring them from Mexico or

Australia. They will be as fierce as the ones from Spain. The most important

thing is the performance of the matadors, not the bulls. "

 

Since then, we have not heard a word on it from Mr Zhou. A stadium

spokesman said the event had been cancelled. Bullfighting would not be part

of the Shanghai Tourism Festival, which started this month and runs into

October, an official said. Mr Zhou's company, Jia Yuan Consultancy, is not

listed, so we could not ask him.

 

But the cancellation, if true, is good news for a different Spanish

cultural extravaganza. More than 1,000 people are rehearsing for a

performance of Carmen, in the same sports stadium, on October 15. They had

feared a bullfight would force them to hold their rehearsals elsewhere. The

set, ironically enough, is a recreation of the Seville bullfighting arena in

1820.

 

The lavish Sino-Dutch production will include carnival scenes,

flamenco dancing, horse riding, a giant fountain and campfires, a choir of

120 adults and 50 children and a total of 1,800 costumes. Tickets cost

between 150 and 2,500 yuan.

 

Carmen was first sung in Shanghai in 1918, 33 years after its debut in

Paris. Shanghai's was the Asian debut of the opera - one year before

Yokohama, Japan.

 

Such glamorous " firsts " were - and still are - the mind-set of the

officials who run Shanghai. They want to make it a modern international

metropolis, with major cultural and sporting events alongside the

semiconductor plants and glitzy shopping malls. The Formula One last weekend

was the most recent manifestation of it.

 

The enterprising Mr Zhou was slightly ahead of the game. The city can

have a singing toreador in a dazzling uniform - but not the bull he is

stalking.