One silly thing I did see

This entry could belong in my WCE Blog but I really saw it on Chinese television when I was in Beixin.

There was a military variety show on one of the channels.  Guys and gals were singing, patriotic songs I presumed.  That wasn't a big deal -- one would expect that sort of thing in the People's Republic of China.

The strange thing, in the show, was the all-male dancing troupe.  Their performance I would best describe as Swan Lake done in Combat Fatigues.  There were about twenty men in the troupe.  They all wore helmets, multi-colored green combat fatigues, and black combat boots.  They all carried sub-machine guns -- if they were real or props I couldn't tell.

The troupe didn't march, they danced.  At times, they shuffled their legs back and forth like women doing aerobics.  At one point in their routine, the lead dancer did the splits, and knelt over and pointed his SMG at the audience.

I wished I could have taped the show, especially the dance routine, and put in on Youtube.  I wonder what Americans, hawkish about China, would have thought of the show and especially the dance troupe.  Would they still worry about a country that has its soldiers dance like ballerinas?  

There is no way that U.S. Marines will dance like that.  Of course, maybe that's in their future now that don't-ask-don't-tell has been abolished.  And if Obama is re-elected President and the U.S. Military Budget is cut even more, the Marines may have to dance like that because they got money from the U.S. endowment of the arts funds.