On Friday, Feb. 16, the Korean and Chinese Students Association collaborated on a cultural show, dubbed Rewind to Remind, in an effort to celebrate Korean and Chinese cultures of the past and the present.
Rewind combined traditional and modern dances, musical performances, and martial arts demonstrations; the entire show was pieced together by a series of short skits based off of Fox's 24. Jack Bauer, played by Bryan Connor, A&S '08, was commissioned to help save Korean and Chinese culture from terrorists out to destroy it. Connor, delivering his lines with the help of what looked suspiciously like a script in his back pocket, ran around with his orange-tipped gun through a number of scenes including hilarious Celebrity Jeopardy and Pokemon duels and a brief stint on American Idol. During all this action, Jack and his "team" would occasionally break out into songs from some of our favorite boy bands of the '90s, including "With or Without You" and "What is Love?"
The show was divided into five acts, an intermission, and six acts in act two. Some of the most impressive acts included the Samulnori, which means four instruments, where the performers played four different types of drums. In the midst of a moving traditional song, the dancers shifted gears and had what can only be called a drum-off. The drummers split into two groups separated by their black-and-white shirts and faced off as challengers by spitting fake insults back and forth.
The fighting exhibitions were impressive, but the best parts of them were the choreographed fights. The control shown by the tae kwon doe and kung fu fighters in not hurting each other was more interesting to see than when they were actually fighting. Watching one of the fighters kick an apple off of a sword had every audience member on the edge of their seat. And every girl in the audience cheered on the woman performing Tae Kwon Doe who took down a fellow male fighter. The Kung Foo exhibition was equally amusing watching the fighters spar to the theme song from Mortal Kombat.
The show actually started later than scheduled due to technical difficulties with their projector. Thanks to the easygoing charm of Wells Huang, CSA's president and LSOE '08, who came onstage and honestly admitted "I'm here to stall," entertainment was not wanting. He even posed for The Heights photographer while amusing the audience with information about himself and giving props to the non-Asian audience members who had come to see the show. The technical problems were not the fault of the performers in this case, but the lack of sufficient time onstage to prep for the show. Dong Joo Lee, president of the KSA and A&S '07, revealed that the group only had access to the stage the day of the performance. With students going to classes during the day and the show beginning at 7 p.m., there was simply not enough time to get used to the space. Rewind could not even complete a full run-through of their show before having to perform that evening. Rewind was yet another example of why there needs to be more performance spaces at a liberal arts school like BC.
Even with the technical difficulties and slow scene changes, understandable (given the amount of time to prepare), one could not help but have fun at the performance. The audience was filled with fellow students and roommates who were cheering hard for their friends onstage. Inside the Robsham Theater there was an overall spirit of community without the separation that can sometimes happen during more professional performances. With audience members playfully calling out names of the performers they knew, applauding at their triumphs and sympathizing with mistakes, it was impossible not to get pulled into the excitement. There were even some alum of the CSA and KSA present to support their former clubs. As one girl before the show shouted out, "I love being Asian!" That was the general mood throughout the entire evening which made Rewind to Remind a cultural pleasure.
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