Showing posts with label
UNIMA China Chendu World Puppetry Congress Festival 2012 Russia Perth Australia.
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Showing posts with label
UNIMA China Chendu World Puppetry Congress Festival 2012 Russia Perth Australia.
Show all posts
If you read my report last month from the UNIMA 2008 Congress in Perth, you will know that UNIMA China's Chengdu contingent won the bid to host the 2012 UNIMA World Congress. The worst earthquake in thirty years has just been recorded in China's Sichuan province, an area that had been completely cut off from road and telephone contact due to damage from the quake. The official death toll now stands at ten thousand, with another ten thousand buried under the rubble, although these figures could still rise significantly. A huge aftershock registering 6,1 on the Rigter scale today hit Chengdu, the apparent epicenter of the quake.
Blogging a Quake, Live from Chengdu - Bloggers unite amid catastrophe in China's Sichuan province, raising questions about whether the death toll could have been lower. Apparently the Olympic torch relay in Beijing is continuing despite China's worst tragedy in decades. Now the question naturally arises regarding the upcoming UNIMA Congress and Festival due for Chengdu in 2012. Watch this space for details as reports come in!
French puppet master, Alain Lecucq, from the Compagnie Papiertheatre and member of the UNIMA Executive Committee comments on China's winning bid, beating Russia in hosting the 2012 UNIMA Congress. I have interviewed many of the international representatives today and found out their comments on puppetry worldwide, the Chinese winning bid and the state of our art... so keep tuned for more!
By a reasonably narrow margin of votes, China won the bid yesterday as the next country to host the 21st International UNIMA Congress and Festval in 2012. China was represented here by Wang Zhonglin, the Vice Mayor of the Municipal People's Government of Chengdu, the host city and Bangjun Wang, the deputy director of Chengdu's Bureau of Commerce.
I am most grateful that I am no longer part of the UNIMA council, because this decision can't be an easy one to make in the light of recent human rights abuses that overshadow the bidding from both countries, China and Russia. The remote fantasy island kingdom of Tibet was apparently never mentioned. Will China's one child policy be extended to a one puppet policy? Will censorship be imposed on puppeteers speaking out?
UNIMA's statutes state its objective in using this art to pursue human values such as peace and mutual understanding between peoples regardless of race, political or religious convictions and differences in culture, in accordance with the respect for fundamental human rights as defined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 10th 1948.
We as the body of international puppeteers look forward, once again, to use our art in promoting social and political change!
If you read my report last month from the UNIMA 2008 Congress in Perth, you will know that UNIMA China's Chengdu contingent won the bid to host the 2012 UNIMA World Congress. The worst earthquake in thirty years has just been recorded in China's Sichuan province, an area that had been completely cut off from road and telephone contact due to damage from the quake. The official death toll now stands at ten thousand, with another ten thousand buried under the rubble, although these figures could still rise significantly. A huge aftershock registering 6,1 on the Rigter scale today hit Chengdu, the apparent epicenter of the quake.
