Chinese-Inspired Samba Show Thrills Revelers at Brazil's Carnival
Throughout the second and final night of Carnival festivities in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, thousands of visitors danced and sang along to the music as a Chinese-inspired samba show took the center stage.
When the 2,600-strong United de Vila Maria school of samba came to parade through the sambadrome - a bleaching avenue where rival samba schools performed, the crowd of people cheered loudly.
Carnival people were surprised by all the sophisticated chars which honored Chinese culture and cultural icons from the all the famous Confucian wisdom, the main innovations, the giant pandas, the bright red lanterns and ferocious dragons.
The parade on Saturday night was attended by six of the other samba schools that introduced multicultural dance, music and customs well into the wee hours of Sunday morning.
In addition to the festivities, the theater show of the monkey king known as Sun Wukong in Chinese, which was the central figure of a 16th-century novel "Journey to the West," led the Chinese-themed parade.
The first float had an enormous dragon, as well as recreations from the Summer Palace when samba dancers shamelessly swayed to the beat of a Brazillian dance of batucada and with this swirled the traditional Chinese fans.
Cristiano Bara, the creative director and thematic artist of the school and also maker of the theme, and Adilson Jose Souza, President of the United de Vila Maria, dressed the drummen as warriors in gold shining costumes from China.
Also featured in modern China was a green float that illuminated to convey the Shenzhen's high-rise and intelligent buildings.
Liao Si, a Chinese teacher who is currently living in Brazil who had taken part in a Carnival parade for the first time, mentioned in Xinhua that he is proud to have a samba school feature China.
A Hunan Chinese participant, Yang Xiang, had mentioned that all 56 ethnic groups are in an episode to demonstrate China's unity.
Yang also said he had been present after the Hunan community in Sao Paulo had informed them of the carnival the United de Vila Maria, and as a result many of their compatriots were invited to take part.
The parade was also attended by Fabiana Flanato, a brazilian. She said that the whole thing was indeed a learning experience because it had given her the opportunity to learn more about China and that it also took about ten months to prepare for such a show.
The President of the Brazil-China Sociocultural Institute (IBrachina), Thomas Law, participated in the last float devoted to China's future, such as its role in the space exploration lead.
Law said he was very pleased about the festival and also excited about the parade representing traditional China and modern China. He also said that he hopes everybody has appreciated seeing something done very well and very full of happiness.
Besides the festival goers at the sambadrome, people all over the world have had the opportunity to enjoy the show, which had been streamed to some 70 countries.
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