We went to the BCCK (Borneo Convention Center Kuching) for the first time last night because we were attracted by the Sign Language Musical Stage Drama organized by TzuChi Kuching (a Buddhist Organization).

Now is the 7th month in Chinese Calendar, many Chinese thought it is  a ghost month but actually it is a month of filial (XiaoShun in Chinese, which means love and respect to parents) according to Buddhism.

It is a good time to perform the stage drama with the story based on The Sutra of Filial Piety.  They have put in a lot of efforts to make this performance a success.  The songs and the music were very nice, the sign language performance was amazing.

Most importantly the content of the Sutra of Filial Piety touched everyone’s heart, it let us know how our parents has taken care of us since we were in our mother’s womb, and explained that the relationship between parents and children.

Before the performance started, we took photos around, because they have set up some decorations, exhibitions and stalls selling books and CDs/DVDs outside the hall.

We also talked to a member of TzhChi to learn more about this event and their organization, and she gave us some souvenirs.

This is how the Borneo Convention Center Kuching looks like from inside the building.

We saw a news reporting scene.  It might be live-broadcasted on TzuChi satellite TV from Taiwan which called “Da Ai” channel.

Right before the performance started, we could see a beautiful sunset outside the building.  I took the photo before we went into the hall.

I have just created a midi which is the song that has been hiding in my mind for years. I need help from you if you know the title and singer of this song.

If I am not mistaken, I heard this song from radio broadcast between 1988+ to 1990+. It might be a popular song at that time. I only remember the melody and incomplete pieces of its lyrics. I have searched on the net using incomplete lyric but did not find any results that refer to this song.

Well, click on the play button below to listen first and I am going to let you know more clues which I have used in google for searching.

The voice of the singer is similar to a singer called “ZhengZhiHua” but I did not find the broken pieces of the lyric in any of his songs which contain the important keywords:-

1. Yuan1Yang1 (in Chinese). - which means mandarin duck.
2. Xian4Mu4 (in Chinese) - which means “envying”.
3. Zi4You2Zi4Zai4 (in Chinese) - which means “freedom”.

Part of the chorus keeps on repeating “WoHaoXianMuTa … XianMuTa” which means I envy him…. envy him“.

I really hope that I can listen to this song again, but I do not even know the song’s title and singer, how do I tell the DJ at the radio station to play this song or even tell the search engine which song I am looking for?

Here are a few pictures of the decorated vehicles which were left out in the previous posts.  The picture above shows a decorated vehicle having a jade Buddha statue in a sitting position and a lying side way Buddha statue in front of it.

The less decorations on this vehicle makes it a bit more different compared to the other ones which are fully decorated for the purpose of the parade.  This one also had Buddha statues on it but smaller in size.  However, the little colourful lanterns added light and specialty to it.

This one has Chinese words stated on its decorated vehicles.  They proposed peace and harmony.  Like us.

They put a globe with lotuses and lotus flowers on the vehicle together with a cartoon characterized boy in traditional Malay costume and a girl in one of the traditional Dayak costumes.

I think the globe could rotate because from this angle, we can see another cartoon characterized girl in traditional Chinese costume.

Another creative decorated vehicle.

Take a look at the crowd! :O

There were also a lot of people opposite the road.

We shifted our position to another road that the parade was going to pass through that night.  There were less people but everyone was anticipating patiently.

This little girl sat on his dad’s shoulder to get a better view of the parade.

It was time to stop in order to ease the traffic jam.  Most walking teams took the opportunity to rest and have a drink.  Some checked their lines to make sure it was still in proper positions.  Some checked through their lanterns to see if extra lantern was needed or lighting was necessary to the candles due to being put out by the wind as they were walking.  Then, the police gave the signals that they could keep going.

As a result of the hot weather, this parade has produced a container of mineral water bottles.

We are not sure if they were going to recycle these bottles.

This is the last posts on Wesak Parade 2010, Kuching.  The following are the previous related posts.

1.  Happy Wesak Day 2010.
2.  Wesak Day Parade 2010, Kuching.
3.  Part 2 - Decorated Car.
4.  Part 3 - Panning Photography.
5.  Part4 - Walking Team.
6.  Part 5 - The Crowd (this post).

#1.  A Shifu (reverend) was leading a marching band, as the first team of the parade for “opening the road”.

#2.  This reverend was carrying 2 creatively made lantern in light green and square shaped.

#3.  Little kids have their hair shaved every year during Wesak day to act as little Buddhas.

#4.  This is the team that brought most Buddhism elements to this parade.  The things that they were carrying were heavy, but those are the things that usually appear in Buddha sutra, such as BaoSan (the umbrella), BaoGai, ChuangFan etc..

#5.  The cutest big head girl in the parade.

#6.  Look!!  What was the little girl who carried their team’s banner doing?

#7.  The most cultural team.

#8.  They are in dark clothes, and their square lantern was a big contrast with their clothings.  I suggest them to wear lighter coloured clothes or allocate a car in front of them which should carry a big light shining on them.

#9.  This team stop for quite sometime in front of us while waiting for the traffic lights.

#10.  This team was not moving too.  It was easier for me to take their photo.  Each team had different types of lanterns, this type is the most common lantern.

#11.  A lady was looking into my camera.

#12.  Girls with paper lotus with candle light in the middle.

#13.  Yes, moving again.

#14.  Resting and waiting while the traffic was jammed.

I would be happy if you can tell me that you found yourself in my photos because the chance is not high.  Not everybody in the parade was captured by my camera, and not everyone in the photos above will read my blog, may be the search engine such as google, yahoo bing will bring you to this website.  :D

In this Wesak Day procession on the evening of the 28 May 2010 (last friday), most of the decorated vehicles and walking team were moving non-stop, unless there was a little jam in front of them.

It was a good time for me to practice panning photography.  I like to play with the shutter speed control on my camera, and the low light condition forced me to use longer shutter speed (even I have used the highest ISO setting) which was difficult to make sure the photo was not blurred.  I do not have an external flash light, therefore the technique of panning in photography was my solution.

Most of the time, I used horizontal panning where I moved my camera while pressing the shutter speed following the direction of the moving objects.  But this picture above is called zoom panning.  It was out of my camera capability, and I have done it using photo editing software.  :P

Look at their feet.

The pretty girls in traditional Chinese costumes were carrying the lotus light.

I had minimized the blur under low light condition by moving according the their movements.  But my camera’s movement speed may not be the same as their moving speed.  That is why, it is still blur.  The only thing that I can express in this picture is they are moving.  I still need to practice a lot to take a good panning photo.

Moving fast.

A good thing about panning is it can turn the background into lines to show that the subject is moving fast.  If the panning speed is the same or close to the moving subject, the subject would actually stay still and not blur.

If you do not understand what panning means, you can compare this photo with the photo above.  The above photo was taken with panning, but this photo is a static photo with faster shutter speed.  Luckily they did not move too fast.

Yes, panning effects can usually be found in car racing photos.  Does the photo above look similar to a racing car photo?  :D

Since my camera has limited flash capability, I will continue to take photo without flash unless someone sponsor me a flashlight that can be attached to my camera.  With flash, there will be another technique call slow sync flash.

I still need a lot of practice.  I have a lot of chance to practice my skill in taking the photos of procession because each year there will be many processions in Kuching from different Chinese temple besides Wesak Day’s procession.  :D

Coming up next, I will show you the walking team of this procession.

…  to be continued.