Sometimes just being a foreigner in China is enough to grant one minor celebrity status, and any foreigner with a bit of talent can easily turn that minor celebrity status into something lucrative. Several years ago I managed to travel my way around Yunnan by claiming at intervals to be a dancer, a percussionist, and a singer. Probably most interesting brush with fame, however, was an ill-advised gig at a disco in Dali, accompanying my friend, a legitimate rapper, as a backup singer/dancer/and would-be fire juggler.

Dali, as anyone familiar with Yunnan knows, while a beautiful town, rich in culture, can be a veritable nest of hedonism, a place where the expats of Kunming have their weekends away, partaking in various smokables, partying until dawn, and lazing the days away. Dali is also the home of many backpackers who, traveling their way through China, are sucked in by the novelty of a Chinese city where little old ladies dressed in minority gear sell drugs on the street corners. So, one hot summer, my friend, who I’ll just call The Rapper, got a gig in Dali. These gigs generally paid quite well, in particular for foreigners, and The Rapper was offered 800RMB a night to do two sets at a local disco (for comparison, my Chinese husband, an actual professional musician with over 10 years experience performing, usually gets less than half of that. Sure, that’s fair, right?), and was told to find two foreign women to go with him as backup. At the time I was fantastically broke and 800RMB a night sounded like handsome reward for a bit of humiliation in front of a disco full of strangers, so I readily agreed.

And so we were off to Dali for 4 nights, but we were missing one essential part of the puzzle: the second foreign girl to accompany The Rapper onstage. We figured it wouldn’t be too hard to entice a scruffy backpacker type with the promise of cold hard cash, something “dirty hippies” are usually low on. We had a few unsuccessful attempts (ok, that’s an understatement. I think approaching random women with “how would you like to earn 800RMB in a disco tonight?” probably was not the best strategy) but then we happened upon Jen, a beautiful girl with long blonde braids and a dancer’s body. The Rapper and I took a look at her and immediately knew we wanted her to join our ragtag ensemble. We approached her and she didn’t tell us to buzz off immediately- a good sign. In fact, she seemed rather interested in what we had to say. As it turned out, Jen was a fire dancer, and had been doing nightly shows in Dali in exchange for room and board, and was quite surprised to learn that she could earn actual money for her talents. She readily agreed, and we made arrangements for her to come with us to the opening show.

The disco in question was a Top One over in Xiaguan, which is the modern city counterpart to old Dali. The Rapper and I were also staying at a rather seedy hotel in Xiaguan, but making the trip out to Dali Old Town by day to, naturally, do what all other expats on vacation in Dali do -- get wasted. That night we brought Jen back with us to Xiaguan and the club party organizer was impressed with our find. Not only was Jen beautiful and clearly foreign, she was also talented. It was decided that she should do her fire dancing in the disco. It probably does not need to be pointed out that dancing with fire in a crowded disco probably violates every single safety code in the book, but this is China, and everything goes. Jen and I did not have proper dancer’s outfits so we improvised. Of course, Jen did not really need to accessorize very much, she had fire. I was looking quite drab in comparison. The Rapper was placed center stage with Jen and I on either side of him. I lamely danced the way one might dance in a disco, trying my best to look sexy but not entirely slutty. Jen, on the other hand, had poi, balls of fire attached to chains that one swings around one’s body, making fantastic patterns and appearing to come perilously close to setting oneself on fire. The audience and the club owner were both hugely impressed. The next we got a call from the disco. Was it possible, they wondered, for us to find another fire dancer?

But it doesn’t end here! Stay tuned for the continuation of “Impersonation gone wrong-playing with fire in Dali.”

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Related links:

China Explorer> Airport Security Fun
China Explorer>Lijiang in a Time of SARS (Part 2)
China Explorer> Dali - The Love of a Passerby
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