Word: girard
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...wonder is that this bewitching pageant, the hit of the fair, is contained in a single building in Las Plazas del Mundo. In fact, "The Magic of a People" is a human comedy on the scale of Tinker Bell. Its 41 tableaux were composed by U.S. Architect-Designer Alexander Girard, who used 8,000 Latin American dolls and folk figurines from his huge collection (see color pages...
Candy Skulls. Most of the carefully wrought effigies were intended originally as toys, or as decoration. They are important, says Girard because "toys are a natural, generic expression of a people. They reflect the whole of its life in miniature." Even trivial trinkets, Girard feels, reflect a potent folk tradition derived from Latin America's unique amalgam of cultures...
...long after he was posted to Pe king as French cultural counselor in 1964, Marcel Girard met Premier Chou En-lai and told him of an ambitious plan. He would like, said Girard, to put together the first guidebook to China since the Communists took power in 1949-and indeed, since the Japanese railways tried to produce one in 1924. Chou looked at the Frenchman in disbelief, saying only: "I wish you lots of luck...
...Girard needed not only luck to gather any meaningful information about the vast, xenophobic country, but a lot of patient plodding and unusual methods as well. His persistence paid off, and the result, Nagel's Encyclopedia Guide to China, was published in French last year and has just appeared in an English translation. A 1,504-page compendium of hard-to-come-by information on China, it should be a delight both for China-watchers and for general readers who want to shell out $19.95 for a vicarious trip...
...Girard first mobilized 20 youthful Sinologists who had been admitted to Peking on a cultural exchange program, then set to work. Some parts were easy. "The price list for food," says Girard, "was taken right off the stalls in the Peking markets, the section on Chinese cooking from actual menus of banquets we attended." The group questioned every tourist, businessman and teacher who came through Peking about his travels inside China, then sent the information out of China in the safety of French diplomatic packets. Forbidden to visit the grave of Confucius in Shantung, Girard contrived to overfly...