Clown around during golden week in SW China

For those of you, like us, who have yet to make Golden Week plans for the May holiday, the Guangxi provincial tourism ministry has one word for you: clowns. Actually two words: clown festival. If you have recently overcome your irrational fear of clowns borne from a certain 1990 Stephen King made-for-TV movie, you might want to schedule a trip to Liuzhou in early May to bear witness to China's first international clown festival.

Xinhua reports:

China's first international clown festival in early May is expected to attract 50 artists from 10 countries to Liuzhou, in Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said a local government official on Wednesday.

The performances by clowns from the United States, Britain, and France and other countries will bring laughs and fun to the citizens of Liuzhou and an estimated 200,000 visitors, said Huang Shuping, vice secretary general of the Liuzhou city government.

The festival is scheduled to be held from May 1 to 5.

The local government estimates that the festival will generate upwards of Rmb10m (US$1.25m) in revenue, although neither the Xinhua article nor local officials seemed to answer perhaps the most pertinent question: Who the f*** is going to attend a clown festival in Guangxi?

The only thing that will save this venture, it seems to us, is to have China's State Environmental Protection Agency declare the event the world's first "green" international clown festival and point an accusatory finger at the polluting ways of US-based clown festivals. In doing so, China would prove its readiness to accept the mantle of environmental responsibility that America and its ridiculous clowns have woefully ignored for decades. Take that, Emmett Kelly.

Image from 4ever30something's photostream on flickr.