China 2016: A Picture A Day, July 24 – Children’s talent shows are popular in China. I haven’t figured out if there is a specific pattern to them, but I’ve seen quite a few! Chinese kids who live in large enough cities for classes to be available, usually have some sort of extracurricular hobby or talent: singing, dancing, playing music (often piano or violin), art, etc. They start young, because there is such competition to get into even preschool, that if you don’t have some “talent” you will not make it into the “best” preschools! Today, we rode our scooters around the lake and saw a group of kids performing near the beach area. We went to the shopping plaza for dinner before going home, and there was a stage set up with seating for a more organized looking talent show. In the top picture, there is a little boy on stage in a white shirt playing piano. The little girl on the lower left was singing, and the lower right is part of the group that was dancing.