China: The Musical

(2/20/07)

China is a musical place, and this is manifested in a variety of forms. Most notable is the karaoke (“KTV”) culture, the most enjoyed pastime of Chinese young, old, and everywhere in between. And perhaps this is one source from which the Chinese font of music flows. If a song plays – on TV, on someone’s computer, anywhere – someone will start singing lowly, and another will join. Most Chinese seem to be amateur vocalists, or at least practiced a far stretch from my homeland or my own ability.

But this is not reserved only to the hours Chinese will spend at a time in a KTV room – it’s often just a way to pass the time: strangers on the bus or subway grace you with the son stuck in their head at that moment. Some strangers do it for money, strumming guitars in the underground passages, their hungry notes carrying down the tiled walls, or itinerant troubadours wandering the subways, belting out the most classic Chinese pop love-songs such as “I love you like a mouse loves rice.”

And there are other acts of public musical display. Everyone in China has cell phones, all with fiercely elaborate functions and capabilities. They are constantly busied with one of these, but most often text-messaging one of their 1.3 billion countrymen. Returning from Shijiazhuang, however, I had the poor fortune to share company with someone who used of the other functions included in his handheld-beast: using his phone as an mp3 player, he shared with our immediate area 3 of his favorite musical pieces, one resembling Kenny G just a bit too much…

But if China is a musical, then the Lunar New Year was certainly the finale for me. At sundown on New Year’s Eve, Beijing exploded into a nightlong symphony of fireworks of all gunfire and bomb resembling kinds. We finally went out to watching, finding a show that puts July 4 to shame: 360 degrees of fire works lit up the sky, near and far. Looking down any street revealed group after group into the smoky distance lighting up colorful boxes. The sky burned red and the ground was littered with paper, casings, and sulfur powder. It was all amateur—every cracker, every Roman candle, every sky-burning, thundering flower chasing away bad luck and evil spirits.