Karaoke and the Multi-culturalism issue
Ok, I heart Karaoke. Seriously
On Saturday night, a bunch of people went to Fantacity Karaoke just for some fun and it did indeed rock. It was kind of disappointing that many good tunes were not there available for our selection. We couldn't find "Paradise by the Dashboard light" or "Afternoon Delight" but for some reason we found "Wig in a box" from the beloved "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" rock opera and "Du Hast" (the German Version) by Rammstein
My boy actually put on "Du Hast" went up to the front of the room (twas a private room full of friends and such) and started singing in the deep German tone and dancing to the way the lead singer of Rammstein, Till, dances. It was horribly cute and funny. Though he would make a very convincing German male, I must admit.
His version of the story is here
And yes, it is posted on a Rammstein forum.
But all in all, some criticisms must be made. The Karaoke bar was more catered toward the Asian crowds than regular English speaking minorities. If i were to say the music selection book we got was about 100 pages, only 10 of those pages were actually English songs. the rest were divided among Chinese, Korean and Japanese music. I am not one to complain about my own ethnicity, but it's examples like this that really gets my goat when I hear Chinese people bitching about how the government doesn't accomodate the Chinese needs in Canada and how it should be the schools and government's responsibility to pay for ESL and other ethnically specific festivals for immigrants that make their own choice and through their free will VOLUNTARILY come to this country.
I mean Canada is great and I love my culture and I respect people of all different ethnicities and backgrounds. But in Vancouver, I think it seems more evident that Caucasians have become more of a minority than anyone else. When I went to elementary school, the school was predominantly 70%ish white or coming from European roots. When I "graduated" from elementary school, the population of the school skyrocketed and less than half of the class was White. People are now considered "strange" and "weird" if they DO NOT know what "dim sum" is or haven't tried "butter chicken" (which is delicious) or have not had sushi as an afternoon snack. If anything, it's the white people that are more affected by the world of multi-culturalism!
Sure, there are many people that have been marginalized and treated unfairly due to their ethnicity and I do not doubt that. But I think when my university is complaining that there are not enough clubs on campus dedicated to Asian mentalities when there are frickin 58 different Asian clubs there already (seriously, there's the "Christian Chinese Canadian Club", "Non Christian Chinese Club", "Single Chinese Canadian Club", "Christian Chinese Lion Dance Club", "Regular Lion Dance Club" etc), I think there's a problem.
On Saturday night, a bunch of people went to Fantacity Karaoke just for some fun and it did indeed rock. It was kind of disappointing that many good tunes were not there available for our selection. We couldn't find "Paradise by the Dashboard light" or "Afternoon Delight" but for some reason we found "Wig in a box" from the beloved "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" rock opera and "Du Hast" (the German Version) by Rammstein
My boy actually put on "Du Hast" went up to the front of the room (twas a private room full of friends and such) and started singing in the deep German tone and dancing to the way the lead singer of Rammstein, Till, dances. It was horribly cute and funny. Though he would make a very convincing German male, I must admit.
His version of the story is here
And yes, it is posted on a Rammstein forum.
But all in all, some criticisms must be made. The Karaoke bar was more catered toward the Asian crowds than regular English speaking minorities. If i were to say the music selection book we got was about 100 pages, only 10 of those pages were actually English songs. the rest were divided among Chinese, Korean and Japanese music. I am not one to complain about my own ethnicity, but it's examples like this that really gets my goat when I hear Chinese people bitching about how the government doesn't accomodate the Chinese needs in Canada and how it should be the schools and government's responsibility to pay for ESL and other ethnically specific festivals for immigrants that make their own choice and through their free will VOLUNTARILY come to this country.
I mean Canada is great and I love my culture and I respect people of all different ethnicities and backgrounds. But in Vancouver, I think it seems more evident that Caucasians have become more of a minority than anyone else. When I went to elementary school, the school was predominantly 70%ish white or coming from European roots. When I "graduated" from elementary school, the population of the school skyrocketed and less than half of the class was White. People are now considered "strange" and "weird" if they DO NOT know what "dim sum" is or haven't tried "butter chicken" (which is delicious) or have not had sushi as an afternoon snack. If anything, it's the white people that are more affected by the world of multi-culturalism!
Sure, there are many people that have been marginalized and treated unfairly due to their ethnicity and I do not doubt that. But I think when my university is complaining that there are not enough clubs on campus dedicated to Asian mentalities when there are frickin 58 different Asian clubs there already (seriously, there's the "Christian Chinese Canadian Club", "Non Christian Chinese Club", "Single Chinese Canadian Club", "Christian Chinese Lion Dance Club", "Regular Lion Dance Club" etc), I think there's a problem.