music and censorship
after class today (for which three boys i hadn't seen since the first week of class showed up, incidentally), i went to the shop in the basement to buy a coke. as i entered the shop, i made eye contact with this very petite girl with vaguely red tips on her shorter fringe-y hair. she gave me a huge grin and kind of squealed to herself:) that's not an uncommon reaction to getting attention from a westerner. anyway, i looked away to go into the store, then glanced over at her again and she was still staring at me. "oh, how beautiful!" she said, out loud but to herself. you know, even when you know the complement is more for your race than yourself, it still kinda makes you feel good:) anyway, i proceeded into the store, got my pop, paid for it, and found this same girl blocking my way out, saying hi and thrusting a cd cover in my face. "do you know this song?" she said, pointing at one, then another, then another title, looking for the one she meant. it was a cd of western love songs. "yeah," i said, knowing that i'd know whichever song she wound up pointing to. it turned out that she was one of the girls who performed in the english song contest i helped judge waaaay back when i first got here. she sang "promises don't come easy." do you know that song? she pointed to it and i recognized it as one of those american songs that really are american songs, but not ones that you'd really know. or that were popular a long time ago. that song and others like it are frequently put on music compilations here. i'd heard this one in a restaurant a month or two ago and it really struck me as familiar and i couldn't place where i'd heard it. from some movie, maybe? anyway, i realized today that i only knew the song from when this girl sang it in the contest. she took me by the arm, bubbling over with enthusiasm, and told me that there's a party tonight in the student center and i should go. she's singing that song again, she said. i think i might go.
...man, i'd forgotten how funny that song contest was:) and it was a great introduction to what i'd soon learn were the greatest american hits in china. some of these are songs you'd recognize. there're lots of backstreet boys, britney speares, john denver, celine dion songs. then some music that you wouldn't know, but everyone here thinks we know, like "pretty boy," "it's a big big world," and "take me to your heart." i don't know who sings these songs, but they have pretty inane lyrics and are as overplayed as songs in america that are way too popular.
my students keep telling me they want to learn more about popular music in america. but by that, they mean the sugariest, stupidest pop music possible. one of these days, we'll talk about music during class and i'll tell them about what music is actually the most popular among the college-age set. i bet most of them won't like it:) if it's not pop-crap, it has to be "beautiful," which means slow and pretty. that's just the majority of my students, of course. with 250, there's a range of musical taste, although maybe not as wide as in america. i won't tell them they shouldn't like the music i don't like, but... well they want to know the way things really are in america, so i'll tell them. people like the backstreet boys, but those people are usually 13 year old girls.
over lunch today, i ate with nathaniel and david. one of things we talked about was internet censorship in china. i guess blogging is one of areas they're hitting pretty hard right now. one of the other teachers at my school (bill) can't read his blog. yikes. and nathaniel and david assured me that everything we write is filtered for key words, at least. on-campus, we nine are the only ones who get "international websites." anyone else can only access chinese websites. so not google or yahoo or hotmail or ... geez, so many websites. they make an exception for us because they know we'd throw a fit if we couldn't. internet would be worthless for us. anyway... yeah. bizarre. crazy.
...man, i'd forgotten how funny that song contest was:) and it was a great introduction to what i'd soon learn were the greatest american hits in china. some of these are songs you'd recognize. there're lots of backstreet boys, britney speares, john denver, celine dion songs. then some music that you wouldn't know, but everyone here thinks we know, like "pretty boy," "it's a big big world," and "take me to your heart." i don't know who sings these songs, but they have pretty inane lyrics and are as overplayed as songs in america that are way too popular.
my students keep telling me they want to learn more about popular music in america. but by that, they mean the sugariest, stupidest pop music possible. one of these days, we'll talk about music during class and i'll tell them about what music is actually the most popular among the college-age set. i bet most of them won't like it:) if it's not pop-crap, it has to be "beautiful," which means slow and pretty. that's just the majority of my students, of course. with 250, there's a range of musical taste, although maybe not as wide as in america. i won't tell them they shouldn't like the music i don't like, but... well they want to know the way things really are in america, so i'll tell them. people like the backstreet boys, but those people are usually 13 year old girls.
over lunch today, i ate with nathaniel and david. one of things we talked about was internet censorship in china. i guess blogging is one of areas they're hitting pretty hard right now. one of the other teachers at my school (bill) can't read his blog. yikes. and nathaniel and david assured me that everything we write is filtered for key words, at least. on-campus, we nine are the only ones who get "international websites." anyone else can only access chinese websites. so not google or yahoo or hotmail or ... geez, so many websites. they make an exception for us because they know we'd throw a fit if we couldn't. internet would be worthless for us. anyway... yeah. bizarre. crazy.