China Gave John Legend the Green Light April 20, 2009
Posted by hck1 in : Uncategorized , add a commentNote: This entry was posted on behalf of Alex, who cannot access his blog from China due to governmental restrictions on the internet. It has not been edited or changed in any way.
Having international acts are far and few in between at China especially Shanghai. While many international acts are scheduled to make stops in Mainland China, Chinese bureaucracy always shows up and stops international acts from coming. During the first month, all of the excitement was towards the rock band Oasis arriving to Shanghai to perform in Mainland China. The venue was set and even some of my classmates bought tickets waiting for the band to put on a show. Less than two weeks before Oasis was set to perform in Shanghai, we were given the recent news that the Oasis concert was cancelled. The newspaper cited scheduling conflicts and the venue being adequately prepared for the band. Most expats (ex-patriots, usually foreigners who live/work in China) believe it was for one of the Free Tibet comments one of the Gallagher brothers made over 10 years ago. While the Oasis concert was cancelled, the Chinese government decided to give us some entertainment by allowing John Legend to perform in Yunfang Theatre in China.
The concert was packed, about 75% foreigners and 25% Chinese people. It was a pretty small venue seating only about 1,600, but it was good because it gave even the people in the nosebleed section an intimate feel. He performed all of his hits including, “Green Light, Take Me Away, Good Morning, Ordinary People and many others.” I was just sitting there lip-syncing and dancing with my classmates and other Chinese nationals who went to the concert. It felt just like any other concert in the United States, music overcomes any kind of boundaries because as long as you hear a good rhythm people are going to dance and bop to it.
Along with the concert, we were able to get into the after-party at Mint where John Legend made an appearance along with his entourage. I got to shake hands with him but many of my classmates were able to take pictures with him and one of my classmates was even able to sneak into the VIP section right next to John Legend.
My classmate was able to get us a bottle of premier Vodka from John Legend’s personal stash so we were able to enjoy the night in style. It was a very upscale event with drinks costing up to 80 kuai a cup that is outrageous considering I usually pay 20-30 at a bar. While there were many beautiful ladies in the house, all of them were preoccupied with either John Legend or someone who can actually afford a drink for them, which clearly isn’t me. Another fun night in Shanghai.
Spring Break: MTV China Edition April 16, 2009
Posted by hck1 in : Uncategorized , add a commentNote: This entry was posted on behalf of Alex, who cannot access his blog from China due to governmental restrictions on the internet. It has not been edited or changed in any way.
Ok, so maybe China isn’t the wildest place you can go to Spring Break as a college student, but China offers its own fun. Being study abroad students afford many privileges including Spring Break; my Chinese roommate is only given a three-day weekend from now until the end of the semester. For my Spring Break, I decided to be the ultimate tourist of China and travel to 西安 (Xian) and 北京 (Beijing) two of China’s historical cities exemplifying a lot of China’s history.
We first traveled to Xian to visit the famous Terracotta Soldiers (兵馬俑), which are the ceremonial clay statues of warriors and horses, which are buried with an ancient emperor used to protect him in the afterlife. Before I arrived at the center, I was expecting maybe 100-200 soldiers, but upon arrival there were so many Terracotta Soldiers there was enough to cover a NFL pro-football stadium. I guess the emperor felt like he needed all the protection in the after-life. What was amazing about the Terracotta Soldiers was that they were made out of a special clay when heated would be as tough as metal, which allowed them to survive the wear and tear of the earth for hundreds of years. The person who discovered the Terracotta Soldiers was a farmer. While digging dirt to plant for the new harvest, he soon found a head for one of the soldiers. For a short period of time, local peasants worshipped the head as a sacrificial item, but the farmer eventually took it to a curator who helped to unearth the other hundreds of soldiers. It is widely known the farmer is considered very lucky and on occasion he comes to the center to shake hands for good luck. I was able to shake his hand for good luck, but unable to take a picture because he is really awkward about photography.
In Beijing, we experienced everything a tourist would want. We climbed up the 長城 Great Wall, walked miles in the Forbidden City and Summer Palace, bought China flags at Tiananmen Square, drank Mango Vodka at Houhai, and live my Olympic Dreams at the Watercube. The first thing we did was set out to go to Tiananmen Square and see the huge picture of Mao there. It was an eerie feeling being only a couple of feet away from the street the tanks rolled past while the students were protesting. To think, they were my age putting their lives on the line for their beliefs, it was quite amazing. The Great Wall was just that, GREAT!!! It was funny seeing me and my classmates fall behind these old Chinese ladies climbing the Great Wall. In my defense, the ladies look like they were in really good shape.
The Forbidden City was gigantic; it has 8,707 rooms and occupies an area of over 720,000. It was the imperial palace of Ming and Qing dynasties and it was said that an emperor of the Ming dynasty lived his whole life within the confines of this Forbidden City. The Summer Palace was just as gigantic with a scenic lake set in the center of the Palace where there were several couples sharing swan boats, very romantic. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anyone to share the romantic experience so we decided to walk around and visit all of the temples and rooms inside of the Palace. On Friday night, we decided to hit the local bar area known as Houhai where there is literally close to a mile of bars back-to-back-to-back. They aren’t even given different names; the bars are numbered from 1 to about 47. We went to bar 28 where we got to enjoy the beautiful weather outside and listen to cover bands and people doing karaoke. The Olympic park was amazing, they built a subway stop specifically for the Olympics and the Olympic park seemed like construction was finished yesterday.
One of the interesting things that happened throughout the whole Spring Break was my celebrity status in China. I took pictures with at least 20 Chinese people who asked to take a picture with me. They were already excited about just seeing a black person visiting China, but once I started speaking Chinese they went into an uproar!!!! I would say something as simple as hello and they would start screaming in excitement. I actually enjoyed giving some Chinese people interaction with a Black person, because while China has made many strides to open up economically, I feel socially its still lagging behind.
Another theme was trying weird stuff during Spring Break. First, I drank ancient Chinese vodka that was used as medicine that had lizards, snakes, berries, and fruit twigs in the bottle. Needless to say it didn’t taste that good. Also in Beijing I tried so many weird things, which was one of my goals coming to China. I ate starfish (tasted too dry for my taste), sea urchin (it had wasabi sauce that made my eyes water and it was very slimy), scorpions (tasted like shrimp), and dog! I’m sorry for anybody I offended but the dog tasted just like deep fried pork.
My spring break was amazing meeting new people, trying new things, and also just getting some time to actually experience China and not be bogged down by internship or my other classes.
Clubbing Etiquette in China VS. USA April 15, 2009
Posted by hck1 in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so farNote: This entry was posted on behalf of Alex, who cannot access his blog from China due to governmental restrictions on the internet. It has not been edited or changed in any way.
As a young socialite in Shanghai, I have been to my fair share of dance clubs/bars/karaoke spots in the city enjoying what Shanghai has to offer. There are definitely differences between going to your local club in the States versus going to some of the clubs in Shanghai. I have went to a wide variety of bars and clubs over the past 2 months from all native Chinese techno bar to laowei (foreigner) central with all of the familiar songs like Soldier Boy.
Price
China definitely has a serious advantage when it comes to good, cheap drinks. Open Bar can run from 100-250 Chinese Dollars (running from 15 to 35) for drinks all night. Also, thanks to the one-child policy it’s even better for ladies who can find a ladies’ night with free drinks at least at one bar in Shanghai. Still costs money for me.
Music
Music is pretty much the same, Chinese people love American hip-hop/rap even though most of the time they have no idea of what the artist is trying to stay. They still like Lil’Wayne, Jay-Z and alike.
Girls
Girls are equally hot and are the same anywhere in the world. If you can’t buy them a drink or buy a table to sit and chat, they don’t want to talk. That’s just women, you look a lot better when you look like you have a little bit of money.
Dancing/Conversations with the Opposite Sex
This is probably the biggest difference between the US and China that I have discovered over the months. When it comes dancing and conversation, native Chinese likes intrigue and not too aggressive guys. As my Chinese roommate described, if you are interested in a native Chinese girl in a club you can’t be forward like in the US. In the US, if you say it in the right way you can probably be specific as possible about certain actions and still be in the girl’s good graces. Usually you have to make comments like oh, this club is fun, I really like this music, or any kind of random observation. After you have gained her attention, you have to really talk her up, and what I mean by that is you might need to dance and talk to her for hours just in order to get her number…. just to have a shot of getting her phone number. It’s a good thing, because it seems old-fashioned where you are less likely for those regrettable hook-ups and you remember a lot more than the girl’s name after you meet her. Another difference is dancing, I know it’s still a relatively new thing, but in China native Chinese don’t grind at most you can have an A-Shape dance. It reflects the more formal culture of China with the dancing and hitting on girls. It’s also been hard on me now because when I was grinding against a girl in the US the girl was expected to have the entire dance moves I just stood there and bopped back and forth. Now I am asked to always figure out a way to dance with a girl that keeps her entertained. What a change!
All of the clubs are pretty amazing, so I have many funny recollections of nights spent in the street, which I will save for another entry.