OK, so Western culture has definitely infiltrated China. I have seen McDonald’s, Starbucks, Pizza Huts, and the ubiquitous Col. Sanders many, many times since landing in China several days ago. (I even saw a Ford on the road once!)
But tonight, things went too far.
We were at a restaurant eating dinner (on the menu: Chinese food!) when a woman came up and started singing while playing a mandolin or something. She was dressed in what appeared to be traditional garb, playing traditional music … until her third song or so. Our mouths dropped when we realized she was playing the melody (but, thank goodness, NOT singing the words, at least not in English) to “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion (who is Canadian, I know, but still).
Gads. No wonder the rest of the world hates us.
This article appears in Mar 29 – Apr 4, 2007.
Maybe she was playing a liuqin. Or a pipa? But it seems to me that if she was playing Celine Dion, it isn’t at all a reflection of how the world hates us; Celine Dion is loved around the globe. My friend’s mom just adopted a girl from Africa and “My Heart Will Go On” is one of her favorites, too. And I wouldn’t be surprised if she was playing it for your benefit. Next time let the performer know that you only want to hear music that sounds exotic and “authentic” to you.
Is Wal Mart on itinerary? Go there, report back to us?
http://www.wal-martchina.com/english/walmart/index.htm
Yesterday (Sunday) KUAT-TV ran the “Very Old American Cars are still running in Cuba” thing. yepyepyep. Any possibility you buy a car in China, get back to us?
No Wal-Marts yet, Red Star. I did see a Papa John’s tonight in Hangzhou, though. It was quite alarming.
Steady.
While it may feel alarming to see the face of American corporations coming in to China at rapid pace, looking at the larger picture, countries like China have been in the background for the past 40 years cutting into American manufacturing power. There might be a Wal-Mart in China, but now everything at Wal-Mart here was built /in/ China. That’s a generalization, yes, but it also has truth to it.
We might be appalled that Starbucks and Papa John’s have storefronts in China, but then again we drive Toyotas and live our daily lives using Japanese- and Korean-brand electronics while the shirt on our back was made by labor in Indonesia or Bangladesh.
My point is that it’s not all going one way, it’s just that American companies are putting their “face,” or our culture, into China. With the massive growth seen in China, it has opened up a lot of room for American companies that see an opportunity to come in, for better or worse.
However, it is naive to think that other nations’ products have not come to the U.S.