Concert Cancelled

The Jue Music + Art Festival is going on this month in Shanghai with lots of really cool art & music events on the schedule. Artists from all over the world have come to town to participate.

Last year during the music fest I saw a really cool band from Mongolia called Hanggai. When I saw that they were on the bill this year as well I was stoked.

One of my Shanghai friends is also from Mongolia. He's in with the band, so he had a pre-party for them at his art gallery before the concert. I was hoping they would play a little for us there, but I guess they were tired from their flight in, so we just hung around drinking Mongolian whiskey & munching on Mongolian snacks.

The concert was to start at 9:00 at one of the few dedicated music venues in town. We got there early to get a good spot at the front. We waited & waited for the band to come on. The audience started getting restless around 10:00. Finally at 10:30 a guy came on stage saying that the authorities had cancelled the concert. In the English version, they didn't give any reason for the cancellation - they just said that we should line up at the box office for a refund.

I can't imagine why the concert would be cancelled. All of the band members were there. I had seen them all earlier in the day, & after the announcement they all came on stage to thank everyone for coming. It couldn't have been the content of their songs either. Although I don't speak Mongolian, I'm pretty sure their songs are all about the grasslands & horses & drinking.

But anyway, the concert was cancelled & I was super bummed. As a consolation, I spent about an hour on YouTube watching their videos. These guys are absolutely amazing.

Take a listen:

Wuji
Borulai's Lullaby
Throat singing

Spanish Language Book Club

A few weeks ago I discovered a Spanish language book group here in Shanghai. I contacted them & they told me where to pick up the book, which I did with astounding success.

I spent the time between then & now engrossed in a travel memoir written by a Spanish man who traveled to China in the early 1990's - when China had just opened its borders to foreign tourists. I finished reading the book the day before the book club meeting.

I was excited to join the club, not only because I loved the book & wanted to talk about it with the group, but also because I haven't had much opportunity to speak Spanish since I left Arizona, & I'm feeling a bit rusty.

When I got to the cafe, everyone was warm & welcoming. Siéntate y placticar con nosotros. We had a great discussion about the book & shared some yummy Yunnan food together. It was delightful.

At one point someone asked me where I was from. The US - Arizona. "But have you lived in a Spanish-speaking country?" they asked. No - well, unless you consider the US a Spanish-speaking country. They were surprised & told me I have a Mexican accent. Ha! Of course, right?

But that means that all is not lost as far as my Spanish-speaking abilities. They say that one way to know that you speak a language fluently is when people stop complimenting you on your ability to speak it. No one at this book club meeting said anything about how well I spoke.

On the other hand, every time I utter anything in Chinese, people all around ooh & ah: "Your Chinese is soooo good!" It's great to have the encouragement, but it looks like I have a long way to go before I can say I'm fluent in Chinese.

Settled

MaryAnne over at A Totally Impractical Guide to Shanghai is surveying the masses about the need for travel, & I got the chance to put in my two cents.

She asked me to break it down into four categories: Leaving, Staying, Maintaining Stability and The Future. Here's a tidbit from each section.

Leaving

Motivation? Economics, adventure, a need to be unsettled for a while. I had lived in Phoenix for 13 years & was bored with the sameness of daily life. I wanted to shake things up a bit.

Staying

Most people seem to want to settle, even if they moved to China to do it. They don’t understand my nomadic cravings – nor do I really, but there you have it.

Maintaining Stability

I’m restless. Not sure why, but I’m not trying to figure that out any more – or change it. I’m starting to understand that I should just go with it – who else has the opportunities that I do? It would be a shame to waste it on settling.

The Future

Can I stick it out? Do I have the guts to stay? I’m not sure.


Want to read the rest? Click here!

Miss Communication

It's been an interesting internet week in China. My connection is super slow & I'm having problems accessing my blog & a few other websites. Today is the first day in several that I got it to work. I hope this doesn't last too long...

I really miss the internet on the outside.

What's That You Say?

When I was living in Arizona, one of the most frequent comments that people would make when they found out that I speak Spanish was "It must be nice to be able to understand what they're saying about you".

However, in all my comings & goings around Spanish speakers, I never once heard anyone I didn't know talk about me in Spanish as I waited in the line at the grocery store - or anywhere else for that matter.

Of course, I did my fair share of eavesdropping, but the conversations that I heard were almost always about mundane things - "Did you get the avocados?", "How much were the tortillas?", "Papa called & said to hurry up with the piñata." They were in their own worlds, talking about what was important to them - I didn't figure into their chit-chat.

I've been in China for a little over a year now, & I've been earnestly trying to add Chinese to my foreign-language repertoire. My current language studies include eavesdropping on other people's conversations to see how much I can understand. I spend my days surrounded by a cacophany of unintelligible language, but each day I understand just a little bit more.

The other day I noticed that I can now get the gist of what people are saying - for the most part. Even though I don't understand the details, I can tell if someone is talking about their plans for the weekend or what they had for lunch. & surprisingly, I've started to hear other people talking about me.

I often notice people noticing me. I'm a foreigner here & people are amazed by that. When I step on the subway, people often do a double-take then quickly look away, trying not to stare. Some people take photos of me with their cell phones, trying to make it look like they're checking their email. Children point at me & tell their parents they see a laowai, a foreigner.

All of this I've been experiencing from the start. But now that my Chinese is kind of decent, I'm also starting to hear people say things like, "Hey Zhou, look at the foreigner!" or "That foreigner sure is tall" or "I bet she's from England." Often I pretend that I don't understand, allowing myself to be the object of speculation, the mysterious white alien. It's kind of fun. My next language learning challenge will be to actually respond to their comments - in a nice way, of course.

Learning another language opens lots of doors for us. We can learn about another culture, speak to people from other countries, & get a much better understanding of the world around us. It also takes away the mystery & makes what was once alien & exotic seem terrestrial. Our fantasy version of a culture is tranformed into reality - a reality where we're not so different from each other after all.