Newspaper Article

NOTEBOOK / Democracy, Karaoke-style, Settles in the New China

Gregory McNamee. Gregory McNamee is an author and journalist based in Tucson

1998

Overview

Although I protested my unsuitability to the task, I was pressed into service there to inaugurate the song, recently added to the Minzu's jukebox. I am now glad I did. There are many worse songs to sing in public, and my reward for singing the gritty tune before a crowd of 200 or so Chinese men and women was manifold: I was roundly applauded, offered dozens of drinks, and treated to a good-natured skewering from a Chinese standup comedian. I was also given an education in modern Chinese politics, for the comic had more pressing business than simply to make sport of me and my decadent western ways. After the ribbing subsided, he left the stage and returned in a Red Guard cadre's uniform, vintage 1966. Above his head he hoisted a well-thumbed copy of Chairman Mao's Little Red Book of aphoristic political wisdom. As a disco tune rose in the background, he began to sing in a high, lovely voice. I could make out only a little of the song he performed, but it was clear it was a protest tune of some sort - clear because of the yi-er-san-se (hup-two-three-four) chorus, and also because of the discomfort that spread throughout the audience, seated within spitting distance of Tienanmen Square. When I asked a Chinese friend to translate the lyrics, he looked at me sadly and said, \"I don't understand his dialect.\"

• Publisher: Newsday LLC