Ben Ross' Blog

Urban Sociology and Urbanism, in China and North America

47 Comments »

1. Jeremy said,

   July 31, 2007 at 9:28 pm

   Ben,

   That’s fantastic – I’d like the reward money too but am not sure that I could be that brave. It’s a little frustrating that you have to play out a role of what they expect foreigners to act like on the show as opposed to just saying what you would like to (whether or not they force you to dress up in a certain way)

   Any chance of a video? You could post it up to youtube and then integrate it into your post.

2. Don Allison said,

   July 31, 2007 at 9:48 pm

   Ben, another inward looking post…all about Jim and his night of stardom. Trite, trivial, puerile…many words come to mind. My favorites are juvenile meanderings. Sigh.

3. Peter said,

   August 1, 2007 at 1:56 am

   That’s great and fantastic story Ben!
   After basking in your fame and glory on the tube, you can enter a Chinese version of “dancing with the stars”.

4. maxiewawa said,

   August 1, 2007 at 9:28 am

   These Chinese are crazy. *tok tok*

5. LT said,

   August 1, 2007 at 9:40 am

   Dude, you didn’t give a shout out to your barber-shop guys and gals? You could have made that shop ‘de place to get mad hair!

6. Woaizhongguo said,

   August 1, 2007 at 9:52 am

   I haven’t read your post all the way through yet (it’s a long one) but your parallel of parading an Indian guy on American TV really makes me think about how odd things are here and yet, how after a while, we forget how absurd it is. This laowai obsession is a very good case in point. Imagine walking down Oxford Street in London and all the English staring and pointing at a lone Asian guy and whispering (foreigner, foreigner)! But I know I’ve been here too long because even I stare now when I see a foreigner in some of the more local parts of Shanghai (although not in the places where hundreds of them gather together).

7. pete said,

   August 1, 2007 at 10:40 am

   Dude -

   You probably already know, but you didn’t mention it, hence the comment, that the Christian Science Monitor piece was re-printed in the City section of the South China Morning Post on Monday (properly attributed of course). It doesn’t appear to be in the online edition.

   Anyway, thought you’d like to know and thanks, I enjoy your blog.

   p.

8. Anonymous said,

   August 1, 2007 at 11:55 am

   Now Americans have their own version of Dashan to love or revile…

9. Benjamin Ross said,

   August 1, 2007 at 12:11 pm

   @Pete

   I was unaware it was run in the South China Morning Post…thanks for pointing that out.

   @Anonymous

   Don’t even go there!

10. canrun said,

    August 1, 2007 at 1:38 pm

    Ben,
    I really go back and forth as to whether I respect you or not (on a purely China-centric level). The barber shop experience and subsequent essays were enlightening and showed your potential as a sincere, caring and mature ethnographer. It made me respect you deeply. However, your incessant appearances on Chinese TV damn near take away all respect I have for you in these regards. Are you not totally embarrassed in the least that you come off to those who you have “studied” so earnestly as nothing more than a dancing bear in a tutu? I just don’t “get” what you’re trying to do here and I feel embarrassed for you. That’s not a personal attack and it does not take away my admiration of your barber shop experience. (Though I personally would use the TV time to get laid, but that’s just me…)

11. The Wizard said,

    August 1, 2007 at 3:08 pm

    I love your blog and read it regularly. Amazing stuff (I started reading it via a link to your days as a barber shop trainee). So, with that preface, please don’t be offended at the following opinion:

    Chinese yoyo-master owns you! Seriously, it’s a travesty of justice that you beat Yo-yo Master.

    Your description of this particular program reminds me of Japanese variety shows from the eighties. I remember one called “World of Surprise,” Which featured pro wrestler Giant Silva (who is like 8 feet tall), the late Puerto Rican actor Nelson De La Rosa (he’s Marlon Brando’s little buddy in the remake of THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU), the obese American twins from REAL PEOPLE, a German woman with breasts “the size of Ethiopia” (I credit GWAR with that analogy), a man from France who could fit himself into a spinning dryer (clearly the heating device was removed), and a man from Mainland China that could chew broken glass and keep a fire lit in his mouth for five minutes.

12. Ismail Haddith said,

    August 1, 2007 at 5:44 pm

    came across this blog entry, and i have to say, you have the typical, western man arrogance syndrome, meaning, a westerner who comes to China and feels he is God’s gift to everyone. judging by the title this blog entry, need i say more?

13. Benjamin Ross said,

    August 1, 2007 at 8:01 pm

    Canrun says:

    The barber shop experience and subsequent essays were enlightening and showed your potential as a sincere, caring and mature ethnographer. It made me respect you deeply. However, your incessant appearances on Chinese TV damn near take away all respect I have for you in these regards

    Canrun-

    Thanks for the comment. I have been thinking about it for the past couple hours. For me, I do TV shows for a few reasons. First and foremost, it’s easy money. Secondly, it’s a lot of fun, and it gives me a chance to experience something I would not have the chance to experience in ‘normal’ life…after all this was the main reason I came to China in the first place. Thirdly (I hope this doesn’t get me beaten up on the playground by other foreigners), believe it or not, I actually enjoy singing Chinese songs. It started because by virtue of being a foreigner living in China, I found myself invited out to KTV once or twice a month. I never wanted to be the party pooper who wouldn’t sing a song, and got tired of having to perform the typical English standards (i.e. Take Me to Your Heart, Country Roads) just to prevent my host from losing face. So I started learning a few Chinese songs, to build up my KTV arsenal. Another positive effect from this I found is that no matter how much you might dislike the music, learning Chinese songs is a great way to study Chinese. So to make a long story short, I actually enjoy singing Chinese songs, have put effort into it, and think I can do it well enough that I am willing to do it in front of an audience. Granted, a great deal of my entertainment value is in the novelty of seeing a foreigner do what foreigners don’t typically do, but even Da Shan (the king of the laowai performers) is the same way as well. And as corny as Da Shan is, he still is incredibly talented, but his success is still mainly contingent on being an oddity. I am by no means attempting to compare myself to Da Shan, but rather, just bringing him up to illustrate that it is impossible to remove the novelty aspect from foreign performers in China. Am I a good enough performer to be on TV if I were not a foreigner? Absolutely not. Da Shan…maybe so.
    For me, performing on Chinese TV is a chance to do something I enjoy, make some easy money, and invariably give me a funny tale to tell either to friends back home or readers of the blog. In terms of ethnographic value, Canrun is right…there really isn’t much, at least not in the way I have presented it in this post or this one or this one. It’s really just a humorous experience, and that’s it. As much as I enjoy digging deep into everyday happenings in China, sometimes it’s refreshing to just sit back, let the humor rise to the top, and leave the rest behind.

14. Jet So said,

    August 1, 2007 at 9:05 pm

    All this fuss about foreigners’ exhibiting their talents in Chinese ways and manners (e.g. articulating Xiangsheng, playing Fengqin) around Chinese New Year’s just follows the decades-old Japanese trend to include local Gaijins in some of their year-end variety shows.

15. Don Allison said,

    August 1, 2007 at 10:44 pm

    It is nice to see that I am not the only one that perceives this blog as pure self-indulgence from an arrogant young man.

16. wylly said,

    August 1, 2007 at 11:21 pm

    Ben: Delightful blog. I discovered it thru Pasden’s link to the barbershop adventure, which I followed eagerly. I appreciate Canrun’s comments & your response. Why does Don Allison waste his time reading the thing?
    I was puzzled by the lack of response to the Great Helmsman’s paintballing. Too politically sensitive? The first thing I thought about when visiting Tienanmen was paintballing the portrait…

17. Emil said,

    August 2, 2007 at 12:39 am

    As a foreigner who was living in a remote city, Hefei, I also took part in some tv-shows, mostly local. I dident feel that I in anyway lost my integrity or in any way being embarrased about myself.

    I felt it was a really funny experience, and I couldent care less if they made me play a role as a laowai in their eyes.

    It is just tv, and I dont think these kind of shows should be looked up on as serious presentations of any person. Maybe it is different if you live in a big international chinese city

18. Mark said,

    August 2, 2007 at 12:53 am

    I think it’s fine for foreigners to perform in China simply because they’re foreign but I think the make-the-laowai-do-silly-things aspect needs to be scaled back. When foreigners’ genuine performing talents are recognized, more foreigners will be eager to perform, and the cycle perpetuates. As it stands now, when a few foreigners get splashed across the tube acting all crazy, it whets China’s appetite for goofy foreigners, and then that unfortunate cycle perpetuates. Foreigners become indignant at Chinese for thinking of them as circus clowns, and Chinese mock the foreigners for leaping to tickle their funny bone. I’ll admit I’ve had my goofy performance moments on TV (thankfully it was just local) and in clubs, but especially in a small city, I have an obligation to myself, other laowai, and China in general to be a dignified person. I’m down with Chinese songs, fake infatuations for entertainment, even stuffed sharks- but dude, that wig….

19. Wei said,

    August 2, 2007 at 12:55 am

    Ben, you did a great job in singing on TV, but perhaps a little rough job in writing a blog story. What impresses many visitors here is not how you managed through the TV show, but how ridiculous those people involved in the show were in your eyes. I understand “sometimes it’s refreshing to just sit back, let the humor rise to the top, and leave the rest behind.” But as long as you keep a safety margin between you and the Chinese, you’ll always be as self-conscious as anything. A little suggestion: perhaps next time you may want to write something from a perspective of an ordinary person, trying to ditch those “back-in-US-here-in-China” phrasing, then see how it goes.

20. Benjamin Ross said,

    August 2, 2007 at 2:07 am

    Wylly says:

    I was puzzled by the lack of response to the Great Helmsman’s paintballing. Too politically sensitive?

    Wylly-

    Normally, I never censor any comments on this blog, but I did have to delete a couple for fear of another situation like I had last month…As long as things are phrased properly, this normally isn’t a problem…keywords, keywords, keywords.

21. Chip said,

    August 2, 2007 at 9:06 am

    This is why I think it quite ironic and hypocritical when we complain about racism in China. As long as we participate in activities like this, it only further encourages ignorance. I am tired of people assuming that since I’m white, I must be interesting, goofy, and speak bad chinese. How dissapointed are people when they find out I’m a very boring person that speaks decent chinese. Oh the horror.

22. Mandarinstudent said,

    August 2, 2007 at 11:52 am

    “sometimes it’s refreshing to just sit back, let the humor rise to the top, and leave the rest behind.”

    Man, it is not humorous, it is embarrassing! For someone who has lived in China for so long, you should know the concept of “face”. Every time people like you go on tv and act like a bumbling ass, you make the rest of us foreigners “lose face”. I cringe in embarrassment every time I see something like that on TV, knowing that Chinese people watch it and think that we are all like that. Don’t you understand that?

23. canrun said,

    August 2, 2007 at 1:55 pm

    Fair Enough, Ben. Again that was not meant as an attack. To each his own and I respect the choices you make, though our opinions may differ as to the consequences. Can’t totally blame you here…especially if there is money involved.

24. Benjamin Ross said,

    August 2, 2007 at 5:23 pm

    Mandarinstudent-

    It’s possible I didn’t make myself clear enough on the content of the performance. In the original post I did not want to toot my own horn, but the reason I was the only foreigner chosen (from many others who had appeared on TV before) to be on the show is because I have actually put effort into learning Chinese songs, and can do it quite well. I was not on stage making an ass of myself, but rather performing a song which I had practiced over many times already. To be honest, I considered it a personal accomplishment to properly sing a Chinese song on Chinese TV. As for wearing a goofy wig and a fake guitar, that’s just my personality, I’m goofy, I like to have a good time. If you don’t believe me, I’ll send you some old Halloween pictures. My senior year in college, my band was playing a Halloween gig, and we all dressed up like famous rock stars. As the bassist, I dressed up as Gene Simmons, complete with skin-tight black clothing, makeup, and fake blood projecting from my mouth.

    …After the show (again, this is for argument’s sake not to toot my own horn) I got several compliments from Chinese people in the audience, and not the “wow, you can say ni hao, your Chinese is excellent” variety but legitimate ones. One of the viewers even told me he felt proud to see a foreigner do an honest rendition of a Chinese rock song. It gave him a feeling of legitimacy for the music he grew up loving.

    So in my attempt to add humor to what I would consider an invariably humorous situation, it is possible the essence of the show got lost in the article, and for that I take responsibility. I should be getting a VCD of the show soon, and I can put a clip of the performance up and you can all decide for yourselves what you think. (If anybody knows how to convert a VCD into a format I could put on this blog, let me know).

25. Alan said,

    August 2, 2007 at 11:34 pm

    “I cringe in embarrassment every time I see something like that on TV, knowing that Chinese people watch it and think that we are all like that.”

    @Mandarinstudent

    I don’t think Chinese people would think all Westerners are goofy just because a handful of westerners put on a goofy show on Chinese TV. I also don’t think Chinese TV producers want foreigners in their show so that they can embarrass them. To the contrary, I think most Chinese people – I would say all of those who have come into close contact with westerners, such as college students – are aware that westerners are very humorous. To the Chinese audience, being goofy is just being humorous. Being able to make fun of oneself is healthy. Chinese culture, being it from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, or Timbatu, generally produces a group of very uptight people. As you probably have observed in China, Chinese people are so consumed with “saving face” that they can’t bear to make fun of themselves in public. But deep inside, they admire the ability to be a goofy character and wish they had the gut to do a funny gig on the stage. So knock yourself out if you have a chance.

    On the other hand, I can relate to Mandarinstudent’s sentiment as quoted above. For a Chinese living in America, every time when I see an embarrassing thing happening to another Chinese, deep inside me I feel embarrassed as well. I keep telling myself to think in terms of individuals and not in people group. For example, one time a fire truck was on its way to a rescue. The horn was blaring and every car in its way pulled over and moved to the side of the road except for a Toyota Corrola driven by – you guessed it right – a Chinese lady. She stopped in front of a traffic light and just sat there, waiting for the light to change to green. Meanwhile, traffics from all directions made way for the fire truck except for the Toyota Corrola. Finally the fire truck changed lane to bypass the Toyota Corrola. The whole thing went on for a minute or two with the Toyota Corrola. I was totally embarrassed just because another Chinese was ignorant and severely lacked common sense. I know I would not have felt the same way if I were living in China when a Chinese person demonstrated such a retarded, lack of common sense behavior with a fire truck. Sometimes you feel like living in a fish bowl when living in a foreign country. Local people do tend to look at foreigners as a group instead of individuals.

    Take my motto while living in China. If you enjoy it, it’s worth it, provided of course it’s moral, ethical and don’t get you into the trouble with the Big Brother.

26. Mark said,

    August 3, 2007 at 12:57 am

    This whole issue of foreigners performing on TV and comparisons to Da Shan inspired me to write an email to Da Shan to get his opinion about himself and the Da Shan bashing, and he was kind enough to answer me, and we had a small email dialogue. I told him how people are quick to hate on Da Shan and blame him for China’s eagerness to see goofy laowai circus acts, but he sees himself as a serious performer (and rightly so- I’ve never seen him do anything blatantly silly on TV) and he just happens to be very successful in a country that hasn’t seen much outside entertainment, hence China’s entertainment expectations from foreigners is still kinda narrow. But he isn’t the cause or perpetuation of anything- he’s just a performer who is a foreigner and can speak Chinese. These things are all incidental and maybe he is the token foreigner sometimes but he has legitimately earned his success. He’s just the easy target of foreigner frustration, when it’s China’s expectations from foreign performers that should be the villain. In fact, Da Shan combats this, offering genuinely talented performances instead of monkey antics. I’m not saying Ben’s song was monkey antics cuz I didn’t see it, but I’m just saying that it’s not fair to compare any substantially exposed foreign performer to Da Shan. Now I’m not Da Shan’s trumpeter either- the issue isn’t about Da Shan or Ben Ross or any one person; it’s China’s simplistic appetite for cheap entertainment that will be honed and refined as truly talented acts are recognized and popularized.

27. Laura Lee said,

    August 3, 2007 at 1:48 am

    @Mark, “It’s China’s simplistic appetite for cheap entertainment that will be honed and refined as truly talented acts are recognized and popularized.”

    I agree. I do not feel that Ben should be embarrassed. It is my fellow Chinese who should be.

    Mom often said to me that so and so foreigners are studying Chinese and she saw them speaking Chinese so well in a competition on TV. She asked me: “Aren’t you proud to be a Chinese (because of that)?” I always replied her “Mom, I am proud to be a Chinese even if no one at all is learning our language.”

    Mom is not alone in China. Nowadays, among all the West-bashing nationalism rhetoric, Chinese people still badly need this sort of outside approval to boost our self-confidence. Same goes to the Olympics, gaining a membership in the WTO, sending Yao Ming to NBA, establishing an oversea Confucius Institute, etc etc. There was too much joy acclaimed by the national media after each event, far beyond what is warranted. It is a little bit sad but I am sure this lack of confidence will gradually, yet slowly, go away.

    But Ben is not guilty at all of being an “accomplice.” He was having fun, while exposing one (unpleasant) aspect of the Chinese culture. In my mind, nothing is wrong for doing that.

28. Mandarinstudent said,

    August 3, 2007 at 7:23 am

    Ok, so you can sing a karaoke song…wow! People that can sing a Chinese karaoke song are a dime a dozen, that doesn’t mean that they deserve to be on TV. You said yourself that you wouldn’t even be on the show if you weren’t white. Basically, any attention you receive is unwarranted. I think deep down you know this, but you keep going back because you crave this attention even though you have done nothing to deserve it. The people that performed before you on the show actually could do something. If you can balance on eggs while twirling a flaming hula hoop around you deserve attention, however, you received the biggest acclaim for one lame karaoke song just because you are white. You love it, don’t you. Just admit that you love this undeserved attention and I will stop arguing. Basically, I think that every foreigner should put themselves to a test. If they feel that their talent is so great that they could be on TV in their own country, then go for it. Be on Chinese TV. If not, then if you still insist on going on TV then you are just an attention whore using your white face and 2nd rate talent to get attention that you couldn’t get back home.

    Regarding the “acting like a bumbling ass” part, I am not referring to your singing (well, actually I kind of was, but the singing isn’t the main point). I am referring to the fact that you would purposely act like you can’t speak Chinese when you are perfectly capable. This just perpetuates:
    1. Foreigners can’t truly learn Chinese. If one can, it is just a freak anomaly.
    2. The Chinese language is so deep, mysterious, and complex that it is just unaccessible to anyone that is not Chinese.

    Why would you want to make that sort of statement by your actions?

    Regarding the fact that Chinese people “don’t think that foreigners are like the ones on TV”, can you tell me why every class of university students that I teach asks me to sing and dance when they first meet me? Could it be because that is what they see on TV, or is it just a coincidence? I know that they don’t ask their Chinese teachers to sing and dance……

29. The Wizard said,

    August 3, 2007 at 10:50 am

    Hey Ben, try this program to turn the VCD .dat file into mpg1, and then simply upload the mpg 1 file to youtube, etc. and embed the youtube video.

    http://www.dvd-tool.com/dat-file-converter.html

    The .dat file of a VCD is simply a compressed mpeg1 file, so going back to .dat to mpeg will create virtually no loss and retail the original video file that was burned to the VCD format.

30. The Wizard said,

    August 3, 2007 at 10:51 am

    I meant “retain” not “retail.” Oops.

31. Chill Out said,

    August 3, 2007 at 4:51 pm

    Mandarinstudent,

    I hate to inform you that despite your psychopathic ranting, Ben can do whatever he wants and is free to stick your advice where the sun don’t shine. He can also delete your posts to stop you from arguing without giving back anything in return. I’m sure you know these facts already, but it’s a pleasure restating the obvious.

32. canrun said,

    August 3, 2007 at 9:00 pm

    @ Laura,
    Chinese (in general) have an inferiority complex unequaled by any other culture I have ever witnessed (especially manifested in the Fen Qing (愤青) who go an and on and on about how they hate Japan, yet who have absolutely NO idea whatsoever of the horrors experienced by your Mother’s generation. Seeing as how they and/or the government won’t talk about it and all…) Yes- the Olympics, The WTO, Yao Ming, etc. are all well and good, but to quote Lu Xun:

    “”This is not the conclusion of an incident, but a new beginning. Lies written in ink can never disguise facts written in blood.”
    Lu Xun, 1926

    Let the monkey show continue, then. This is a country with serious,serious problems. Bread and circuses for all…

33. Mark said,

    August 3, 2007 at 9:32 pm

    I don’t know if the monkey show and China’s other domestic perceptual problems are connected. Even though foreigners are paraded on TV being silly, it’s never spiteful and at the end of the day, everyone really is having a good time. China’s cultural inferiority complex won’t be assuaged by light-hearted foreigner mockery nor by foreigners flaunting artistic “superiority,” but by truly globally relevant incidents, like WTO, the Olympics, etc. This whole foreigner-performing-monkey thing I believe is a smaller issue, and one that has been revealed in every culture. Just a century ago, America had “freak shows,” featuring (gasp!) African tribesmen, pygmies, heavily-tattooed Maori warriors, etc. In their own cultures, these people are perfectly normal, but to another culture halfway around the world, they’re gawk-worthy, and the trend continues here in a similarly insulated culture. Exposure to the outside world tones down the shock factor of the population, and China simply hasn’t had as much exposure as the West has had. But it’s just me, and I could be wrong…maybe it’s a terrible tragedy (name that movie!).

34. Alan said,

    August 3, 2007 at 9:44 pm

    @Laura and @canrun, I agree to both of your opinions. It’s very sad with Chinese inferiority complex. I as a Chinese don’t understand why Chinese in general (including almost all of my Chinese friends) always need other people to validate their existence. Chinese tend to think in terms of group rather than individuals. Does it have something to do with Confucius’s teaching? I don’t know. I would think traditional Chinese philosophers, Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi, have a strong emphasis on individuals rather than a group mentality. Honestly to God, I don’t know if I should cry or laugh whenever I hear a Chinese friend in America urges us to sign our daughter up for ice skating lessons. These friends are very sincere and well-educated. Their reasoning for ice-skating lessons for their kids? Michelle Kwan. It’s like ice skating should be an American Chinese sports. The same goes with tennis for many years because of Michael Chang. Now with Yao Ming. Such a strong group mentality should never do any individual any good.

35. Laura Lee said,

    August 3, 2007 at 10:46 pm

    @canrun, “Fen Qing (愤青) who go an and on and on about how they hate Japan, yet who have absolutely NO idea whatsoever of the horrors experienced by your Mother’s generation”

    Indeed, Canrun, you are so right. Mom was living in Manchuria during World War II. Every now and then she told stories about those dark days but rarely expressed the Fen Qing-type hatred toward Japanese people.

36. Jeremy Yeh said,

    August 3, 2007 at 10:53 pm

    大山(mark rowswell) has really been a phenomenon durin the past couples of years in china. but there r more and more famous foreigners on china’s media now,especially on cctv,such as 大牛 and 萧剑锋,etc.

37. canrun said,

    August 4, 2007 at 10:53 am

    Good posts here. It’s truly bizarre how respectful (in general) folks are to each other here, yet over at the Time blog it’s like the food fight scene from “Animal House.” Not to get all weepy and lefty, but this is really the only way that our cultures will move forward together in understanding. Honest, straightforward–but respectful—dialog.

    Now bring on the 愤青!

38. Matt Schiavenza said,

    August 4, 2007 at 12:36 pm

    I don’t know….but it seems to me that Ben’s motivation to go on TV is that doing so is a fun and interesting way to make a bit of cash. Most foreigners I know in China do the same, such as making voice recordings, modeling, or infomercial acting. Why turn everything into a complex academic exercise over losing face and preserving dignity and all that?

39. boyce said,

    August 6, 2007 at 9:19 pm

    Nice post, Ben.

    Just in case anyone else wants to do some Wu Bai songs, lyrics to several of his songs are available in pinyin at http://pinyin.info/ (scroll down).

    Cheers, Boyce

40. canrun said,

    August 7, 2007 at 2:07 pm

    “Why turn everything into a complex academic exercise over losing face and preserving dignity and all that?”

    I really couldn’t give two hoots if Ben loses his dignity or not about this stuff (which I still argue he does). I DO, however, somewhat resent the fact that the image he projects to the,oh,1.2999 Billion Chinese who have never met a foreigner is that of a foolish clown. My students seem to mostly think that we foreigners are silly dancing bears in many ways.

    Of course, that’s Ben’s business and he’s free to do whatever he wants, but I still say that it’s akin to asking Patesh, Miguel and Soon-Yi to sing “La Vida Loca” solely to have the American audience laugh AT them.

    Wait. That’s been done.

41. Matt Schiavenza said,

    August 8, 2007 at 10:44 am

    Right…..there are lots and lots of examples of foreigners clowning on American TV. Off the top of my head there was William Hung, the Chinese student at UC Berkeley who sang Ricky Martin songs; there was also the Turkish guy who did all of that silly “I kiss you!” stuff a few years before that.

    I don’t know….I’d rather watch foreigners sing and hop around than watch them tortorously debate Yang Rui on CCTV9’s Dialogue. Or Da Shan

    Side note: I have yet to see any evidence that Da Shan has any real talent in performing arts…..at all. His success seems predicated on being extremely fluent in Chinese as well as being in the right place at the right time. Do you seriously think he’d attain any notoriety or celebrity whatsoever if he hit the scene today?

42. sloppyzhou said,

    August 8, 2007 at 3:50 pm

    Just an anecdote:

    I live in Guilin, and have done so for about 3 years so far. I was taking a taxi the other day and started chatting with the driver about the gov’t heat warning, traffic, etc. She abruptly told me that my Chinese was very good and not like the other foreigners that take her cab. I told her that many of my foreign friends in Guilin speak much better Chinese than I, to which she stated she possibly had given rides to some of them. “The tall, long beard guy. Do you know him?” she asked. “Yes, he’s a good friend of mine” I told her. “His Chinese is very good and I think his prounciation is better than most locals. What about the guy with crazy pony tail (single long dreadlock)?” she inquired. “Yeah, I know him as well.” “Did you know,” she asked “that he can even speak Guilin hua really well.” This went on.

    She continued asking me about others and commenting on their language ability. Finally I asked her why she had said that my Chinese was better than most others, to which she replied, “You know, the others, like tourists and those people you see on TV.” “Like the Fu Ren Jie commercial?” I asked. “Right, right, right,” she replied, “her tones are all wrong, my daughter thinks its really funny.”

43. canrun said,

    August 8, 2007 at 6:58 pm

    “…or tortorously debate Yang Rui on CCTV9’s Dialogue. Or Da Shan”

    Can we torture Da Shan? And then take his money and his hot wife??

    Ps…I threw ya a BIG bone with the William Hung reference… You bit. Good boy.

44. canrun said,

    August 8, 2007 at 7:01 pm

    “What about the guy with crazy pony tail (single long dreadlock)?”

    Computer sez…backpacking English teacher! Bet he smells, too.

45. Benjamin Ross said,

    August 9, 2007 at 4:36 pm

    This is a little off topic, but I just want to call attention to the fact that “Sloppyzhou” is possibly the best China related online nickname I have ever seen. I could have used that one when I was teaching English and giving out English names.

46. China Law Blog said,

    August 10, 2007 at 10:38 pm

    You big China movie star man.

47. luhuijun said,

    August 12, 2007 at 3:15 am

    ni zhen de hen bang !ni shi wo good- friend.

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