Imagine that you are a Chinese teenager hearing the Beatles for the very first time.
Would you start to twist and shout?
Would you learn some of their mellower tunes like Norwegian Wood, Michelle or Golden Slumbers and use them to lull your younger siblings to sleep?
Would you think: Where have these guys been all of my life?
Or would quickly dismiss them and turn your attention to a homegrown Chinese hip hop group like Dragon Tongue Squad?
Either way, the Beatles have arrived in China for the first time ever--and "the youngsters" are listening.
"It is hard to define how many fans the Beatles have in China, and it is even harder to pick one favorite song from their massive output, " China Daily announced earlier this year in response to the announcement that Xiami, China's digital music platform, was releasing 28 Beatle studio recording albums in digital, CD and vinyl versions. The release comes 55 years after the Beatles first records, as Beatles music and the Beatles themselves were banned from China during the Cultural Revolution.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201803/27/WS5ab9e483a3105cdcf65149b4.html
Xiami's bold licensing decision follows a 2016 deal in which Hey Jude became the first ever Beatle's song to be licensed for use in China.
Back then, Billboard Magazine reported:
Hey Jude appears in Yesterday Once More, a coming-of-age film from noted Chinese director Yao Tingting. The nearly four-minute segment, which features the two Chinese leads singing the 1968 classic in English, commanded a six-figure sum, believed to be one of the highest fees ever paid for usage in China.
Billboard continues:
"The studio, Beijing Enlight Media, is one of the largest media groups in China, and the director is of significance.... (and) with the film aimed at a younger demographic with its story of high school friends grappling with the complexities of first loves, it can help introduce The Beatles' music to a new audience. "
https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/7356938/beatles-song-licensed-china-hey-judeWhy am I suddenly interested in Beatles tunes in China? And why am I sharing the news with you?
The answer begins at Apple computer headquarters at One Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California.
On Tuesday I arrived there on a tour bus with 21 college students from Shanghai, China and their two teachers.
All were fluent in English and they had requested an English speaking tour guide. That would be me.
The bus driver dropped us off and promptly left to circle or find parking elsewhere. But after a few minutes we realized that the bus had left us at the wrong place. We were instead supposed to be at the Apple Park Visitors Center at 10600 N. Tantau Avenue on the other side of De Anza Blvd, about a mile away.
We texted the driver who by then was parked on the other side of town, and he told us it would take about twenty minutes for him to return in pre-Fourth of July traffic.
So there I was stranded with a tour group, waiting in the heat for a driver. I was all out of interesting facts about Apple and Steve Jobs, having delivered them on the bus ride over. I must admit, I really enjoyed having a tiny mike in my hand and saying things like, "on your left you will note......"
But back to One Infinite Loop--a hell of a place to be stranded. The irony of the name was not lost on me--and since their English was good, the Shanghai students got the irony, too--especially after I pointed it out to them and said, "this is an example of irony."
And then I plotted my next move.....
I began with a rousing chorus of John Denver's Country Roads, which has been a karaoke favorite in China ever since John Denver performed it for then Chinese Vice Premier Dengxiao Ping at the White House in 1979. Denver later performed it live in China in a multi-city1992 tour. (You can watch Chinese middle school students learning to sing Country Roads here.)
Everyone joined in on the chorus--which just for the record, is supposed to be repeated sixteen times. Clearly there are a lot of young Beatles fans in Shanghai. And come to think of it, if you didn't know it was the chorus to a Beatle's song, and you happened to be walking along One Infinite Loop on Tuesday and heard a group of Chinese kids singing Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah--you might, you just might just think that they were singing in Mandarin. The four modulated cadences used in Mandarin intonation are all there--as are the familiar Chinese sounds of nah in the first and second pitches, along with familiar Mandarin sounds like Chu/Zhou.
Mercifully, either out of their great reservoirs of politeness or in response to my lack of talent tempered only by enthusiasm, the students picked up the pace.
We were clapping, singing and dancing over at One Infinite Loop and our lead singer turned to me and joyfully exclaimed in perfect unaccented English, "We are really rocking!"
And that's when the bus showed up again.
We saw the Apple Park Visitor's Center, where I refueled with the best $4.00 nitro cold brew espresso drink that I have ever had, and then went on to the Computer History Museum and the Google campus(photo upper left). Hopefully the students will return to China with images of tech campuses dancing in their heads.
As for me, I headed back to Google (the search engine) to learn how and why the Beatles have invaded China--and soon will invade my ESL classroom.
This Fall, if you hear a lot of Nah Nah Nah Nahs emanating from my classroom across the quad from Menlo College's Florence Moore Hall (a.k.a. FloMo--which also sounds Mandarin) --stop by and witness Lǎoshī Lauren in yet another teachable moment.
(Click here for a solemn choral version done by students in China)
And then I plotted my next move.....
"Okay everyone," I announced. "While we are waiting for the bus, let's all sing!"
The students all looked at me like I was crazy--which I was.
I began with a rousing chorus of John Denver's Country Roads, which has been a karaoke favorite in China ever since John Denver performed it for then Chinese Vice Premier Dengxiao Ping at the White House in 1979. Denver later performed it live in China in a multi-city1992 tour. (You can watch Chinese middle school students learning to sing Country Roads here.)
Whether it was because they did not want to insult their crazy American host, or because they knew the words, or because, hey why not ....my Chinese tour group joined in.
Then the kids pointed out one tall, very charismatic guy in the group, and identified him as a great singer--but, of course, on cue, he became modest and did not want to sing.
So I told him that I took requests.
What did he want ME to sing?
In a heartbeat he answered:
This is a popular song in China, because someone (not sure who) included it in a popular beginning guitar study book--and it is one of the tunes that students learn to play when they want to play American rock. The student and I ended up singing it together. He had a great American accent when singing--and he did the Eagles proud. I on the other hand......
Then the kid, launched into Hey Jude, all on his own. "I love the Beatles!" he said.
Everyone joined in on the chorus--which just for the record, is supposed to be repeated sixteen times. Clearly there are a lot of young Beatles fans in Shanghai. And come to think of it, if you didn't know it was the chorus to a Beatle's song, and you happened to be walking along One Infinite Loop on Tuesday and heard a group of Chinese kids singing Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah Nah--you might, you just might just think that they were singing in Mandarin. The four modulated cadences used in Mandarin intonation are all there--as are the familiar Chinese sounds of nah in the first and second pitches, along with familiar Mandarin sounds like Chu/Zhou.
Still, the students had a way to go to appearing on American Idol. That's because they were singing the chorus really slowly, in a dirge-like fashion --the way you might sing it in church choir or at the opera. I was singing it three times as fast, clapping my hands and hopping around as best as a sixty year old woman with a shopping bag full of tech company tschotkes can hop--trying my best with ridiculous background harmony going "JUDE JUDE JUDE-JU-JU-JU"
Some might have thought that I was trying to sing I Am the Walrus.
Mercifully, either out of their great reservoirs of politeness or in response to my lack of talent tempered only by enthusiasm, the students picked up the pace.
We were clapping, singing and dancing over at One Infinite Loop and our lead singer turned to me and joyfully exclaimed in perfect unaccented English, "We are really rocking!"
And that's when the bus showed up again.
We saw the Apple Park Visitor's Center, where I refueled with the best $4.00 nitro cold brew espresso drink that I have ever had, and then went on to the Computer History Museum and the Google campus(photo upper left). Hopefully the students will return to China with images of tech campuses dancing in their heads. As for me, I headed back to Google (the search engine) to learn how and why the Beatles have invaded China--and soon will invade my ESL classroom.
This Fall, if you hear a lot of Nah Nah Nah Nahs emanating from my classroom across the quad from Menlo College's Florence Moore Hall (a.k.a. FloMo--which also sounds Mandarin) --stop by and witness Lǎoshī Lauren in yet another teachable moment.
(Click here for a solemn choral version done by students in China)
