Silver bells
Shall I do another Christmas post? Ah, what the heck... 'tis the season. I've commented in my letters to people that this place is quite barren when it comes to Chirtsmas trappings. Whereas in the States I would have seen decorations up before Hallowe'en and been fully saturated with holiday lights, music and advertising throughout December, here in our little bit of China it's been mostly business as usual. Oh, we noticed one place that had a picture of Santa on it's door back in November, but I suspect that's a decoration that's up all year. Kind of like the tinsel garland I used to have hanging in my bedroom.Anyway, one of the exceptions was a restaurant we patronized last week. Actually, it's a bar--the one Western themed joint in town. We first went there in desperation during our first week here. They did have a menu with English on it, but they were all out of hamburgers. The fried rice, however, was quite tasty. Anyway, they were decked out for Christmas. They had a tree and tinsel decorations amidst the beer ads. They were also playing what I suppose you could call holiday music. Soon after we sat down we recognized the tune of "Silent Night". They were singing in Chinese, so at first we didn't know if it was actually "Silent Night" or if they had just lifted the tune. However, they then sang an English verse, the first one. And then they sang it again. And then once more to be sure they had it right. I wonder if the CD wasn't a karaoke disc or something. Anyway, we were quite delighted to have some Chistmas ambiance, even if the music was played in that wimpy, pop music style. (When overseas, one develops tolerance for things that are normally annoying) The next song that came on we recognized as Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from his ninth symphony. Not quite Christmas, but we thought maybe it was some religious CD since there is a hymn that uses that tune. Then came "Oh, Susannah". No, really. And we knew that it was "Oh, Susannah" because we recognized the words "Alabama" and "Louisiana" in the Chinese lyrics.
At this point, I started taking notes. We managed to stay all the way through another playing of "Silent Night". That playlist contained three songs that we did not recognize, two songs that Yau Neih placed as European folk tunes, three Christmas tunes, two songs from The Sound of Music, "Auld Lang Syne", "Ode to Joy" and... "Oh, Susanna". For the life of me, I can't figure out what the theme of the CD was supposed to be. Maybe it was something like "Emily's favorite tunes" or something. Hopefully this analysis of background music doesn't become a habit. I'd hate to see myself sitting in Burger King, waiting to guess one more song before I leave.
posted by John @ 7:18 AM
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