Karaoke around the World
Karaoke in CHINA!
By Britt McCary
email to: britte@bellsouth.net
Chinese karaoke clubs are definitely different from clubs anywhere else...though "Karaoke Club" is not the right word for it. Actually Chinese karaoke is mostly connected with restaurants. What happens is, you is go out to have dinner and then grab the microphone in between the many courses of the Chinese meal.
The noise level and activity in a restaurant in Shanghai would probably seem similar to Grand Central Station in New York. Even the smallest restaurants have several sets of karaoke machines spread around the room, and whenever somebody wants to entertain his party, he grabs the nearest microphone. There are often others singing a different song on another microphone.
A westerner like myself is used to listening politely when people perform. But in China no one but the people who share table with the person singing seems to take notice. We always felt a bit embarrassed for the poor artist though they never seemed to care. Neither did it seem to bother anyone that a family at the next table would engage in some sort of loud family discussion. VERY loud. In fact they often would compete in sound level with the singers. Finally we would resign - and just concentrate on our food.
Larger restaurants have separate rooms and when you are with a company of more than five that is most likely where you'd want to go to enjoy friends and to eat and sing together.
A Chinese meal is a social event anyway and the different dishes are served one after another. So it feels good to take a break and exercise the tummy with some tunes before returning to the delicacies. But there is one insurmountable problem though for some of us - all the karaoke songs in China are in Chinese. Singing Chinese is not easy if you don't understand the language.
Last time we were in China our friends understood our distress and looked through three thick books for something that we could sing (and read!) They found one! Auld Lang Syne. And our friends insisted that we sing. So we did! " Should auld acquaintance be forgot....". Then after about a dozen verses it was time to sooth our sore throats with the last cup of tea - and call it a night!