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[leroidys]

why shouldn't people be upset by it. Name any country that invites someone only to have them spit in your face and not be upset by it.

I don't expect Obama to know every Chinese detail but going over the program someone should have realized what this song was about and stopped it.

Even worse if it comes out that it was known and they let it play anyway

Yeah dammit Obama, get your shit together and analyze the musical programs before hands. It's your job ffs.

Who cares if most Chinese don't think about it as a propaganda tune! They's being uppity and I dun like it.

People are all screwed up about music. I remember when LittleBigPlanet 1 got a song patched out because it set Quran verses to music, but it left in Prokofev's The Battle On The Ice. That song's by a controversial composer who made it the climax of a movie that's (amazing but) racist, ultranationalist, communist propaganda.

Humans are stupid.

Prokofiev isn't really controversial... Yeah the movie is definitely bare propaganda, but the music stands alone in its own right. I know the movie is super famous but it's Eisenstein's worst IMO.

 

[Learn2read]

You realize that you are cut from exactly the same cloth as the Chinese people who are trying to play this up as a dis, OP?

Ding Ding Ding!

 

[Wanace]

Eh, who cares. Guess what, every Chinese person would jump at a chance to come live in the states. Every single taxi driver, student, and random joe on the sidewalk who I've spoken to has told me they like America, they want their children to study there. And women love hearing I'm American instead of Russian.

Chinese netizens have opinions just as diverse as posters on NeoGAF, but for a news story like this of course they will only quote the ones who are playing it up as some sort of symbolic Chinese victory.

 

[PhoenixDark]

oh teh noes, I'm so offended by Obama not jumping on stage and kicking the piano out of Lang Lang's communist hands

China is rapidly growing but is still quite behind the US. I'm not worried about perceived musical slights - I'm more concerned about currency manipulation, IP abuse, etc.

alas, I do wish I knew Mandarin so I could troll the shit out of the Chinese

 

[richiek]

oh teh noes, I'm so offended by Obama not jumping on stage and kicking the piano out of Lang Lang's communist hands

Obama is teh socialist confirmed.

 

[sphinx]

there is no way Lang Lang made this on purpose, that would only threaten his career.

Do you know how hard is for classical pianist to be relatively speaking well known?

Lang Lang has made incredible efforts to bring piano/classical music to people normally not interested in it and the last thing he wants is to fuck it up with this kind of propaganda.

 

[speculawyer]

Hey everyone . . . a Chinese guy played a nationalist song on the piano at the whitehouse. We might as well just fold up shop now. The dream is over, the democracy is gone.

They are soon gonna start printing up maps saying 'FUSA' for Former United States of America.

 

[Learn2read]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Motherland

"My Motherland" was called as "A Big River" (Chinese: 一条大&#27827 by the author initially; it represented the hundreds of rivers that flowed by the homes of the Chinese people. The title was changed when it was published with movie.

Although the song was written for the movie about Korean War in 1950s, there is no mention of the war at all. It describes a soldier (or anyone who is away from home) thinking about his home and his family. Thus, this song is extremely popular even when the movie itself is almost forgotten.

The music for solo part has folk song styles similar to those in northern China.

Christ I'm sick of invented outrage. Yeah OP, MASSIVE FAIL on Obama's part not sending the whole Chinese delegation to Guantonamo. Fucking tool.

 

[numble]

Here's the specific part where he plays "My Motherland," you can practically hear the anti-American propaganda:
http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=/&gl=US#/watch?xl=xl_blazer&v=BX4fY5deK08

I find it funny that there's some dude at this state dinner that recorded this on what looks like his cell phone and uploaded it to YouTube.

 

[PhoenixDark]

Christ I'm sick of invented outrage. Yeah OP, MASSIVE FAIL on Obama's part not sending the whole Chinese delegation to Guantonamo. Fucking tool.

You don't understand. Obama should have had Toby Keith backstage and ready to musically overwhelm the feminine, elitist qualities of Ling Lang Long's "art" just in case he tried to sneak this Empire Sun State of Mind abomination into the ears of real Americans

 

[soul creator]

only patriotic, extremely pro-American songs should be played in the White House

you know, songs like "Born In The USA"

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Where's the spit? It's a piece of music. Why do you care?

And why shouldn't people be upset? Because they hopefully have enough to self-confidence to recognize that a piece of piano music won't hurt or even inconvenience them.

but Pristine Condition pointed out teh massive fail!

Christ I'm sick of invented outrage. Yeah OP, MASSIVE FAIL on Obama's part not sending the whole Chinese delegation to Guantonamo. Fucking tool.

/thread.

and FUCK the Wall Street Journal. they're trying too hard.

 

[Kuro Madoushi]

Well, if any of you guys really got upset over this, it seems to me you trolled yourselves.

Obscure foreign musical trolling from obscure foreign movie. You guys will really look for anything to bitch about. What's next? OMG! Hu didn't drink his American OJ! Let's nuke them for insulting our oranges!

 

[RobotChant]

When you attempt to insult someone and they're not insulted, you lose.

 

[Archer]

Sure, China's massive hard-on in doing everything it can to actively humiliate Obama is distressing and probably racist, but Obama's White House never fails to bring the MASSIVE FAIL in terms of US/Chinese relations, even when they control the game:


http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/01/22/did-pianist-lang-lang-dis-the-white-house/

Payback will certainly be amusing, and gratifying.

 

[Neuromancer]

I'm not mad, China, just very disappointed in you.

 

[NotWii]

Let's all be a bunch of babies and get offended at the soviet anthem and wagner

 

[Chichikov]

YOU CUT FUNDING FOR THE ARTS AND DEM COMMIES DOMINATE US MUSICALLY!
YOU DAMN DIRTY APES, YOU BLEW IT ALL TO HELL!

Clearly, the only move is to quadruple the National Endowment for the Arts' budget.
Clearly.

It's national security.

 

[nyong]

It's pretty embarrassing that we didn't catch wind of it before making fools of ourselves. Not really meaningful in the grand scheme of things, though.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

It's pretty embarrassing that we didn't catch wind of it before making fools of ourselves. Not really meaningful in the grand scheme of things, though.

Not too fond of reading threads, I see.

 

[Tristam]

“In the eyes of all Chinese, this will not be seen as anything other than a big insult to the U.S.,” says Yang Jingduan, a Chinese psychiatrist now living in Philadelphia who had in China been a doctor in the Chinese military. “It’s like insulting you in your face and you don’t know it, it’s humiliating.”

Yawn.

This is why Asian countries continue to squabble with each other over the most useless shit. It's all about saving face. Who gives a fuck?

EDIT: PD cleaning up. :dap:

 

[Spirit of Jazz]

Good job trolling Pristine Lang Lang.

 

[Haly]

I need a "Dear Chinese People Please Stop Embarrassing Me" T-shirt.

 

[Chichikov]

Spoiler

This ain't banned yet, right? meh, go out with a bang I say.

China just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about US culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in China where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw someone over in the US, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the American public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase anything from China, nor will they purchase any goods with parts from China. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but China has alienated an entire market with this move.

China, publicly apologize and play some Toby Keith or you can kiss your business goodbye.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Let's all be a bunch of babies and get offended at the soviet anthem and wagner

I'll just say it: Soviets had the best National Anthem. Ever.

 

[AkuMifune]

A real president would have gone up there himself and tossed this fool offstage.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

Only Chinese nationalists playing this up in China and right wingers will see it this way.

The song has outlived the movie it was used in and has become famous in it's own right as a Chinese patriotic song.

 

[speculawyer]

Only Chinese nationalists playing this up in China and right wingers will see it this way.

Ever notice how the hard-right of different sides are always stirring up the shit?

The hard-right Palestinians versus the hard-right Israelies. The hard-right Iranians v. the hard-right Americans.

 

[hteng]

news overblown much?

 

[Mr. B Natural]

I'm not really seeing the outrage.

I see news...as it is news, but I don't see outrage. I see quite a lot of people rolling their eyes and scratching their heads but i'm not seeing outrage.

But whatever...america must have done something wrong here, right?

 

[sphagnum]

I'll just say it: Soviets had the best National Anthem. Ever.

Does anyone actually disagree with this?

 

[Tristam]

Spoiler

This ain't banned yet, right? meh, go out with a bang I say.

China just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about US culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in China where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw someone over in the US, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the American public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase anything from China, nor will they purchase any goods with parts from China. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but China has alienated an entire market with this move.

China, publicly apologize and play some Toby Keith or you can kiss your business goodbye.

You know one reason why this meme is funny? Because you only need the most elementary knowledge of East Asian cultures--no expertise required--to know it's true that they really ARE more concerned with ideas of 'honor' and 'shame' than the West. Else Korea wouldn't have its culture ministry in a fifty-year tizzy over the naming conventions on English maps.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Does anyone actually disagree with this?

Tea Party? lol

 

[Hex]

This is the worst prank they've pulled since they urinated in our soda.

This post wins.

 

[Twilight Princess]

lol@you guys getting worked up on something imaginary

 

[Aruarian Reflection]

WSJ licking their chops and looking for Tiger Mom part 2

 

[Dr. Pangloss]

Wake me up when Obama does something like Ronald Reagan visiting Bitburg. Hell, we got a song out of that too.

 

[Oblivion]

This is the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night.

 

[X26]

china's trolling themselves if they think the average american gives a fuck about some piano recital

 

[Haly]

china's trolling themselves if they think the average american gives a fuck about some piano recital

The sad thing is some of them do, and some americans really do think that this was intentional and an Insult to America (at least it will be if this article is mentioned on certain outlets). As someone mentioned before, the only kind of people who care about this shit are far-right wingers, who exist in nearly every society.

 

[Oblivion]

You know what would REALLY piss of China? Enacting better labor laws. Come on, REAL Americans, that'll teach em!

 

[Zzoram]

I'm pretty sure this isn't on purpose. It's so obscure I think forum warriors are reading too much into it.

 

[CabbageRed]

Screw the A-bomb. Forget the H-bomb. I think we need to jump straight to the TP-bomb for an offense of this magnitude.

 

[Earl Cazone]

should have played this gem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozd867R1k9I

 

[ntropy]

Prokofiev isn't really controversial... Yeah the movie is definitely bare propaganda, but the music stands alone in its own right. I know the movie is super famous but it's Eisenstein's worst IMO.

Prokofiev wrote a piece that celebrated Stalin.

 

[Devolution]

Let's retaliate by just dumping a bunch of the Tea Party in one of their provinces.

Have fun with that suckers.

 

[Chichikov]

Let's retaliate by just dumping a bunch of the Tea Party in one of their provinces.

Have fun with that suckers.

Chinese tanks now come with an anti "don't tread of me" technology.
I think it's called 'treads'.

 

[rpmurphy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Motherland

Ah yes, those lyrics simply scream "anti-American propaganda". I've heard it a few times on some of my mother's Chinese CDs, and the only thing she knew it about was that it was a very old song that alot of Chinese people knew. So I wouldn't put much stock in this anti-American nonsense.

The CCP used the arts extensively as a propaganda tool under Mao, music especially, to boost military pride and nationalism and to worship Mao and the Communist Party. As pleasing the melody is, I'd rather have this song and all the others fade away as historic relics, rather than continued to be played, fully knowing its history.

 

[Stinkles]

It's pretty embarrassing that we didn't catch wind of it before making fools of ourselves. Not really meaningful in the grand scheme of things, though.

Fucking hell. Your post is both late and ironically, incredibly self-referential. You're on a roll tonight.

 

[numble]

The CCP used the arts extensively as a propaganda tool under Mao, music especially, to boost military pride and nationalism and to worship Mao and the Communist Party. As pleasing the melody is, I'd rather have this song and all the others fade away as historic relics, rather than continued to be played, fully knowing its history.

What about the music or lyrics promotes love for the CCP or Mao? Might as well discourage playing of any of the 2008 Olympic songs, since they have connection to the Chinese government, or the Star Spangled Banner for its Anti-British propaganda origins.