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Sunday, January 23. 2011

The Song That Should Have Been Played At The White House

There's quite an embarrassment and brouhaha that the Chinese pianist chosen to perform at the state dinner at the White House on January 19 for China's Chairman Hu Jintao played a melody that extols the Chinese entry into Korea during that war against the US military "jackals."

I'm informed by a Chinese lover of his homeland that a more appropriate choice would have been China's equivalent of the US' "America The Beautiful," emphasizing the land. Here's the well-known Chinese song, "Wodi zuguo (My ancestral land)," that he'd learned as a child in Hong Kong. His eyes tear up at the hearing of it, just as Americans' eyes tear up at the hearing of "America The Beautiful." It is very lovely, and would have been far more appropriate. Perhaps next time our State Department can get a better translator and coordinator of such state events.


"A mighty river, wide with foamy waves
A breeze blows
Wheat blossoms fragrant on its shores
My home is on that shore
I hear the call of the boatmen
I see the boats' white sails
This is the beautiful ancestral land
The land where I was born and raised
On this expansive wide-ranging soil
Everywhere the sun shines...."

Posted by Bruce Kesler at 22:14 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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Mr. Kessler,
With all due respect, your comment, "Perhaps next time our State Department can get a better translator and coordinator of such state events," suggests that perhaps this song choice was in error. I rather think not. Many comrades within the current U.S. administration do indeed consider the American military as jackal.
#1 Chairman Ill on 2011-01-23 22:42 (Reply)
While there are no doubt those in high places who agreed with the song's sentiments, wonder how what Queen Elizabeth thinks when Yankee Doodle is played in a program or while she stands there while the Star Spangled Banner is played. It too was inspired by a battle.

Oh well, imagine the Central Committee will hand out a medal for the performance and hand out paper tigers for the kiddies to use as tissue.
#2 walt moffett on 2011-01-23 23:14 (Reply)
Bruce ... In the days when we had more experienced and less arrogant Presidents, the White House had a permanent staff of counselors and advisors on diplomatic questions. I think these folks were removed by the Obamas when they took over. That's probably why there have been so many diplomatic howlers since the present Administration took power ... you know what i mean, things like the rude return of the bust of Winston Churchill which was a gift from Britain, the hastily chosen and inappropriate gifts from the White House Gift Shop for the British Prime minister when he made his official visit, the incredible rudeness to Netanyahu when he visited and Obama said, after talking to Netanyahu for a few moments, "I'm going upstairs to have dinner with my family. Play among yourselves." Something like that.
The list goes on. No wonder the Obamas haven't been invited to Prince William's wedding. Michelle would probably just grab on to the Queen's arm, as she did the last time they met. If the Obama's had retained their diplomatic advisors, they would have been told that you don't touch the Queen, unless she touches you first. The Queen is a little woman, stalwart but short. And she has arthritis. She carries a purse with her so that people won't grab her hand for a handshake. But Big Old Michelle didn't bother to research this before she traveled. The White House diplomatic advisors could have told the Obamas this. But the Obamas didn't think it was important.
They're just lucky that the Last Empress of China is dead. They would have been shot for touching her.

Marianne
#3 Marianne Matthews on 2011-01-23 23:35 (Reply)
You beat me to it, Chairman Ill, things like this are no accident.
People may think Obama and his team are incompetent, when in fact they're anything but.

They know exactly what they're doing, it's just that what they're doing is so different from what any American president has done in the past that people can't comprehend that it's deliberate.
No prior presidential team has worked with deliberate focus on the destruction of the USA and all it stands for after all.
#4 J.T. Wenting on 2011-01-24 00:08 (Reply)
Smrat Power!!! ooops, time for another "reset" button...
#5 joe on 2011-01-24 02:55 (Reply)
I'd go with something Tibetan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VbRST_AlyE
#6 rhhardin (Link) on 2011-01-24 03:42 (Reply)
Marianne Matthews: Some people are born with class. Some are not. Unfortunately, President and Mrs. Obama are challenged in that department.

As far as for the Queen, I have always thought the monarchy was legalized welfare that is draining the British tax payers to pay for the privilege of maintaining tradition.
#7 Cilla Mitchell, Galveston Texas (Link) on 2011-01-24 07:02 (Reply)
At least Hu's visit didn't trigger Obama's bow reflex:

http://tiny.cc/8qfkj
#8 Smokey (Link) on 2011-01-24 09:51 (Reply)
Lang Lang,

You are dead to me (metaphorically and musically speaking.) You've politicized your art if not added a racial coloration to it. You've insulted my country and indirectly glorified the North Korean dictatorship.

I'm selling my single Lang Lang Super Audio Compact Disk. I've attended one of you performances but never again. Yes, you're a good pianist but not THAT good.
#9 Whitehall on 2011-01-24 11:58 (Reply)
Cilla ... I somewhat agree with you that monarchy is outdated as a method of running a country. But Britain's monarchy is constitutional and largely symbolic. And it's their government after all, not ours. And even President Obama is probably not ready to tackle a remodeling of all the governments on our planet.

But I stand by what I said about Queen Elizabeth, who is my age and still works hard at her job, which is stupendously boring most of the time. She does have her rules of behavior, however, and it is only courteous and compassionate to abide by them.

I remember her during the Second World War, when she didn't sit around in one of the palaces waiting for her subjects to protect her. Instead, she went to work in the official motor pool, shuttling officials around, and even changing spark plugs on occasion.

She's a Good Old Girl, one of the best, and I like her and sympathize with her.

Marianne
#10 Marianne Matthews on 2011-01-24 12:50 (Reply)
I have an idea this was done on purpose, but there was a bigger purpose behind it, a way of relaying the message to China that, in effect, we had no intention of overthrowing the North Korean regime or otherwise interfering with Chinese hegemony in the region. This would have been considered a diplomatic way of easing tensions over the recent flare-up between North and South Korea.

They just didn't think anybody else would notice.
#11 ThePaganTemple (Link) on 2011-01-24 19:22 (Reply)
"I'm informed by a Chinese lover of his homeland that a more appropriate choice would have been China's equivalent of the US' "America The Beautiful," emphasizing the land. "

More appropriate still would have been "America The Beautiful", state occasions are a great opportunity to enlighten barbarians as to the finer points of civilised society.
#12 J.T. Wenting on 2011-01-25 10:59 (Reply)

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