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Happy Year of the Ox!
Feb. 12th, 2021 08:45 pmHey hey, it is a New Year if you follow a specific lunisolar calendar!
I made wontons and spring rolls last night, and fried mochi year cakes this morning. Maybe I'll make a little "how-to" for dumplings some time, but, in the meantime, here are my highlights from the New Year's Gala, aka the annual variety show extravaganza that every Chinese person is supposed to watch (and then complain about), the way every American is supposed to watch the Thanksgiving Parade, or maybe the Superbowl. It's got skits, songs, dances, magic, etc. More importantly for me, it's a really interesting window into what China (the government) feels like China (the people) would like to celebrate. All conveniently packaged on youtube for the overseas Chinese (even though youtube is blocked in China, good job)
Anyway, here's the full playlist if you're interested, but I'm going to post some good stuff and some "oh no, China" moments:
Favorite song: I still remember being 8 and listening to 张也 on a cassette tape, so it was really cool to see that she's still singing! The duet with 周深 really showed off his range, too. The song's conceit about lighting lanterns and making well wishes is very sweet, too, even if it's also tied to the China Dream.
On the other hand, I feel like this song really captures the kitschiness of the Gala: the entire song revolves around a pun (the word for cow is the the same as the word for "twist", so the song is "Let's do the twist"). It also features dancing cow robots, a robot that writes calligraphy, and far too much digital shenanigans:
I really like this song, 可可托海的牧羊人, it's refreshingly simple after all the digital extravagance. That said, it is also appalling given what's happening in Xinjiang. I wish I would divorce it from that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfsT5jWHXag
Jay Chou's "Mojito" started pretty good, but it quickly got a little surreal and over-produced:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUWiDCCJDGc
Given that they have to do 我爱你中国 every year ("I love you, China", it's like America the Beautiful), I was impressed that they went with the classy route of simple piano this year： https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esa_ZvE4keg
On the other hand, here is the most appalling song/dance, called "Festivities": it, um... has Egypt for some reason? And a whole host of other racist caricatures?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2wgTh4O-LM . NO CHINA NO
Also, there is a required song about the military every year, and another about how China's 56 ethnicities totally live in harmony. It's actually pretty interesting to see what they choose. The military one is about defending one's borders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8e_TYx6g5w , and worth watching to see how China portrays its military. I can't help wonder how long it took the soldiers to write "long live China" in the snow for that one particular shot.
On the other hand, the ethnicity song is ... is literally the old party song from the 50s and 60s, featuring lyrics like “mother merely birthed my body, but it is the Party that lights my heart”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GyL1uhVXiM
It's chilling, actually, to see how big the difference is from a decade ago, when the major ethnicities were able to do their own song segment.
And if you understand Chinese, here's some skits that I liked:
如此家长 is about the stress of parenting and signing your kid up for too many classes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNOQnGmT0mo
阳台 doesn't have its own clip, but is a skit about Wuhan under lockdown: https://youtu.be/Ac9ADx8CEhA?t=98
开往春天的幸福 just made me laugh a lot, romance of the working people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzNsYgr_rK0
I made wontons and spring rolls last night, and fried mochi year cakes this morning. Maybe I'll make a little "how-to" for dumplings some time, but, in the meantime, here are my highlights from the New Year's Gala, aka the annual variety show extravaganza that every Chinese person is supposed to watch (and then complain about), the way every American is supposed to watch the Thanksgiving Parade, or maybe the Superbowl. It's got skits, songs, dances, magic, etc. More importantly for me, it's a really interesting window into what China (the government) feels like China (the people) would like to celebrate. All conveniently packaged on youtube for the overseas Chinese (even though youtube is blocked in China, good job)
Anyway, here's the full playlist if you're interested, but I'm going to post some good stuff and some "oh no, China" moments:
Favorite song: I still remember being 8 and listening to 张也 on a cassette tape, so it was really cool to see that she's still singing! The duet with 周深 really showed off his range, too. The song's conceit about lighting lanterns and making well wishes is very sweet, too, even if it's also tied to the China Dream.
On the other hand, I feel like this song really captures the kitschiness of the Gala: the entire song revolves around a pun (the word for cow is the the same as the word for "twist", so the song is "Let's do the twist"). It also features dancing cow robots, a robot that writes calligraphy, and far too much digital shenanigans:
I really like this song, 可可托海的牧羊人, it's refreshingly simple after all the digital extravagance. That said, it is also appalling given what's happening in Xinjiang. I wish I would divorce it from that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfsT5jWHXag
Jay Chou's "Mojito" started pretty good, but it quickly got a little surreal and over-produced:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUWiDCCJDGc
Given that they have to do 我爱你中国 every year ("I love you, China", it's like America the Beautiful), I was impressed that they went with the classy route of simple piano this year： https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esa_ZvE4keg
On the other hand, here is the most appalling song/dance, called "Festivities": it, um... has Egypt for some reason? And a whole host of other racist caricatures?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2wgTh4O-LM . NO CHINA NO
Also, there is a required song about the military every year, and another about how China's 56 ethnicities totally live in harmony. It's actually pretty interesting to see what they choose. The military one is about defending one's borders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8e_TYx6g5w , and worth watching to see how China portrays its military. I can't help wonder how long it took the soldiers to write "long live China" in the snow for that one particular shot.
On the other hand, the ethnicity song is ... is literally the old party song from the 50s and 60s, featuring lyrics like “mother merely birthed my body, but it is the Party that lights my heart”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GyL1uhVXiM
It's chilling, actually, to see how big the difference is from a decade ago, when the major ethnicities were able to do their own song segment.
And if you understand Chinese, here's some skits that I liked:
如此家长 is about the stress of parenting and signing your kid up for too many classes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNOQnGmT0mo
阳台 doesn't have its own clip, but is a skit about Wuhan under lockdown: https://youtu.be/Ac9ADx8CEhA?t=98
开往春天的幸福 just made me laugh a lot, romance of the working people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzNsYgr_rK0
