Earthquake Benefit Concert

So I need to backtrack a couple of days because I have been really busy/tired again and lazy about posting. On Thursday after work, I got ready to go to this earthquake benefit concert with several of my coworkers. Beforehand, we went to a restaurant near the concert venue, and it was the first time since I’ve been here that I have been able to identify a dish that we ate!

I am at least somewhat convinced that the dish on the left is sweet and sour chicken! (I was beginning to wonder if they actually had sweet and sour chicken in China or if it was only part of the westernized Chinese food repertoire)

Now here’s an interesting illusion. At the restaurant, every place setting has a shrink-wrapped set of plates and bowls etc. Now, you might think to yourself “Hey, these plates and bowls aren’t just sterile, they are brand new!” Think again. I mean, I’m sure they are sterile, but they have very clearly been more than gently used (even the chopsticks). I’m just curious where they are hiding this shrink-wrapping machine in the backroom.

As both a frequent passenger and pedestrian, I’ve been wondering about something every since I got to China, and I have finally narrowed down my conclusions to these: either there are no such things as traffic laws in China, or they are just wholly ignored by all parties involved. I mean we have our “right turns on red” law in the U.S. I guess, but I have observed an unwritten “Do whatever you want at red if nobody’s coming, or even if they are” law here. Pedestrians are more daring than I have ever seen—walking directly into fast moving traffic, and stopping in the middle of the road while cars whiz by on both sides—and the cars don’t pay them too much heed either.

What does oncoming traffic really mean anyway?

So on the way to the concert I was in the car with a guy who only speaks Chinese. Since our conversations were extremely limited, we decided instead to bond over a well-balanced blend of Jay-Z, Fiddy-Cent, Eminem, and Wyclef. You know, the good stuff.  He was eager to learn the Crip walk (apparently known as the C-walk in China), so I gave him a pre-concert tutorial.

 Ok, so the concert. Here’s a brief recap of some of the performances:

 This guy's name was Zheng Jun, and I have a feeling he’s a pretty big deal among Chinese teeny boppers, because everybody seemed to know the words. He did an all-Chinese rendition of Coldplay’s “Yellow”!

This next guy  (I forget his mingzi) seemed the most popular, because the audience desperately called for an encore at the end of his performance. Again, practically everyone knew all the words.

 

This woman—apparently not so popular. She made several desperate attempts to coax the audience into singing along, but was met with no response. Kinda awkward. She also made an attempt at starting an audience clap-along. It failed—again, awkward.

 

Now if all that wasn’t already enough, this next guy provided us with a taste of Chinese gangsta rap/reggae flava….