KTV

Karaoke is taken very seriously here in China. It’s not a funny joke that only someone completely drunk and willing to humiliate themselves would try like back in the states. They have quite the operation here with karaoke or “KTV” buildings on every corner downtown and even a few close to campus.  In fact, some of the nicest buildings I’ve seen here (which, actually,  isn’t saying much) are devoted to ktv. It is serious business.

It is much different here- instead of one stage at huge bar you rent a small room out that only your group can go in. You rent them for six hours at a time, so- Noon-6PM, 6PM-Midnight, or Midnight-6AM! Crazy! They have a rockin’ set up with a nice mic, a bigscreen and neon lights.

Our friend Dennis invited us to go on Saturday and I thought it sounded fun but had no intention of singing. I do not have a good voice and the thought of singing a solo is terrifying to me! The setting ended up being less threatening and more fun than I had imagined and I ended up singing quite a few songs: Brittney Spears, Cyndi Lauper, Spice Girls and Ace of Base (the English selection wasn’t that great, ok?)  So while you’re singing they play the music video on the big screen and the words come up at the bottom- but a lot of the English translations were totally incorrect so it would catch you off guard when you realized you’re singing words that don’t make sense. Sometimes they don’t have the right music video. This is a real treat because that means they string together meaningless clips of, say, a Chinese woman chewing bread while walking down the street, or a couple sitting on a bench , or airplanes flying- just ridiculous stuff. Not really any rhyme or reason to it. Occasionally they will try to match the clips with the song. My personal favorite was during my rendition of Ace of Base’s “All That She Wants”.  (For those not versed in Ace of Base the chorus is  ♪ All that she wants is another baby. She’s gone tomorrow boy… ♫) Apparently this music video was unavailable so China made their own- it was a bunch of clips of a naked little boy walking around next to a lady, which tells me they thought the song literally meant “she” wanted to exchange her child for another one (it was actually referring to a boyfriend). Once I realized what the fake music video was implying, I couldn’t even finish the song because I was laughing so hard!

Another friend that came with us, Leah, has lived here in China for about a year. She had an amazing voice and was the star at karaoke. She told me that she never sang in front of anyone, or at all really, before coming to China but she’s found this talent through ktv. She claims it’s all from practice, so maybe there is hope for me yet.