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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
China trip, Mostly Business but some time for harp
China trip, Mostly Business but some time for harp
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STME58
447 posts
May 30, 2013
12:30 AM
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I spent a couple of week in China on a business trip. Most of my time was spent on Engineering but I did get to a couple of music stores and got a chance to play a bit in a couple of parks. Playing in public in China is not much different from in the US. People seem friendly and appreciative. I choose places where people are walking by, so no one is a captive audience. I don’t speak Chinese so communication is difficult but smiles and singing along translate well. I assume a “thumbs up” sign is a good thing in China as it is in the US, if not; I need to reevaluate the public response :-). One person, who spoke no English, stopped and listened for a while then offered me a cigarette. I don’t smoke, but I appreciate the sentiment. Another, who did speak some English, was fascinated by my use of my hands to shape the tone. When you say harmonica in China most people think of a 24 hole tremolo and I guess they don’t use the hands to get a Wa Wa effect like a blues harp player does. Kids in China behave just like kids in the US, they stare, point, tug at their parents to show them the strange man making music with his hands, and love it if you wave to them.
In one of the music stores, where little English was spoken, I asked if they had harmonicas and took one out of my pocket to show what I was talking about, I was told “Not Blues” It was not clear whether she meant, “We have no blues harps in stock”, or “Blues is not allowed here”. I expect the former, but I could embellish this into a fun story by assuming the latter. I did pick up 2 C Guo Guang 24 hole tremolo’s an octave apart for 23 Yuan (less than $4) each. They are a bit out of tune. The Toyama chromatic was 35 Yuan and plays quite well. It is my first chromatic so I have nothing to compare it to but the slide works freely and it is in tune. I also picked up a nice G dizi for 250 Yuan. At a store up the street I bought Ab and G Suzuki Folkmasters for 55 Yuan each and a Suzuki Study 24 tremolo for 98 Yuan. The Suzuki’s, even though they are of Chinese manufacture, are much better harps than the Guo Guangs.
Modern Blues Harmonica is not accessible in China without a VPN connection back to the US and sometimes not even then. I don’t know if that is because of the topic, or if all social networking is locked out in China.
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Pistolcat
386 posts
May 30, 2013
12:39 AM
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Nice story! I lived in Beijing for three months 2006. Those were great times! In parks and on corners people sat playing chinese chess, ma jong and cards. Women handcrafting or playing badminton or beanbag-kicking in the streets. A lot of singing and musicplaying in parks, too. People went there to practise their "bands" and choirs.
A friend and I took to sitting in parks and on the curb with the locals playing (western) chess. We had a lot of spectators, none of which knew any rules of chess but seemed to enjoy watching anyways.
Good times...
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Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
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STME58
450 posts
May 30, 2013
10:45 PM
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Pistolkatt,
While living in Beijing, did you pick up anything musically that you still use? What kind of music did you hear in the park? Did you find anything like a blues jam in Beijing?
In Shenzhen I saw a few erhu players on the street with little battery amps, but they looked like stereotypical beggar buskers. Some of them played well. I saw a pretty good dizi player in a subway (underground pedestrian street crossing, not a train station) he had a bag of dizis in various keys and was playing Bach and Mozart quite well, taking full advantage of the acoustics of the place. He appeared to be western.
I have been to China several times but it is mostly just hotel, restaurants and factory with an occasional day to do something spur of the moment. You can't really plan the weekends because you might end up needed on the factory.
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Pistolcat
389 posts
May 31, 2013
12:46 PM
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I hadn't started playing while I lived there. I actually got me first harp from my then-girlfriend-now-wife. As a thing to do while I lived there. Me and two friends from the university took a sabbatical semester and relocated to Beijing to chill and find purpose, or whatever. One friend who is a musician brought a mixing table and a computer to record stuff. He bought a cheap guitar on site and then played nothing :) I brought a harp and played it twice or thrice... I brought it home again and took it out of a drawer when I decided it was time to learn it good.
We ended up drinking a lot of beer and eating street food. We went to a couple of music events, one of which was a blues gig but ended up picking up one guy after the other from the crowd. I think it was somewhere up in wudakou in the university area/campus. There was a place called "what!" or "shenma!" that had a lot of music. Mostly punk rock.
I don't care too much for contemporary Chinese pop-music. Classic Chinese is cool but very removed from western and I'm not too into it.
Had the time of my life... Sabbaticals just make your lifer larger...
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Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
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Greg Heumann
2168 posts
May 31, 2013
1:10 PM
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Nice story, thanks. Shame the site is blocked in China. But then again, we are a subversive bunch.....
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/Greg
BlowsMeAway Productions
See my Customer Mics album on Facebook
BlueState - my band
Bluestate on iTunes
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Thievin' Heathen
206 posts
May 31, 2013
5:11 PM
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My Navy years took me to Hong Kong a couple of times before the lease ran out. I bought 2 Hohner 280's for $35 each. I would like to get back there sometime.
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