Singing

I've decided singing is really important to Chinese people. First, there's the fact that karaoke is hugely popular in China. My language partner says that the Chinese prefer karaoke to regular bars so you usually only see foreigners in bars. Then there is the strange spectacle that occurred in the restaurant where we had dinner.

We were happily eating our again fake western food, well me not so happily because I had stupidly ordered broccoli lasagna which only contained broccoli and green broccoli flavored pasta, but I digress. We were eating our meal when a large crowd of men, both Asian and western, wandered into the restaurant. Almost immediately they started drinking and playing a singing game. The game went something like this: The group of men led by at least two Asian alpha males, would sing about two lines of a song in English, then chant "ya shou ya shou" really loudly. One female waitress would then respond by singing much better than the men sang their song, a few lines of a Chinese song (in Mandarin or her own dialect). Back and forth the game went. The men had to resort to songs like Row Your Boat and Mary had a Little Lamb. After a while the game progressed to the men challenging the people in the street, who amazingly responded and sang back. We asked one of the white guys what was going on and he said they were here for an Asian area sales conference for some Dutch owned American based company (?). There were people from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, England, Austrailia, and the US. It was actually pretty funny watching the westerners in their business casual outfits (light blue shirt, khakis) and fleeces with perplexed looks on their faces. They weren't really participating in the singing game, but that's okay--their Asian counterparts were doing just fine on their own.