"My Motherland" or, How America Was Shafted

"My Motherland" or, How America Was Shafted

“Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.” Sometimes.

Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang didn’t do much in the way of soothing or softening or bending a few weeks ago. In fact, he raised a firestorm. Lang Lang is either a fool or an inscrutably devious propagandist for the People’s Republic of China.

Lang Lang, 郎朗, you may recall, was the 28 year old Chinese piano player who wowed the crowd at the White House State Dinner for China’s Paramount Leader, Hu Jintao, on January 19th by tickling the keyboard with ”My Motherland,” 我的祖國, the theme song from the Battle on Shangganling Mountain which coincidentally was an anti-American Chinese war film lauding ChiCom efforts to kill American soldiers, “jackals,” during the Korean War.

Lang Lang, a highly-acclaimed artist, doesn’t seem to be a stupid man but, when the source of his selection became known, he said he chose the piece “because it has been a favorite of mine since I was a child. It was selected for no other reason but for the beauty of its melody” and he was totally ignorant of the origins of the music. The White House readily lapped up his explanation.

So, too, did Raymond Zhou, a writer for China Daily, dismiss the “hoopla” created by a Chinese citizen playing an anti-American song of war in America’s White House. As Zhou said, “It is quite possible Lang Lang was attracted to the melody and oblivious to the hidden meaning of the lyrics.” It is also quite possible that either Lang Lang is an absolute ignoramus since the song and melody have long topped the Chinese hit list or Mr. Zhou is an absolute liar. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3513)