During the summer Haike and I joined some of his friends for a concert by "the most popular Chinese singer," as my students say. His name is Jay Chou and he is known for writing lyrics that are barely understandable...everyone loves the mystery of trying to figure out what he is singing about.
Jay Chou came to Tianjin on his 'world tour' and we decided to go...I thought it would likely be my only chance to see a Chinese superstar in action.
The concert was at Tianjin's Olympic Stadium and was "eh...okay." It was mostly a big display of lights and onstage sets with an array of special effects. Cool, but no cooler than "eh." The most entertaining part for me was measuring the size of Jay, as seen from our nosebleed section (approximately the size of a peanut) and trying to keep track of where he was on stage.
The other noteworthy part is that going to a Chinese concert is basically like a grandiose karaoke party. They stream all the words to every song on the large side screens so that the entire audience can sing along. In addition to the singing nearly every person has a glow stick which they wave back and forth to the beat of EVERY song. I'm serious, in 2 and 1/2 hours there was not one break from the waving! They must have an ice pack waiting to numb their arm after they return home.
My summary: Jay Chou's concert was a limb-oscillating, ballad-bursting, lyric-decoding, stage-scanning, luminous event!
Or something like that...
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