Is it just me or are the lyrics to this rather tacky pop song a bit sinister?
People of every skin colour, People with hair of every colour
What they’re reading, what they’re saying,
Chinese is becoming the new trend
How many years did we painstakingly practice English pronunciation and learn their grammar?
For a change, now it’s their turn to get their tongues all in a knot
How smart the Chinese are! And how beautiful our language is!
The whole world is learning Chinese
Confucius’ words are becoming world culture
Our language makes the people of the world listen up
The first question this raises is exactly who in the world is learning Chinese other than a handful of business men and language students at university? An audacious statement perhaps but doesn’t quite represent the whole world to my mind, although they got the part about it being a ludicrously difficult language to learn correct!
Aside from being a little naive what’s perhaps more worrying is that this was one of the main performances at the 2008 Chinese New Year gala broadcast on CCTV (the state controlled TV network in China). If there was ever a subtle way to try and get your message across about intentions of world domination then this sure isn’t it!
Ironically the group (S.H.E) are from Taiwan and were formed in a talent contest, rather than having any artistic ideals. Just another cog in the propoganda machine?
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