In my continuing efforts to learn the Chinese language, I sometimes stumble into things which can be quite surprising – like this little ditty from a young Chinese singer.
Without any apparent irony (and with a compelling beat), she sings a popular song about what a wonderful country China is: “měi lì Zhōng guó” – Beautiful China. See if you can count how often that expression turns up in the song.
Can we imagine any young performer in the West today singing so enthusiastically about “Beautiful America” … let alone “Beautiful Germany” or “Beautiful France” … and apparently getting a positive response from the intended audience?
I scratched my ancient head, and the only similarly upbeat Western song I could think of was “Galveston”, as sung long ago by Glen Campbell. But that was about Texas, which as we all know is a whole other country. And while the music was upbeat, the song was about a young man sent overseas to fight in the Spanish-American war:
“I clean my gun and dream of Galveston”
Have the Lefties succeeded in killing our civilizational confidence with their long march through the institutions?
You might want to scratch it a bit harder and come up with some better answers. Is this too obvious: America the Beautiful? I mean, the very words beautiful and America are right there in the title. I don’t think this is a particularly good song but it does seem to answer the call. It has been suggested that this song replace the current US national anthem, which is an awful idea (AWFL idea?). Apparently, the current anthem is too violent, or something.
Of course, there are numerous other songs celebrating the natural beauty of the country. I particularly favor the performance embedded below because, while the video highlights beautiful scenery, the lyrics celebrate the values of the country. Unfortunately, this song or any song is more of a time capsule that describes the values that once flourished in the US. The natural beauty remains but the values have been desecrated.
No, I’m afraid that songs about natural beauty are nice but don’t get to the root of what makes a country great or confident. The young women in this video sing with enthusiasm but that does not change the ugly reality. Still, this performance makes me a little misty-eyed. Call it nostalgia.
Yup. I note the line “they can’t take that away” and reflexly cringe. “They” (the usual domestic suspects) have sure been trying their best to take away the entire Bill of Rights.
I understand what you mean – but as you point out, that song relates to a much earlier era in American history … as they say, the past is another country.
“America the Beautiful” was written in 1893, more than a century and a quarter ago. Can any of us think of an analogous song written in, say, the last 5 years? Yet here we have “Beautiful China” written recently and apparently getting the approval of that audience.
It is just a straw in the wind, that’s all. When that wind becomes gale force, remember this!
I think you are right that putting matters straight will be a generational issue. A model to look at would be the recovery of Japan and Germany after WWII, or the recovery of China after the Mao era – it took roughly 25 years, a human generation. It will be our children’s children who have to pick up the pieces and rebuild. And rebuild they will!
