Jacky Cheung

Wow! Last night I went to the Jacky Cheung concert (or Zhang Xue You as he's know here), a famous Chinese pop singer. What an awesome concert. Three hours of such a beautiful voice, great dancing and quite a show (on the scale of major concerts in the US). His singing ranges from rock to jazz to love songs and he was backed by a live orchestra. Wow!

Just a sample if you are interested:


The concert was at a huge outdoor soccer stadium. Huge! I was only one of the few foreigners there. I took my driver to the concert with me as a thank you for introducing me to Zhang Xue You and because I knew he would guide me through.

All of the people are sitting to the left of this picture. The other part of the stadium is full.


For the most part, it was like a concert in the US, with a few exceptions.

First, you buy seat cushions outside the stadium. People are selling handmade cushions for a few cents each. There are two reasons for this. One is that the seats are hard so it makes it a little bit softer. The other is that the seats are dirty, so it keeps you clean.

Second, there are very few concessions sold inside the stadium. I can't help but think of the Portland Rose Garden, where buying $10 nachos seems to help the stadium revenue as much as the actual event. I'm sure with their entrepreneurial spirit (like the seat cushions) China will catch on to this eventually.

Third, the bathrooms. We think the queue in the US is bad at major events. It is nothing like here, and for a bathroom that smells from 20 meters away. Anticipating this, I used the forced pre-dehydration method to avoid having to void.

Fourth, no lighters or cell phones held up in respect, but lots of adults with glowing, flashing light sabers and light-up hair bows.

And finally some differences that I felt. When Zhang Xue You came out on stage, I was momentarily surprised that he was singing in Chinese. All of my past cultural experiences have been in the US and in English, so even though I was in a stadium filled with Chinese people, and I knew he was a Chinese singer, somewhere in my brain I was still thinking it would be in English. Weird.

And one moment that reflects the end of my time in China. I am quite familiar with Jacky Cheung's songs. I've been listening to them frequently for the past year. But, I don't know the words as they are all in Chinese. I could sing something that sounds like the words, but it would be way off. Toward the end of the concert, as he was singing my favorite and his most loved songs, the entire stadium is singing along. Except me. I had an overwhelming feeling of not belonging. Which made me think....as much as I love China and wish I could stay longer, if I stayed, I still would never really belong. Never.

What an amazing experience at the end of my amazing experience. 11 more days to go.
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