During my first visit to China I couldn’t help expressing my curiosity towards karaoke.-Why do you guys love it so much? I asked my Chinese translator/guide/life saviour (at that point I spoke 0.0 Chinese)
-It releases stress, she said with a straight face.
Releases stress?
I thought about what I do when I want to release stress. I go for a run. I sweat. I suffer. I think to myself that “damn it, I HATE running” but then afterwards, when I’m back home again, exhausted and worn out, I feel kind of good. Or actually, very good.
I tried to imagine myself singing karaoke and feeling the same way afterwards.
-I see, I said.
-It’s not that strange you know, she said, as if she could read my mind.
-You know, in Japan, people go to special clubs where they get a private room, a pen, and a handful of porcelain plates. They go into their private room, write their bosses name on the plate, and throw the plate against the wall so that it shatters!! That’s their way of releasing stress!
-Oh, I see, I said again.
-So do you think Swedish people would prefer the Chinese or the Japanese method?
-I'm not sure...
Do I look de-stressed?(Side note: “surprisingly” none of my Japanese friends have been able to confirm the ‘write-your-boss-name-on-a-plate-and-throw-it-on-the-wall-stress-release-method).
Well, karaoke is quite a way to release stress for some people, but not for all. And it seems girls are more interesting in singing. The people keeping singing we call her/him 麦霸(Mai1 Ba4, it's a pinyin.麦 for 麦克风micphone, 霸 for 霸占者strong holder, the strong holder of the mic, someone love karaoke so much and just keep holding the mic and singing, lol). Next time you see somebody keep singing again and again you can call her/him 麦霸 for fun.
ReplyDeleteFor most of us, karaoke shop is somewhere for a group of people to stay together and kill the weekend time. We may not just sing, but also play card or dice, or just talk to each other, or play some palmtop game together(NDSL or PSP).