The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #28889 Message #363870
Posted By: Edmund Flynn (inactive)
27-Dec-00 - 01:34 AM
Thread Name: BS: More China Stories
Subject: RE: BS: More China Stories
I just tumbled to this thread and am very glad that I did as it brings back so many memories of bygone days at the end of World War II when I was a GI in China serving as an interpreter 1945/6.
In 1985 I went back as a visitor and found the country transformed ... not surprising, of course ... a lot can happen during 40 years of peace (internal, forgetting Korea). The unbelievable poverty .. famine .. was gone. Beggars didn't moan as they held their empty rice bowel in hope to the the torn oil paper that served as window 'glass' in many homes and restaurants.
Best of all (from my selfish viewpoint) was that now everybody spoke my dialect (Mandarin).. they might chat among one another in their local dialect, but when I spoke to them in Mandrin they immediately changed gears and responded in kind.
Sorry .. I wander .. really meant to ask a question. I learned a few folk songs as I traveled in the old days. I am not much of a musician, but I can't seem to make my few guitar chords work for them. I understand that Chinese music is on a 5 tone scale (whatever that means) .. do you have to retune the guitar to make it work for Chinese music? If so, how do you do that?
I hope this thread continues ... very nice!
Edmund