Did Pianist Lang Lang Dis the White House?

Chinese-born pianist Lang Lang in many ways embodies the Sino-American comity that both President Hu Jintao and President Barack Obama emphasized during their summit this past week—which is no doubt why he was chosen to perform at the White House state dinner for Mr. Hu on Wednesday.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise that he is now being praised by nationalist Internet users in China for a perceived anti-U.S. slight supposedly implied in the 28-year-old’s choice of music that night.

As part of the state dinner’s “quintessentially American” program (PDF), Mr. Lang was invited along with a number of U.S. jazz musicians in an “Evening of Jazz.” He and the legendary jazz pianist Herbie Hancock played a four hands version of a Maurice Ravel song, exchanging hugs afterward (see video of the performance here, and on Mr. Lang’s website here). Journalist James Fallows, who was at the dinner, describes the evening here).

Then, the plot thickened—at least, that’s how some read it. After bilingual comments to the assembled VIPs in which he said it was a “great honor” to be playing, he proceeded to perform a solo piece, which he introduced as a “Chinese song called ‘My Motherland.’”

The song is not just any old song. As Chinese netizens have pointed out, “My Motherland” is the theme song for a famous anti-U.S. movie about the Korean War from 1956, titled “Battle on Shangganling Mountain.”

In any case, the irony of playing an ode from an anti-American Chinese movie at a White House event dedicated to Sino-U.S. cooperation and friendliness has set the Chinese web abuzz—and more than a few people are convinced it wasn’t an accident.

Both the Sina and Sohu news portals reposted an article that they attributed to the Beijing Evening News, with the headline: “Lang Lang Played ‘My Motherland’ at White House, Flaunting National Power.”

“Those American folks very much enjoyed it and were totally infatuated with the melody!!! The U.S. is truly stupid!!” wrote a user named You’re In My Memory on Sina’s micro-blogging site. This particular post was re-posted many times.

Mr. Lang’s representatives could not be reached. A spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said that they were not aware of what songs Lang Lang played at the state dinner.

所有跟帖： 

• this article is from Wall Street Journal -bustout- ♀ (0 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 10:23:45

• this is written by a chinese -飘雪的日子- ♀ (0 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 10:31:27

• 这举报的功劳又让别人抢走了。 -千里一盏灯- ♂ (0 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 10:33:15

• 又是老中 -外乡人- ♂ (546 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 10:51:03

• 就是说，要不是中国网民读出了很多“联想”丰富，这原本都不是一件事。忽然间，有点明白中国的文字狱怎末那末多了。 -3岁男孩妈- ♀ (99 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 10:59:17

• famous anti-U.S. movie 是反美电影吗？ -mooseamoose- ♂ (538 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 11:00:13

• 那不是美军，是联合国军。 -千里一盏灯- ♂ (0 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 11:06:08

• 战争，确实和反美不相干。说反一个国家，一般是说反一种信念，体制或者文化。 -20146- ♀ (0 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 11:07:39

• 哈哈，打败美帝野心狼。。。 -baydad- ♂ (0 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 11:22:46

• 这句怎么翻？我觉得那时候的翻译真的特有水平。 -piggyp- ♀ (0 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 11:25:41

• 那时候关起门来自己叫嚷给自己听，不用翻译的～ -20146- ♀ (0 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 11:29:47

• 哈，我骂你呢，可就偏不让你听懂？跟朗朗这次的效果挺像的～ -piggyp- ♀ (0 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 11:32:37

• 所以懂几国语言，也不总是好事：）～～～～～～～～～～～～ -20146- ♀ (0 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 11:36:23

• Down with American Ambitious Wolf! -baydad- ♂ (0 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 11:49:42

• 嗯，说的是“美帝” -20146- ♀ (0 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 11:27:32

• 回复：哈哈，打败美帝野心狼。。。 -千里一盏灯- ♂ (251 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 11:45:14

• 当时的宣传一直是强调美国人民和美帝美国资本家是对立的，问题的关键 -mooseamoose- ♂ (59 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 11:51:25

• 让你这么一总结，好人坏人黑白分明。跟以前中国电影似的 -piggyp- ♀ (0 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 11:24:29

• 本来挺quirky的文章，最后非要quote 中国网民一句‘stupid’，wsj非得这么low ball吗 -piggyp- ♀ (0 bytes) () 01/22/2011 postreply 11:37:05