Insulting a guest you’ve invited to your home is pretty bad manners. Insulting the host who has invited you into their home is the height of bad etiquette. But what do you call it when the host insults his own home – or in this case country.
Earlier, I was critical of Speaker of the House John Boehner for snubbing the White House dinner for Chinese President, and Communist Party Chairman, Hu Jintao. However, I had not seen the entertainment agenda, and would not have believed that a President of the United States would countenance such a display. But then, we’re talking about Barack Hussein Obama.
According to a story in the Epoch Times, and carried by Glenn Beck’s news information service, The Blaze, the headline entertainment at the White House dinner was Chinese pianist, Lang Lang.
Named by Time Magazine in 2009 as one of the world’s most influential people, Lang Lang began playing piano at the age of 3, and by the age of 5, he had won the Shenyang Competition and had given his first public recital. Entering Beijing’s Central Music Conservatory at age 9, he won first prize at the Tchaikovsky International Young Musicians Competition and played the complete 24 Chopin Études at the Beijing Concert Hall at age 13. Lang Lang’s break into stardom came at age 17, when he was called upon for a dramatic last-minute substitution at the “Gala of the Century,” playing a Tchaikovsky concerto with the Chicago Symphony.
Since then, Lang Lang has taught at prestigious music schools all over the world. His mission is to encourage children to learn to play the piano and love classical music. He’s considered one of the “hottest” artists on the classical music scene. He has played charity concerts and he even performed at the Nobel Prize Awards in 2009, where Obama received his participation award.
The number with which he delighted the White House audience was not Chopin’s Fifth Nocturne, Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, March of the Wooden Soldiers, Hail to the Chief, or Holst’s Dance of the Demon.
No, Lang Lange chose a song entitled, “My Motherland” which was the theme song of a pro-Communist and extremely anti-American movie, “Battle on Shangganlin [Triangle] Mountain.” The film depicts a group of “People’s Volunteer Army” soldiers who are first hemmed in at Shanganling (or Triangle Hill) and then, when reinforcements arrive, take up their rifles and counterattack the U.S. military “jackals.”
The movie and the tune are widely known among Chinese, and the song has been a leading piece of anti-American propaganda by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for decades. CCP propaganda has always referred to the Korean War as the “movement to resist America and help [North] Korea.” The message of the propaganda is that the United States is an enemy—that in fighting in the Korean War, the United States’ real goal was said to be to invade and conquer China. The victory at Triangle Hill was promoted as a victory over imperialists.
The song Lang Lang played describes how beautiful China is and then near the end has this verse, “When friends are here, there is fine wine /But if the jackal comes /What greets it is the hunting rifle.” The “jackal” in the song is the United States.
Chairman Hu Jintao recognized it as soon as he heard it. Patriotic Chinese Internet users were delighted as soon as they saw the videos online. Early morning TV viewers in China knew it would be played an hour or two beforehand. At the White House State dinner on Jan. 19, about six minutes into his set, Lang Lang began tapping out the famous anti-American propaganda
The name of the song is “My Motherland,” originally titled “Big River.” In an interview broadcast on Phoenix TV, the first thing Lang Lang is quoted as saying is that he chose the piece.
He then said, “I thought to play ‘My Motherland’ because I think playing the tune at the White House banquet can help us, as Chinese people, feel extremely proud of ourselves and express our feelings through the song. I think it’s especially good. Also, I like the tune in and of itself, every time I hear it I feel extremely moved.”
He expressed this idea more frankly in a later blog post, writing: “Playing this song praising China to heads of state from around the world seems to tell them that our China is formidable, that our Chinese people are united; I feel deeply honored and proud.”
That’s what we get for inviting Chinese Communists to dinner. That’s what we get for electing a pro-Communist to the office of President of the United States. Maybe the Chinese people themselves understand good manners; clearly, their leaders do not. No wonder Boehner didn’t want to attend the dinner. He was right – they’re not nice people and their manners are obviously atrocious. What else could we have expected from a government that devotes most of its economy to its military, while its people work like robots in inhuman factories, all the while claiming they’re for the people?
Eduard Holst, not to be confused with the musically-famous Gustav Holst (“The Planets”), was a prolific composer, writing over 2,000 tunes. He was so prolific (and many of his compositions lightning fast) that some numbers were published posthumously.
Many of his songs were written for children, to listen to and to play. He probably did more for student pianists, composing some rather difficult music that would challenge and improve their skills than Lang Lang ever will, setting his obviously Communist agenda to music, to lure children in with classical musical like a Red Pied Piper.
Better “The Little Maid in Pink” than “The Little Comrade in Red.”
