So on Wednesday I had my first experience of KTV. KTV - or Karaoke TV, is a very popular passtime in China, especially amongst the women. Unlike Karaoke in the West where it is held in a bar or pub with the audience being anyone in attendance, KTV is done amongst friends in private rooms. The rooms have a large screen and a touch screen terminal, two microphones and hand percussion instruments (such as tamborines). There is waiter service where a large selection of food and drink is served, although many people choose to bring their own (and this is not frowned upon). It was myself, Stella (a fellow English teacher, native of Aberystwyth), Winnie, Coral, Cathy (Local Chinese English teachers), Ella and Tina (Teaching assistants). As much as I love Karaoke this was definitely a uniquely fun experience. It was like Singstar or Lips on the X-Box or something. The booths had mood lighting, a strobe, mini-lasers... pretty much a home disco!! I could see this concept either being extremely popular or a total flop in the West.. Although Tian (my good friend from University) informs me there are two Chinese restaurants in Luton that have KTV (although he didn't say which ones!) But I shall add it to the list of businesses I would like to - but probably never will - run. I did my usual Karaoke fayre - A bit of Celine Dion and Barbara Streisand, Westlife - You Raise Me Up and I had a crack at Time to Say Goodbye... which all went down pretty well.
Last night I went with Suki and Chloe (two more Teaching Assistants from the school) to a restaurant which also had mahjong (or ma jiang 麻將 in Mandarin). Each room had a table with sofas for eating, and then the mahjong table itself. Mahjong, if you're not familiar with it (and not the Windows version) is a game played by four players. It is effectively like gin rummy but played with tiles. You have three suits (tong, tiao and wan - dots, lines and numbers) numbered 1 to 9 (yi to jiu), the four winds (north south east and west - bei, nan, dong and shi), flowers and seasons, and the 3 cardinal virtues (Hong Zhong, Fa Cai and Bai Ban - which represent benevolence, sincerity and piety). Each player takes a turn to take and discard one tile in an attempt to make melds, three of a kind (pong) four of a kind (kong) or a run of three (chow). However unlike rummy, you cannot make your meld by drawing your own tile, you have to wait for someone to discard the tile you need. It is all very complex, and I wasn't very good - but luckily we weren't playing for money!
Wednesday night is the staff Chinese New Year Banquet, so I shall let you all know how I am before I head to Beijing.
Best wishes
James.
