BEIJING — There are many things about modern China that defy easy explanation: parents posing their children next to live tigers, the sight of grown women wearing furry cat-ear headbands while shopping, the performance-art-like spectacle of strangers napping together in Ikea display beds.
But no mystery is more confounding than that of China’s most enduring case of cultural diffusion: its love affair with “Going Home,” the 1989 smash-hit instrumental by the American saxophone superstar [ Kenny G].
So I may not have seen parents and their kids posing with tigers, but I have seen grown women wear questionable outfits and whole families making themselves at home in Ikea. And as far as Kenny G is concerned ("superstar"? really?), it wasn't that long ago that he made an appearance here in Shanghai.
I suppose the phenomena in Beijing is similar to my generation's "Closing Time," which always played in bars during last call. But as far as songs on repeat, here in Shanghai it's these two. I'd love for the reporter to look into this quandary next.
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