Guitars in China

[Tashtego]

I was just wondering how many self identified Chinese jcf members there are. I found 3, same as the number of Estonians. CIA fact book claims Estonia has 1.3 million people, while China is a nice round 3 orders of magnitude larger at 1.3 billion. Don't they play guitar in China? They make enough of them. Maybe the missing hordes of Chinese guitar enthusiasts are on Chinese lang. web sites?

[jcm800x]

How much access do the Chinese have to the web? Dosn't the goverment restrict it to certain sites?

[Sunbane]

I think the asian internet population tend to keep to themselves (sadly). Just look at the japanese - absolutely guitar crazy, but where are they?

[rjohnstone]

The Chinese government may very well find guitar forums like this as "subversive" and block them.
We musicians tend to speak freely about everything.
Free speech is very bad for a Communist country.

[m2pmd70]

Why, you looking to get some shitty knock-offs even cheaper?

Of the few Chinese friends and acquaintances I've had none of them were into guitar, much less metal.

[Tashtego]

The Chinese government may very well find guitar forums like this as "subversive" and block them.
We musicians tend to speak freely about everything.
Free speech is very bad for a Communist country.

I'm going to check that by using the chinese google server
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-01-26-n39.html

I would guess that the jcf mods censor things to satisfaction of the grimmest CCP apparatchik already. (just kidding)

[Tashtego]

I think the asian internet population tend to keep to themselves (sadly). Just look at the japanese - absolutely guitar crazy, but where are they?

True, the Japanese seem under represented too. It must be the language barrier. English language technical forums are full of people from all over though who just do the best they can.

[GWARGHOUL]

Yup. China has a big 'ole proxy server setup.

So doa lot of Arab countries.

Bullshit.

[Leo Chang]

I am Taiwanese (and btw, Taiwan is NOT part of China ), and I think there are at least 3 reasons:


1) government control / restriction of access to the Web

2) residual effect of late period Confucianist thinking.

3) Asian people tend not to visit English-language forums


1) has already been sufficiently covered, so I'll just elaborate on 2).
I say "late period" Confucianist thinking, because Confucius himself was actually very open minded, it's the scholars of later dynasties who added a lot of draconian thought-control type ideas into his system.

Regardless of the cause, it's a fact of life in East Asia that lifestyles that are not considered "mainstream" will be criticized and frowned upon. And mainstream in East Asia societies means to study hard, get into a good university, and make lots of money in a prestigious job. Failing that, at least you gotta have a prestigious degree, otherwise you are considered a failure.

For many (thought not all) people in China and the surrounding countries, money and prestige are the most important things in life. Therefore, instruments that can make you look "high society" such as classical instruments are acceptable... but keep in mind that people who do take up those instruments are not playing because they love playing... but because they want the prestige associated with such instruments.

Of course, this kind of thing happens elsewhere too, but it is much more prevalent in Asia, and Asian people's thinking tend to be more ethnocentric... locking themselves in a very narrow perspective. Which of course, is not very good for creativity in general, and music in particular. Especially not for electric guitar-driven music.

Aside from a brief few years in Japan, where Hair Metal-style Japanese bands were wildly popular (they were called "Visual Kei" in Japan), East Asia is sadly deficient in developing native Rock / Metal bands.

All of the above means that East Asians as a whole are not very interested in music in itself, and fewer of them even want to be musicians (at least in the proper sense of the word). Those who do want to be musicians typically don't want to be guitarists, especially not electric guitarists.

And 3), the very few who are actually interested in music... and are interested in Rock / Metal.... and who chooses to go on the web.... usually stick with Asian-language sites. They don't visit sites like Harmony Central or the JCF, because most Asians are not very fluent in English, even though most of them have taken a few years of English in high school.

[Leo Chang]

True, the Japanese seem under represented too. It must be the language barrier. English language technical forums are full of people from all over though who just do the best they can.

Well, people from Europe or South America, or wherever else where English may not be the first language might participate with the mindset that "well, English is not my first language, but I'll just do what I can, I am sure the forum members will understand"

People from Asia are more likely to have this mindset: "I know my English sucks, so I'll stick with Asian-language sites to avoid embarassment... people on the English-language forums talk about artists I don't know or care about anyway"

If there were more JCF threads on Canto-pop or J-Pop "artists", I am sure more Asians will show up

[El_Kabong]

-Well written, Leo.

[followthereaper]

Being born in South Korea, and currently living in Connecticut, I can't tell you shit. However, Leo is right. There's an exchange student from China that was in my math and science class for a while (I'm a senior, they're a junior), and not to help fuel any stereotypes, but this chick was way better at math stuff than everyone else in my classes. She ended up being placed in more advanced classes, but I remember she was very boring and not into anything.

[Leo Chang]

One more thing.... even among Asians living in places like North America, the redisual effect of late period Confucianism is EXTREMELY strong.

in my 15 years of living in Vancouver, I've interacted with hundreds if not thousands of Asians, and yet I only know 3 who are even remotely into Rock / Metal... and that's including myself.

I am considered an oddity by many Asians, because to them, even though I have done everything I am "supposed to do", it's like "why would you want to degrade yourself by playing electric guitar? Especially Rock and Metal.... YEW!!~~~"

The really "white washed" Asians are of course not affected by this, since their thinking is essentially North American, not Asian.

[Leo Chang]

-Well written, Leo.

Thanks

[slash]

I think the asian internet population tend to keep to themselves (sadly). Just look at the japanese - absolutely guitar crazy, but where are they?

I have seen a few on youtube