extra credit post

So...the discussion with the Chinese theatre troop was quite interesting.
As expected of any group that doesn't live in America, they would think that American only listen to a very narrow genre of music. Things like rock and roll or punk or hip hop. So they would think that these things are the only things we would have in common if they even listen to any of that stuff. To an extent, they are right.
In the eyes of a Chinese, Americans may have more of everything like money, opportunity, space, fresh air, a bigger house, etc, but as I sat in the performance hall listening to the many things being said by the Chinese students, I could not mistake the feeling of inferiority at no fault of the Chinese students. Perhaps it is the culture but the music of China has been around for ridiculously longer than the so-called American music. The guitar which is considered a "western" instrument was being played by one of the Chinese students and for some reason Americans would be so surprised and ask, "oh? you can play guitar?" and silently question why the Chinese students chose to bring a guitar and some other exotic instrument.
Of course, no one knows everything and everyone is willing to learn which is why there were so many questions going around. The Chinese students showed some traditional music because the American students would have had little to no exposure to such things. The American students showed some more contemporary "American" music. To assume that the western side of the world had heard little to none of the traditional music of the east is reasonable but to assume that the eastern side had heard little to none of the more modern and popular music of the west is almost ridiculous, although the Chinese students were not ones to interrupt. This is the same mentality Americans take everywhere, partially without intending to.
One of the things about Chinese is their relatively smaller stature so it is in the culture blood that they must use other means to compensate for their smaller stature. They invented fighting styles, instead of running around town to call everyone they made a giant drum literally called "big drum", entertainment consisted of elaborate theatre productions and music performances, they used their brains. Even today, they are still doing the same thing: the humble person who says nothing is listening and taking everything in; learning and observing the right moment to speak, unlike the bucket that is half full and full of noise only.