Chinese pop concert

On Monday I skipped my finance lecture to go to a Chinese pop concert with Sharon and her family. First Sharon and I met her two brothers at a Japanese restaurant near Town Hall for dinner. I had delicious teryaki chicken with rice and sallad. Then it was time to take a cab to the Opera House, where the concert was held. Outside the house we met Sharon´s mother and some of her friends, who also came to the concert. It was held at one of the smaller theathers, which was almost full of people - we were the only non-Asians there! Sharon´s mother knew the event organizers, so we got front row seats and some special treatment during the concert.

It was young pop stars from Shenzhen (a city close to Hong Kong) coming to perform in Australia for the first time, and the concert was filmed and broadcasted live nationwide China! Even though I don´t speak Chinese, and therefore didn´t understand what they sang about, I really enjoyed all the music, songs and costumes :) All the artists were good performers and it was easy to tell they enjoyed being on the stage. I guess some of them are pretty big names in China since they had their own music videos playing on screens behind them.

Beautiful singer

This one guy was the Chinese Idol or something and many of the Asian girls went just crazy when he was singing. I gotta admit, he was really hot ;) During his second song many girls climbed up to the stage to give him flowers and get their pictures taken with him. Sharon´s mother encouraged us to go, too, and we finally decided to go when he was already finishing his song. But when we were about to climb to the stage this security lady told us we weren´t allowed to go anymore. That´s when one of the organizers crabbed flowers from this Asian girl who also wanted to go - she looked so disappointed - and gave them to us, permitting us to be the last persons to greet him. So up the stage we went, and I handed him the flowers, but we were kinda confused and didn´t stay long enough to have our picture taken with him. It was such a fun teenager moment, though lol.

The Chinese Idol

One of the last things was a traditional Australian campfire song performed by few of the Chinese singers. The event organizers had asked us (Sharon´s family, friends and me) to join them on the stage to sing with them. So there we were standing, trying to sing the song - which I had never even heard before - on a live broadcast! The eight of us were invited to join all the artists and organizers for group pictures after the show, too. I bet we got such special treatment partly because we knew the organizers, but mostly because we were the only Western people there, kinda representing Australians. We hung around for a while after the concert was over, and I got interviewed for the broadcast. The lady was really friendly, asking me questions such as what I thought of the show, who was my favorite (I couldn´t remember her name so I just described her), if I knew any Chinese or if I had visited China etc... She also said I was beautiful :)

So, that was our moment of fame! It´d be interesting to know how famous the singers actually are in China, and how the broadcast turned out. We might get a DVD of it, which would be so cool. After the concert Sharon and I decided to stay for drinks at the harbourside, viewing the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Two of her friends joined us, and we spent some time sitting there and chatting. We took the bus home right after midnight, still excited about our first experience of Chinese pop music! Now we also have this huge poster of the pop stars hanging on our loundry room wall :)