Happy National Karaoke Week!

Celebrated during the last week of April, National Karaoke Week is a time to let lose and belt out your favorite songs.

Every week is National Karaoke Week in China. Karaoke, or KTV as it's called, is a rather popular past time, but unlike karaoke in the US, KTV is done at businesses set up specifically for this purpose. There must be hundreds of KTV places in Zhuzhou alone. Upon arrival at a KTV club each party is ushered into their own private KTV room, which is outfitted with two mics, a plasma screen TV, several couches and a computer from which you select the songs. Luckily for us, there are many establishments that have a significant number of English language songs from which my friends and I can choose.

As my Facebook “say something” box can attest to, I love KTV, no matter which friends I go with. The experience, however, is very different depending on who is in the group. The Chinese place the focus of the KTV on the quality of their singing. They like to lean back on the couches and simply sing the songs as beautifully as possible. On the other hand, in my experience, Westerns tend to believe that their performance is most important. Vocal quality, therefore, often suffers. We stand in the center of the room and put on quite a show. In our opinion, the couches should only used for holding our bags and coats and maybe resting between songs. This makes for a very interesting time when a KTV room contains “mixed company.” The Chinese think the Westerners are crazy and the Westerners think the Chinese are too placid. No matter though, a fun time is always had by all.

When I leave China, KTV is definitely something I’m going to miss. I may just have to invest in a karaoke machine and host KTV parties in my own home. How else am I going to be able to celebrate National Karaoke Week?