French pianist Julien Gaudfroy inspired some heated debate on Sina Weibo today by sharing this video of a local Communist Party official in Sichuan butcher his erhu solo at a Chinese New Year performance last year.
The Party Secretary for Nanbu County was invited to perform his solo alongside a professional provincial orchestra, evidently due more to his political standing than musical abilities.
You can see the musicians around him stare down with pained grimaces and later exchange knowing smiles as the official gives a screeching rendition of Communist Party hym "Jiang Shan."
Online, the post has been met with both guffaws and, of course, nationalist vitriol about how foreigners have no right to voice an opinion on traditional Chinese instruments. In response to former, Gaudfroy has said that any old man playing the erhu in public parks across China is better than this guy, and he had no right stepping on stage with professional, hard-working and competent musicians.
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