Don't be a Chinese child

Today is a sad day - the 15th anniversary of the Karamay theatre fire, one of the worst man-made disasters in China's recent history, which left 325 people dead, most of them young schoolchildren. I've written about it today on Froogville, too.

This is the very cool Chinese folk singer Zhou Yunpeng (who quite often hangs out at favourite neighbourhood music bar, Jianghu) performing a particularly savage piece called Don't Be A Chinese Child, which references the Karamay tragedy along with a number of other notorious stories of the abuse or death of children. [It's quite a long clip; the first song is the Karamay one.]


http://www.youmaker.com/video/sv?id=073f9470162b49feaf7c8686a492bd03001

Here's an English translation of the lyrics (via the Wikipedia article on the Karamay fire; unfortunately, the translator is uncredited):

Don't Ever Be A Chinese Child

Don't be a child of Karamay,
whose burns would scorch a mother's heart.
Don't be a child of Salan Town
who finds no rest beneath dark waters.
Don't be a child of Chengdu
who waits for mum's return
after her week-long binge.

Chorus (children laughing)

Don't be a child of Henan
where AIDS cackles in the blood.
Don't be a child of Shanxi
where mines turn dads
into baskets of coal.

Chorus (laughter)

Don't be a child of Karamay
Don't be a child of Salan Town
Don't be a child of Chengdu
Don't be a child of Henan...

Don't ever be a Chinese child,
or the grown-ups will
eat you when they starve.

At least in the wild, mountain goats
are fierce enough to protect their kids.

Don't ever be a Chinese child,
because mommy and daddy are cowards;
when the theatre caught fire,
they steeled their hearts
and let the cadres exit first.