I’ll never understand artists who suck up to Communists.
[Pianist] Lang [Liang] played a Chinese household song called “My Motherland” at the function to welcome President Hu Jintao. It was the theme music of a 1956 movie named Shangganling Battle, which depicted the fighting of Chinese troops against US troops during the Korean War (1950-53).
A lyric in the song goes, “If the jackals come, we will greet them with guns.”
Lang denied any hidden intentions behind the choice, saying on his Facebook account Tuesday that “it has been a favorite of mine since I was a child. It was selected for no other reason but for the beauty of its melody. I am, first and foremost, an artist. As such, I play music to bring people together.”
“America and China are my two homes. … I couldn’t be who I am today without those two countries,” he added. “My mission is to bridge cultures through the beauty and inspiration of music.”
So I guess he’ll play the Battle Hymn of the Republic next time the U.S. president visits Beijing.
Artist and dissident Ai Weiwei, on a Twitter posting, simply laughed off Lang Lang’s explanation. He wrote “Not political?” — and then dismissed the suggestion with an unprintable expletive.
