Foreign Musicians of China

choi

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Justin Moyer, Review of Alan Paul’s memoir “Big in China.” Washington Post, Mar 25, 2011.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/review-of-alan-pauls-memoir-big-in-china/2011/03/01/AFg7FnXB_story.html
(book review on Alan Paul, Big in China; My unlikely adventures raising a family, playing the blues, and becoming a star in Beijing. Harper, 2011)

Note:
(a) The ex-pat--or expat--is the short form of
expatriate (n; Latin ex- + patr-, pater father): one who "leave one's native country to live elsewhere"
(b) Woodie WU 武 麟

The name of the blues band, Woodie Alan, is a play on
Woody Allen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Allen
, and combination of two major players of the band Woodie Wu and Alan Paul. The band has no Chinese name, whose official website, hosted by Douban 豆瓣, is
Woodie Alan的小站
http://site.douban.com/woodiealan/

Please note: The following words all are of the same Celtic origin with obscure meaning. As a rule of thumb, In England Alan is given name and Allen is surname. In Scotland, however, the surname  is more often spelled as Allan. Alan's French cognate is Alain (as in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Delon

(c) The Allman Brothers Band
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Allman_Brothers_Band
(an American rock band;  formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman, Gregg Allman and others; still active)
(d) jam (n)*: "JAM SECTION"

The latter ("First Known Use: 1933") is defined as "an often impromptu performance by a group especially of jazz musicians that is characterized by improvisation."

This noun "jam" has the same origin as the verb as in "jamming a radio" broadcast--and different from the noun jam as fruit preserve (here the "preserve" is a noun but has the same accent as the verb).

All English definitions are from www.m-w.com.
(e) drone (n): 工蜂
(f) Thriller is a song in an album of the same name, recorded by Michael Jackson in 1982.
(g) Additional reading:
Josh Chin, Eight Questions: Alan Paul, ‘Big in China.’ China Real Times (a WSJ subsidiary), Mar 7, 2011.
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/03/07/book-interview-eight-questions-alan-paul-big-in-china/

* Spinal Tap
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinal_Tap

Translation in Taiwan: The "spinal tap" is colloquial for lumbar puncture 腰椎穿刺; This is a Spinal Tap 搖滾萬萬歲 (the 1984  mockumentary); Spinal Tap 半真實樂團.

I will explain briefly. The mockumentary documented a non-existent band called Spinal Tap. Thanks to the success of the mockumentary, its actors came together to form a real band and perform accordingly, up to the present.  假作真時真亦假. 《紅樓夢》第五回.


----------------------------------Separately
Jimmy Wang, Nigerian Finds Pop Stardom in Beijing. New York Times, Mar 16, 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/arts/music/hao-ge-a-nigerian-becomes-a-pop-star-in-china.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Nigerian%20china&st=cse

Note:
(a) A Chinese translation:
纽约时报：京城里的非洲明星.
http://dongxi.net/content/bilingual/left/b04P4
(b) The translation has 连衣裙 for jumpsuit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpsuit
(from skydiver)
. I disagree.
HAO Ge 郝歌
(b) New Sights and Sounds 星光大道
(c) Guan Gong Fang company 关公坊酒业公司

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