Saturday night and my friend G and I are invited to a girl's birthday party. It's one of G's acquaintances who's turning 25. He hasn't seen her for over five months and doesn't remember what she looks like.
The party started early, but because G had to work (percussionist at the Guiyang Symphony Orchestra), we arrive late. G doesn't know what the place is we're supposed to go and is surprised to stand in front of a club instead of a house. The birthday girl didn't give clear instructions to G, but told the taxi driver over the phone where to take us. The driver points at a roundish flat building and we walk towards it. It says 'V' above the entrance and red carpeted stairs lead you two floors down.
Along the stairs are many Roman Empire statues and paintings. We reach the end of the stairs and find ourselves in a small, but cosy and elegant club.
G calls the birthday girl and a minute later she comes to the entrance to pick us up. She leads us to a seating area just in front of the stage. There's a big long table full of alcoholic beverages, surrounded by comfortable sofas and birthday decoration. There are many people seating on the sofas, and they make us some space when they see us. Typically for China and Chinese, glasses are brought and filled with beer. Then quite a few people want to toast, exchange WeChat and get photographed with us. Most of them don't speak English, some speak a few words only and the entire conversation goes either via the birthday girl who speaks really good English, or via G who speaks good Chinese.
There's a band performing various dance and pop songs, but nobody dances. There's no dance floor in this club. This is something very Chinese. Most clubs either have no dance floor at all, or one or two small ones. People don't like to dance. They mainly sit on sofas and have their drinks. If the noise level of music permits it, they talk, if not, or run out of things to say, they play dice games. More about dice games in another post.
When the clock strikes midnight, the band plays 'Happy birthday', candles are lit on two cakes and dancers appear on stage. Our birthday girl gets a crown, but instead of blowing out the candles, she walks around the club, answers calls and texts, hugs and kisses people while the candles reach a dangerously low level just an inch above the cake's surface. Then she decides to blow out the candles.
A few minutes later she comes to us and says: 'It's time to move!'
Everybody gets up and people start leaving. Where are we going? No idea! First we go up the stairs and gather outside the club. She says something to all the people and I hear the word 'KTV'. I'm delighted, but G is not amused. I have always wanted to go to one. G has been several times and is not a fan of KTV. We get into a taxi and arrive a few minutes later at a building that looks like an expensive hotel.
KTV stands (as I was told by some Chinese) for Karaoke TV. Karaoke is a Japanese invention and shouldn't be successful in China, because the two countries are rivals, and especially the Chinese don't like the Japanese, some even hate them. Nevertheless, karaoke is huge in China. It started in bars and on the streets and has now become a massive business. Chinese love to sing and they sing everywhere and not only when they are drunk. That's one of the reasons why karaoke is so popular here. People can feel like superstars for the duration of a song and earn some standing ovations.
Now there are KTVs everywhere in the country. Their size and equipment varies a lot. There are some small and cheap ones, and there are some big and luxurious ones. The latter look in size and standard like five star hotels.
The entrance and lobby is decorated with marble and expensive furniture. There's personnel at the reception that receives guests and takes them to the rooms.
This is how it works: You book a room depending on the group of people. There are rooms in different sizes. You also book a room for the hours needed. Once you are brought to your room, you see tables, chairs or stools, sofas, etc. a TV, microphones and the actual karaoke machine.
Waiters bring in food and drinks and you can choose the songs you want to perform on the karaoke machine. Most songs are Chinese, but there are several foreign songs. Among the foreign songs we discover, is the full set of Celine Dion, many Bon Jovi songs, a few older popular pop and rock songs and many boy groups and young and newer artists like Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga.
Once you've chosen the song you like and enter it onto the system, a video clip appears on the TV screen with the lyrics at the bottom. The clip can be the original video clip, but it can also be a cheaply made karaoke version with a couple walking on a romantic beach towards the setting sun.
We try to find a song to sing, but since G doesn't know most of the artists or songs, the birthday girl decides 'My heart will go on' by Celine Dion. So, a few minutes later, the three of us are standing on the podium with microphones in our hands, singing the bloody ballad out of Titanic. In front of us are a dozen Chinese taking photos and recording our try. Nevertheless, we have great fun and go for a second song.
V-Club
If you would like to read more by me, here are my novel and my diary from Ar'ar, in the northern Saudi desert. Both available on Amazon as soft and hard copy.
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