Audiences

One of the differences I have noticed between American and Chinese culture that comes up occasionally is the way they watch or listen to performances. Western audiences seem to be much more senstive to noise than Chinese. I remember hearing that a particular orchestra might get up and walk out if there was too much noise in the audience. It is very common for latecomers to be kept outside until the appropriate time, which as a frequent latecomer always bothered me.

By contrast, the average Chinese audience looks at things in a different way. An account in a book written by an American man who lived in Beijing from 1946 until 1950 describes his performance of a an instrument, I think the er hu(二胡) , before an audience. As soon as he started, the audience would start chattering and conversing. He stopped for a second because he thought maybe they weren't interested. As soon as he stopped, they stopped talking and were silent except for one or two people telling him not to stop but to keep on playing. I can say from personal experience, it's not always that way but there is some truth to this picture.

In our household, I must pay close attention to a tv drama in order to follow the plot. Noise is too much of a distraction. By contrast, my wife can play Chinese chess (圍棋), watch our 2 year old doing somersaults off of the sofa and still do a better job of analyzing the plot than I do.