The new Dashan is arrived !

[Long Pan]

Amercian Eric Shepherd who performs Shandong kuaishu (山东快书) and « speaks pure Shandong dialect and one cannot distinguish from a Chinese performer with eyes closed » according to his Chinese master. Read the article (today’s China Daily) here.

PS: I always like when they used the "with eyes closed" metaphor (twice in this article), which means that with eyes opened he just cannot sound as Chinese as a Chinese, which is obvious as he is a 外国人!

[roddy]

I've got to ask, why do you read the China Daily? I'd rather eat toenail-clipping sandwiches.

Anyway, there'll never be another Dashan. Even if you did the exact same stuff he did, you would need to a) do it first and B) do it for twenty years. Love him or hate him, he's unique.

[ZhangJunjun]

How it is a new Dashan? Dashan speaks Mandarin. He does not speak Shandong dialect. This is apples and oranges.

[Long Pan]

I've got to ask, why do you read the China Daily?

China Daily edito line is "quite open" (for China) with many HK or foreign journalists. "The comment" page (with the daily columnist) + the "lifepulse" page in the supplement, give at least 3 or 4 articles worth reading per week (+ of course the daily cartoons and language tipe )

I guess another reason I read it, is that it is the only newspaper (hardpaper) I can read here - eventhough I am not sure the Chinese language papers (if I had the skills to read them) are worth reading.

[Lu]

With eyes open he is easily distinguishable from a Chinese master, as he is white (or black, for all I know, in any case, not Chinese-looking). It doesn't mean he doesn't sound Chinese with your eyes open, but that he doesn't look Chinese. Personally I think this 'if I didn't see you/when I talked to you on the phone I though you were Chinese' is one of the few genuine compliments one can get for one's Chinese.

[roddy]

Fair enough on the China Daily - I have a dislike of the paper dating from the days when it was the only source of news i had bar the BBC World Service. Some of the cultural stuff isn't bad, and that article was more interesting than I expected it to be.

But I still maintain there's only ever going to be one Dashan.

[Mugi]

Another panda ...