Video: Top Floor Circus updates "Shanghai (Doesn't) Welcome You"
Among the songs Shanghai art-punk band Top Floor Circus (顶楼马戏团) performed to a cheering crowd at Mao Livehouse this weekend was an update of their song "Shanghai Welcomes You" (which we giggled about back in August). If you thought the old version was biting, iteration two, named "Shanghai Doesn't Welcome You" adds on the negativity.
In case you hadn't realized, the song is aimed at "Beijing Welcomes You," a ubiquitous anthem that played all through the summer last year (and beyond). With Shanghai acting like the Expo is just as big an event as the Olympics, the theme was ripe for parody.
Chinageeks did everyone the courtesy of translating the song into English, though they warned that the translation didn't pay much attention to rhyme or meter:
Shanghai is getting harder and harder to live in these days,From the basic necessities to eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling it’s China’s most expensive,Shanghai doesn’t welcome outsiders or people from Shanghai,Shanghai only welcomes the kind of people whose faces are on money [i.e., Shanghai only welcomes money],
Shanghai doesn’t welcome you, Unless you’re coming to buy something, But we don’t have any money on us, Shanghai doesn’t welcome you, The 2010 World Expo [hosted by Shanghai] is really great, All the rich people from all over the world will be united [in Shanghai]
Underground at 93 Lingling Road there lives a rock-and-roll youth, Five rooms underground, very cheap price, When he’s finished rehearsing he goes to a small restaurant to enjoy himself, What a shame that at the end of this year he’ll have to move because of the World Expo
Shanghai doesn’t welcome you, Unless you’re coming to buy something, But we don’t have any money on us, Shanghai doesn’t welcome you, The 2010 World Expo [hosted by Shanghai] is really great, All the rich people from all over the world will be united [in Shanghai]
And in case you wanted to see the Chinese, here it is (courtesy of the Hen Huang, Hen Bao Li (很黄很暴力) blog):
Not perhaps the cleverest lyrics, but as C. Custer says, "it does capture the frustration that seems to be spreading about Shanghai housing prices (and prices generally), as well as the frustration people have about being shuffled around by the government to make way for new buildings they can’t afford to live in." And according to Jake Newby's coverage of the event, the crowd went crazy for it.
In case you're interested in seeing how the crowd reacted to the old one, here's a video (on Youtube) of them performing it back at Modern Sky in 2008:
