Beijing Sounds — 北京的声儿

I figured it’d be cheap of Beijing Sounds to record the one sound that’s deafening the city tonight, so here’s one you probably haven’t heard this new year’s eve, unless, maybe, you have grade school children attending a Beijing elementary.Kid culture has always fascinated me — how stuff gets made up and passed on through generations of children without reaching up into the adult realm. In my childhood this extended to all sorts of arts, and so most kids knew, for example, …

• the commonly known rules for playing marbles for keeps
• the technique for making various patterns with a circle of string and your two hands
• no end of bawdy doggerel, e.g. a taunting one I only half-remember:

… [forgot first line]
I see Johnny’s underwear
Might be blue, might be white
Might be full of dynamite

Beijinger ankle-biters are no different. Here’s a G-rated one belted out gleefully by our 6 and 8-yr-old informants. Happy new year!

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2008, 火山爆发。我去救人，变成烤鸭。
èr líng líng bā, huǒshān bàofā, wǒ qù jiù rénr, biànchéng kǎoyā
2008, a volcano erupts, I go to save someone, become a roast duck