Years ago, at a Chinese party, I heard of older Chinese men choosing “My Motherland” as their choice of song for Karaoke after dinner. As I heard “If friend comes, we offer wine. If a jackal comes, we greet it with a hunter’s gun”, I was thinking to myself: that was funny, such an anti-America song in the middle of this quiet American neighborhood. Yet beyond this irony I knew it was nothing more than a nostalgic look back at their youths. As someone not too much younger, I know that in their generations, these “revolutionary” songs were part of the legacy that has made them who they are. Singing like this may be strange in a newer context, but so will my kids’ singing of songs by Hanna Montana, Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga to their kids in 2050.

However, it is something else when the 28-year old pianist Lang Lang played this song in a state dinner to welcome China’s President Hu in the US. “My Motherland” is the theme song from a 1956 Chinese movie about a famous battle in Korean War. In this battle outnumbered Chinese soldiers staged a miraculous defense against American and United Nations soldiers. This was also a battle we read about in textbooks as school children, a battle that made Chinese kids proud as Chinese since the battle was seen as embodying the Chinese spirit.  This is a spirit with which poorly supplied Chinese soldiers (“millet and rifles”) could beat up the powerful “American imperialists and their walking dogs” who came with Cannons and Bombers. Few Chinese are ignorant of this battle. Being 28 will not make much difference in this regard.

Michael Wines of New York Times dismissed this as “a regrettable choice for a state dinner”, yet “it clearly was unintentional. ” His rationale is that “Mr. Lang, an American-trained pianist who divides his time between the United States and China, is an artist who melds American and Chinese cultures.” In other words, what’s in it for Lang Lang if he chose to offend Americans?

However, I doubt that Lang Lang’s choice is an unintentional accident. In a recent televised interview with Phoenix TV, he said he chose the song himself. In his own blog post , he said “Glad I am able to play this song in front of so many foreign guests to praise China. This seems to show them how strong China has become, and how united the Chinese people are. I feel deeply honored and proud.” (“能够在众多外宾，尤其是在来自“五湖四海”的元首们面前演奏这首赞美中国的乐曲，仿佛是在向他们诉说我们中国的强大，我们中国人的团结，我感到深深的荣幸和自豪”)

People do things usually for a reason. What on earth was Lang Lang pulling this stunt for? Some media commentators wrote that this was like playing Die Fahne Hoch in Jerusalem, Lili Marlene in Berlin, or Yankee Doodle Dandy in Buckingham Palace. A high-profile state dinner like this would definitely be analyzed till no stone is left unturned. Wouldn’t this hurt his career, since he is based in New York most of the time?

Instead of asking: “what’s in it for him?” we could probably also ask “what can he lose”? What the New York Times author failed to understand is that Lang Lang is so established in his reputation that he really does not depend on patrons from America for his continued success. What more opportunities can he regret passing after having performed in the best of the music halls around the world, and in front of all sorts of state leaders?  There is certain sadness in becoming so famous at such a young age.

When Lang Lang was performing in Syracuse, NY many years ago, I had a rare opportunity to meet him and his father after the performance. I heard from his father that even then, his schedule was booked for the next five or six years. Even if he was boycotted in the US, which I doubt will happen, he still has more performances lined up than what he can handle.   He could still perform in Europe, in other parts of Asia, and above all, in China, where most of the money and the Chinese-speaking fans are. If this song caused him to wear out his welcome in the US, his popularity in China will soar. It will make him a national hero. He will no longer be a “famous pianist”. He will be a “famous patriotic pianist”.  In the latter, he is a hero, a new iconic figure.

At such a stage of his career, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him look for other dimensions to venture into, even though I personally would have preferred that he’d remain purely a pianist, to go down in history as the best among the best. But that does not seem to be the aspirations many Chinese artists have. Jackie Chan, for instance, is now devoting much of his time to mainland China and try hard to set up his image as a “patriotic artist”. His son was said to have given up his US citizenship. There might be some deeper reasons here why these people choose to do so. Were they snubbed by their western counterparts? Were they uncomfortable working in the west? I can only guess. Yet I do see an interesting pattern: Chinese artists would fight their ways to “March to the US” (进军美国), but once they made names for themselves, they tend to go back to China with all their accolades under their belts.   The melting pot does not melt them.

Being perceived as a patriotic pianist does seem very important for Lang Lang . In 2008, when China first battled an earthquake and then dazzled the world with the Olympics, patriotism was a big deal. At this time, some in China doubted the authenticity of his proclaimed patriotism of this pianist who was seen often with foreign dignitaries. Lang Lang went so far as to scan his Chinese passport and post it online for people to check. He said he was and would remain to be a Chinese and he is proud of that. I think he also knows very well that Americans respect people who are patriotic. So they will eventually forget about this “Motherland” “accident” and went on to like him, probably with a new respect for the patriot in this him. Reading Chinese micro-blogs and blogs, I found that he is already winning many more supporters on the Internet for this act, especially among large numbers of patriotic “angry youths”(fen qing) of his similar age. Before this, he is seen -- forgive me for saying so -- mostly as an entertainer for foreigners.

In his memoir, Lang lang described a father who would make Amy Chua (author of Battle Hymns of a Tiger Mom) look like a lamb. He described his father as yelling, “Why don’t you kill yourself?” in outbursts of frustration. Now he got really good at an instrument that is actually western to start with. He is a success story internationally. But it seems to matter more to him to be a success story in China as well.

Hu definitely would be happy to hear this song. It is as if he and Lang Lang were playing a good cop vs bad cop, or carrot vs. stick game. Hu handed out large purchases that could save tens of thousands of American jobs, while Lang Lang was saying: you better be a friend, not a foe. In rising tensions between the two countries over a host of issues, currency manipulation, North Korea, Taiwan, Tibet and Human Rights, the message is loud and clear: “If friend comes, we offer wine (and maybe Boeing contracts too). If a jackal comes, we greet it with a hunter’s gun”. This is not altogether a hostile message. Rather, it described the realities of the Chinese collective consciousness, or a special kind of patriotism which few people pay lip service to, except to get people to laugh at you for being a patriotic thief (爱国贼）.  But the patriotism will display itself most powerfully under pressure, for instance, when there are national disasters and when attacked by "jackals".   

And hasn’t Pat Buchanan been saying the same about how the Sino-US relationship works? (How the Chinese Must See Us)

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