Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Way off topic, but...

...If, fifty years ago, someone had told me that tonight I would find myself in a Korean restaurant in a large Chinese city along with people from China, Korea, Australia, America and "Europe" discussing—with the aid of two translators—the history, future, culture and business of the piano I'd have said they were completely wacko!

We truly do live in interesting times.

ddf

You are certainly a man well traveled, Del… and, well versed in the universal language of “Piano”.

All the best,

Rick

Not so OT, Del.

This is where art is made, my friend - in the diversity of culture and heritage come great ideas.

It just struck me, this evening, how much I and the world have changed since I first sat at a bench replacing bridle straps on upright actions that weren't nearly as old then as they are now.

Back then we were then still skittish about a conflict recently ended over in Korea, a land many Americans would have been unable to pick out on a map; I had yet to be sent off to my own generation’s war and Nixon had not yet been to China. Japanese pianos were unheard of and even European pianos were rare (at least in my neck of the American woods).

Today it is easier for an American to get into China than it is to get back into the United States. Japanese pianos are common and well respected. European pianos are everywhere. And I found myself sitting at table with gentleman from four cultures quite different from my own, laughing together and sharing experiences along with good food and drink and the only thing we really had in common was the piano. And I found myself thinking, “What a wonderful world this can be….”

Perhaps I’m just getting old and reflective but the feeling that this was far better than fighting over petty differences was profound.

ddf

Piano diplomacy is a wonderful evolution from Ping Pong diplomacy. The walls have been breached in Berlin and China. Music makes a better world.

Del, in the unlikely event you are at a loss for words at your next dinner you could ask your Chinese and Japanese friends to write down names for pianos in their characters and then ask them to interpret their meaning. Something like 10,000 notes might be the opening gambit.

Why do you have Europe in quotation marks?

>the history, future, culture and business of the piano

And what were the results?

When relations thawed with China, among the first people to travel there were some of my math professors from Berkeley, where I was studying. Some of them already spoke Chinese, and math is universal, so that was part of the first cultural exchange.

The first humanities student from China came to Berkeley to study comparative literature a bit later. I visited one of my German professors, who also taught in comparative literature, and he said this student was living in terrible conditions, where her sponsor was keeping her more as a pet to show off to friends, rather than giving her the support she needed. About that time I had tuned a piano for one of the math professors who was getting ready to go to China, and wanted to learn Chinese. So I was able to hook the student and the professor up together, and that was her opportunity to get out of her situation and complete her studies. I never met her at that time, but when the math professor died, she came and spoke at the memorial, and we met then. She went on to marry a German astrophysicist, and was living in Bonn.

The world has become much more interconnected since then.

Too bad the Chinese government is mounting a huge cyber war against American firms. Read a recent article that says they have a 12 story office building dedicated just for this purpose. Hacking for state security is one thing, but hacking the private sector is way out there...especially by their government.

Funny, they hacked Apple the other day, and Apple get 80% of their stuff through China.

To protect the anonymity of the individual. Europe covered it without being specific. (He may not care but I hadn't asked....)

ddf

To protect the anonymity of the individual. Europe covered it without being specific. (He may not care but I hadn't asked....)

Perhaps I am being dense but I fail to see why the anonymity of the person concerned is any more protected by the use of inverted commas.

Perhaps so.

The punctuation marks in question are standard quotation marks -- at least they are on my computer. In my language this is a fairly common way of highlighting a word for any number of reasons.

In this case (and for reasons that will remain private) I did not want to be specific about one gentleman's country of origin and yet wanted to mention him as an indication of the broad cultural diversity of the group. I thought I had accomplished that.

But you seem to have taken offense where none was intended...I'm not sure if I should be apologizing for this or just ignoring it.

ddf

The world is flat, suggests Friedman, and I agree. Interestingly, my daughter, (we're in The States) has studied Mandarin as part of an academic requirement since 5th grade.

Profound! Absolutely, Del!

perhaps you're just having a wild dream
enjoy !

For my part no offence whatever was taken, it was simply that the meaning of your punctuation was unclear.

Whilst I have no wish to appear tediously pedantic I would like to add that the punctuation marks in question are properly referred to as inverted commas not as quotation marks. The essential point about quotation marks is that they enclose a quotation; this is not the case here.

Jean Claude,

In American English, there is no inverted comma. It is referred to as a quotation mark and is a distinction from British English.

Often its inclusion is used to add emphasis or double entendre. Contempory punctuation also uses *example.*

Personally, I didn't understand Del's usage of quotations either. But, I didn't question it. Europe (without quotes) wouldn't reveal a specific nationality. An American could be from any one of 50 states. A Canadian could be from any province.

I doubt that speakers of American English would quibble with your usage of "whilst." We understand what you are saying but it is not in usage here.

Let us return to the topic of the camaraderie of pianos and the joy of music.

Marty,

I am indebted to you for your insights into the differences between British and American usage although obliged to observe that Webster's does give 'whilst' (I admit however that it gives the caveat 'mostly British')

Perhaps as you say now would be a good moment to (if I may quote you) 'return to the topic of the camaraderie of pianos and the joy of music'

Jean-Claude.

As this topic is Way off topic, but ... of interest, I looked up inverted commas in the Economist Style guide for clarification.

It notes the Bible contains no quotation marks, with no consequent confusions.

O dear. Just when I was hoping to return to the camaraderie of pianos and the joy of music along comes Withindale (who I note is British) I have no wish to appear spinsterish about style or grammar but this really won't do. I have taken the liberty of putting the contribution into (British) English.

As this topic is way off topic but of interest, I looked up 'inverted commas' in the 'Economist Style Guide' for clarification.

It notes that the Bible contains no quotation marks, with no consequent confusions.