Off notes: lessons in etiquette for China’s classical music concertgoers
When 27-year-old Beijinger Cynthia Li sat in the magnificent National Centre for the Performing Arts near Tiananmen Square trying to enjoy Mozart’s Flute Quartet No.3 in C major, there were some off-note moments.
When 27-year-old Beijinger Cynthia Li sat in the magnificent National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) near Tiananmen Square trying to enjoy Mozart’s Flute Quartet No.3 in C major, there were some off-note moments.
“There was always someone in the audience trying to use their camera phone to take photos, using the flash,” lamented the former music student who now works at a luxury hotel in Hainan . “Others were clearing their throats.”
For a musician on stage, Li said such behaviour was akin to the audience “performing its own concert, by sneezing loudly, dropping mobile phones or even cutting fingernails”.
Although concert hall ushers would gently remind the audience to behave, Li still felt annoyed and upset.
“This is the finest concert hall in the country, but if I feel annoyed here, imagine what musicians must endure in smaller cities,” Li asked.
Li’s concerns point to one of the obstacles China faces today as it aspires to be a cultural power.
Deng Xiaoping’s campaign of reform and opening-up in 1978 launched modern China’s rise to prosperity and with it a hunger for culture, including Western classical music.