Radio show - be my guest

The event is not the most recent one, but so particular I think, I wanted to have this memory written somewhere.

I met this Chinese student named Xiao Dong, we had to work together for DLILIs show presentation. To earn money, Xiao Dong handles a part time job at the Dalian TV & Radio Center, thus has professional relationships with "famous" radio showmen. As 50 French students arrival was the attraction of Dalian at that time, Xiao Dong asked me whether I would like to take part in a radio program as the foreign guest. Clearly, I accepted the invitation; the program was going to be produced 1 week before Christmas. Since the show is the most listened to, from 6pm to 7pm during the rush hour, we had to prepare our speech a bit. The main purpose of having me over there was to introduce one of the 50 French students to the Dalian Radio listeners, and moreover, to share some of the music we listen to back in Europe.
Therefore, Xiao Dong and I headed to the radio center with an USB key full of different kinds of music I listen to. We listened the songs while having a conversation on how I should act during the Show. The rules where mainly normal I guess: no slang, no politics and so on. One instruction shocked me though, the DJ warned me on not talking about Christmas. I asked for some explanation, he simply answered “It is forbidden to talk about Christmas on the Dalian Radio waves, I don’t know why”, the kind of answer which makes me want to chat about Christmas, but I cannot afford a dead man though. All I noted is that the show had to be the most serious thing ever, no going out of bounds, no doing freestyle.
Let’s choose the music we’ll play now. I anticipated the global atmosphere and took mainly soft music such as Manu Chao or Jackson Five. However, the DJ liked more my Dancehall Ragga songs and the band called Brooklyn Funk Essentials. “Bring me more ragga next time okay?” he said. Oh boy, if Mao only knew what these songs are about: sex, drugs, alcohol. What ever, Ragga it is!


Finally, we met again the following week for some live performance. My friend Tang Xuan (Betty is her English name), came along to do the Chinese/English translations. The show was just fine, we discussed of my life in China, and I took the clown out, spoke Chinese and sang a Chinese song, while Papa Tank was shaking the Dalian Radio waves with his kick ass Ragga vibes.
I sometimes listen to the show, making sure the DJ did not die because of me passing that kind of music. Everything is fine in Dalian.

If you want to hear some Chinese, download the programs mp3 here.