Johnny V. in China

When I was in Harbin, China, I had a group of ESL students who were mainly in their early 20s. I did things with them to immerse them into the English culture.

Every day we learned an English song. I still remember when they heard Anne Murray’s You Needed Me. I explained all of the words they didn’t know and my experience the first time I heard it. We did this just before lunch. When I went to the common room for the students, they had already downloaded the song from the Internet and were listening to it over and over.

I had brought all of the CDs of tunes from my high school reunion, so I decided that it would be fun to have a disco night with the famous Johnny V. as the DJ. Sara, one of the students, would be the Chinese DJ.

The students designed posters and put them all around the Harbin Institute of Technology. They promoted the fact that Johnny V., the famous DJ from Canada, would be there.

China is very different from Canada. To start, the ballroom where we to hold our dance was only available from 6 to 8:30 pm. Considering patrons don’t even think of going to Canadian clubs until 11 pm, it was a bit strange to be starting when the sun was still in the sky.

We had plenty of bottled water on hand. We were selling it for about twenty-five cents, but I think some students found that a bit expensive, because we sold very little. I think my North American colleagues who attended bought most of it.

With all the promotion around campus, about fifty people showed up.

The music started with Hey Jude followed by Staying Alive, then Satisfaction – a winning combination if I say so myself. Sara and Johnny V. were in fine form. Johnny V. looked pretty cool with a bandana around his head. The only problem was that nobody was on the dance floor.

I asked my students, “What’s wrong? Why aren’t people dancing?” They told me that the people didn’t like my music. What? How can they not like The Beatles, The Bee Gees and The Rolling Stones?

It took me a nanosecond to understand that it really didn’t matter that they didn’t like my music.

“Quick,” I shouted, “Get me something they like.” Instantly something was produced out of thin air and the strains of techno-rock started throbbing through the speakers. Yuck! I hate that stuff. It’s all done on computers, but suddenly the dance floor was moving like fish flopping in nets. Some of the dancers were quite talented, and everybody had a good time.

I still remember the reaction of my students. “You changed your mind. You changed the music,” they stammered.

“Yes,” I replied, “What I had wasn’t working, so I tried something else to see if it would work.”

Somebody stated, “That is not the Chinese way. The people in charge just don’t change their mind.”

Well, Johnny V. did that day and he was glad he did.

P.S. If you are looking for a DJ, you haven’t lived until you have heard Johnny V. And don’t worry. He will play whatever it takes to get you up dancing.