Aawaara hoon mein
November 29th, 2007 - by Nazia VasiTaxi drivers they say are a good baraometer of the pulse of a city. Having just arrived in Beijing, I struck up conversation with my taxi driver to see what he knew of India. Almost immediately his face lit up & he said ‘Li zhi’!!, looking at my confused face he started singing the song Awaara hoon mein…., a 1951 super hit hindi song starring the former super star Raj kapoor - but in Chinese!! Recognising the tune so familiar to my ears i figured that Li Zhi was Raj Kapoor’s chinese name and almost immediately, all comminication hurdles fell apart. Bollywood was our great unifier! Being one of the first foreign films that the chinese were exposed to, Awaara and Bollywood is still big in China with conterfeit Hindi DVD’s available on every street corner, and colourful song and dance sequences and drama still captivating chinese audiences. Besides, films of yore being popular amongst the chinese, more recently Aamir Khan’s Lagaan, a film based on cricket, a sport completely ailen to the Chinese, was subtitled, dubbed and released in theatres across china. Serials such as Karishma Kapoor’s debut serial - ‘Karishma Miracles of Destiny’ are also attracting chinese eyeballs on primetime local Tv channels.
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November 30th, 2007 at 9:04 am
hard to believe this story - seems to be made up than a reality!
November 30th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
strange but true, India’s most popular brand overseas is probably Bollywood!
December 1st, 2007 at 12:49 pm
There is far more Indian culture in China than people realise. Li Zhi in China is indeed an Indian actor. Taxis drivers are good cultural gauges.
December 2nd, 2007 at 8:29 pm
it was true that chinese people used to enjoy lots of indian movies. unfortunately i only know chinese titles. never heard of li zhi though. but it is hardly the case that chinese people know there is a bollywood apart from hollywood and that chinese peope today still watch lots of indian movies. as i mentioned earlier, lagaan was not at all a success though one tv series was quite popular. maybe it was Karishma Miracles of Destiny.
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:00 am
In china atelast people recognise india for the english skills of it’s people and for the IT industry. Brands recognised are infosys.
Bollywood maybe a more recognised brand in the west but not in China.
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:41 am
Raj Kapoor and Indian movies like Awara (Liulangzhe or Lazi zhi ge) and Do Bigha Zameen (Liang mudi) were quite popular in China till the mid-1980s when Hollywood movies in were few are far between, and the quality of Chinese movies was very poor. Raj Kapoor was known as Lazi, not Li Zhi.
The younger generation of Chinese are not as keen on Indian movies as their elders once were. The Chinese authorities were, however, selective in allowing Indian movies to be screened in Chinese cinemas. The reason why the Chinese authorities did not mind showing Indian movies such as Awara and Do Bigha Zameen was because the poverty and exploitation depicted in these movies made China’s socialism look superior in contradistinction to the supposed chaos of a capitalistic and democratic India.
This is not a criticism of those movies; I loved both Awara and Do Bigha Zameen.
December 3rd, 2007 at 6:52 pm
lazi. yeah, now i know what movie the article was talking about. almost all people of my parents’ generation know “the song of wanderer” or liu lang zhe zhi ge. even I know the movie and the song. but for those born after 80s, Indian movies are still hardly a topic coming to their minds.
December 3rd, 2007 at 6:57 pm
sorry. not the song of wanderer. the movie is called “wanderer”. the song is called the song of la zi.