Saw this disturbing article the other day at the Telegram.co.uk…
Now before you have visions of berserk toddlers going on a murderous rampage, let me assure you that is not the case. Well, at least not here.
(Somebody is NOT happy!)
It was more like…
“Toddler’s refusal to give up the microphone during a
family karaoke evening started a quarrel that left
two men hacked to death with a meat cleaver!”
(Are you ready to rumble??)
OK, here’s what happened. A couple were celebrating the Qixi Festival (i.e. China’s Valentine’s Day), with a singing session at a local karaoke parlour. So far, so good. Trouble starts when the parents’ four-year-old son hogs the karaoke mike and the doting parents were indulging him. [1]
(Beijing… we have a problem)
Mayhem ensues when two of the karaoke kid’s uncles berate the father for having raised such a spoiled child; a “Little Emperor”, as the Chinese say [2]. Push literally comes to shove, then shoving proceeds to punching. A nephew grabs a meat cleaver and hacks the uncles to death.
(The problem solver)
Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. Karaoke-related violence is a real problem in the East.
Other karaoke massacres have taken place in the Philippines, where the Frank Sinatra song ‘My Way‘ has had to be removed from many songbooks after sub-standard renditions provoked a string of killings.
(Clearly a trouble-maker)
In Thailand, meanwhile, a man shot eight of his neighbours, including his brother-in-law, after tiring of their tuneless reprisals of John Denver’s ‘Country Roads.’
(An incitement to violence)
In the United States, a woman punched a man for continuing to sing Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’ after she had told him he was not up to the task.
(It would have driven Mother Teresa to violence)
In her defence… it WAS a karaoke version of Coldplay’s ‘Yellow!’
Ghandi would have punched this guy out!
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[1] NB: Karaoke is taken very seriously, not just in China but throughout Asia.
[2] There is no shortage of criticism inside China for the bad behaviour of the Little Emperors, the children raised under the strict one-child policy and doted on by their parents and grandparents.
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