Singing and National Dignity

How do you think about that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol  sang a song for Biden？

A historical record will be kept in the history of South Korea: "On a certain day in a certain month of a certain year, at the White House state dinner,the president of South Korea,Yoon Suk Yeol sang a song for Biden.”

For ordinary people, they hold a party, enjoy themselves by drinking and singing as they please, they should not worry about a mistake.However,for a president of a country, his special role determines that his every move and gesture in public will represent the image of the country.

For the accident that President Yoon Suk Yeol sang a song for Biden, the Korean people reacted differently. Some people agree with the act that the president show his true feeling to entertain the American people, but most people express their disappointing ,they believe this will harm the national dignity. 

For most East Asian who shaped by Chinese civilization, they should know the traditional story and its historical meaning, which happened during Warring States period（476–221 BC）,on the two kings from Qin and Zhao, played music instrument for each other :

The King of Zhao（shorted for Zhao Wang） met the King of Qin（shorted for Qin Wang） at Mianchi, and Qin Wang wanted Zhao Wang play zither  for him.（exactly, the music instrument in Chinese is se, a twenty-five-stringed plucked instrument, somewhat similar to the zither）.Zhao Wang thought it would be impertinent to refuse and so he played for a little while. So Qin Wang instructed his people to put on record that at the Mianchi meeting Zhao played zither for Qin. The adviser, Lin Xiangru was infuriated at the way Qin insulted Zhao.He walked up to Qin Wang and said: “Would you please play the Fou （a clay musical instrument） for Zhao Wang？ ” Qin Wang refused. Lin asked again and  Qin Wang still declined. Then Lin said: “Now you are only five steps away from me. If you refuse again, I’ll fight it out with you ” Qin Wang was coerced into the situation and had to beat the Fou once.Lin instructed someone to make a record that in the Mianchi meeting Qin beat Fou for Zhao. 

As we known, during the period of Warring States, Qin was the most powerful and always invaded other countries. Starting from this story, we can say that in order to demonstrate the equality between big and small countries, American President Biden should also respond with a song.

  See Chinese version 献歌与国格——由韩总统献歌想到赵王鼓瑟的故事 (chinavalue.net)

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