Swen, leader of the beloved Ukulele club, and an instructor of guitar, bass, piano, drums, and (of course) ukulele here at Music Time Academy is our featured instructor for this month. As you may or may not know, Swen has recently returned from anextended absence. Where could he have been for so long, you ask? China! Because his brother resides there, Swen took the opportunity to visit the country on a musical mission to both play and listen to all that the local scene had to offer. We got the chance to sit down with Swen to ask him a few questions about his time there.

Was there any culture shock when you arrived in China?

If you count language as part of culture. It was definitely a shock. There was minimal English speaking. I have traveled a fair amount of countries, a lot foreign language-speaking countries and it was the least I had ever come across. Literally the first airport I landed in, even the people in the international airport didn’t speak English. I was in Quin Ming, which was still big by our standards, but was less of an international city. I landed in the airport and couldn’t talk to anyone around me about what I needed. I had to point at food in order to eat.

What is the main difference playing over there or the main difference in the music scene?

I was part of an ex-pat scene or an American scene. It was basically Europeans and Americans that get hired to play western pop music and classics. There is a fascination with western culture so you get hired to play pop music, both modern and the oldies. The stuff that we would consider a little bit cheesy is super in-demand over there.

Did you have a favorite city or spot?

I actually only went to two cities in China. I spent a month and a half in Quin Ming, which I especially enjoyed. I think people have an image of China as being super crowded and super polluted which it is in certain places, but Quin Ming is really a gem of a city, it has clean air, there isn’t a ton of factories around, so the air is very good. The weather is good too, it isn’t hot or humid. It’s kind of high up in the mountains, so it’s a bit cooler.  I would definitely recommend visiting that city if you are interested in China, it is  a hidden gem.

Did you discover a favorite food? 

Oh Yeah... There is thing called Squirrel fish. It was just fish, but the way that they cut it up. They would keep it all in one piece but they would cube it. You know, how some people cut mangoes? So it’s in these cubes and deep fried. It comes with this really sweet red sauce. So you pull the cubes off of it and dip it in the read sauce.