Motivation to China
I was actually teaching in the Middle East for four years when I decided that I want to change. I thought: where should I go? What is the next direction? I thought that China is a great opportunity. I want to actually see what the real China is rather than just listen to what other people said about China. I should go there and see what China is like. So, in 2017 I went to China, and China was developing a lot in that period.
Music in China vs. Worldwide
Well, I think the music in China is growing. There are lots of opportunities for musicians and foreigners. I have a friend of mine. He went to Beijing and did some gigs with the famous American harmonica player. So, there are a lot of opportunities in China. More artists came up and perform maybe more than ever before, and I think this Chinese atmosphere of letting other foreign artists to come and perform is very exciting.
Shenzhen’s Music
To be honest, I have friends that actually play with a dual and they perform sometimes in Shenzhen, and there are some little places where they will do some covers, bands, and music. I think the music society in Shenzhen still have to develop, but I think it's getting there. I think it’s slowly getting there, but it still needs some development.
Chinese food vs. Italian food
There are a lot of similarity. So we are very similar. We have the dough and the dumplings. You also have to make the dough for the bread. We have those pizzas and the Italian spaghetti. We have a lot of similarity in our food. And the only difference is that you guys cook maybe all the dishes that are all together displayed, where we serve the first dish, the second dish, and so on. But there are lots of similarity in these kind of foods: dumplings, noodles, the dough, the pizza.
Shenzhen’s Pizzas
I think the best pizza place in Shenzhen is in a place called Faro.
What does that translate to?
It means the lighthouse.
So I think the pizza in our cafeteria really stinks. That's like pineapples.
Oh you know what? Sorry. But Italians don't like pineapples in the pizza.
Adapting to Shenzhen
It's kind of busy, but because I was in Beijing before, so I actually got used to it a little bit of the Chinese life. But, I guess Beijing is very different from Shenzhen. I mean, in Beijing, I like the way that you could explore and see the culture more. But in Shenzhen, maybe there’s not much to see. Apart from that, I think there are lots of similarities like the food and the way of life.
Teaching in Shenzhen
Well, in theory there shouldn't be any differences, because if I teach to play the ukulele or the guitar, I will teach kind of the same, right? I think the difference is the way the students respond to this. Maybe in the Middle East they're more into percussion like drums and still they have some string instrument as well. But I think in China, I've noticed there are lots of pianists, more pianist than other places. Maybe in a class you can have six or seven pianists. Depends, really. But the music as well, it is welcome in China and you got lots of opportunity. The parents are happy when their children perform. And I think there are lots of opportunities to play other instruments and maybe practice other instrument like ukulele or string instruments, or even brass or woodwind. I think if you wanna be a good musician, you must learn a little bit of piano.
Cultural Shocks in Shenzhen
Well, not much in Shenzhen. I guess maybe more when I was in Beijing. Apart from the enormities of the cities, to go from one place to another maybe takes an hour. And like in Italy, if you go from one region to another, it takes an hour, but not in the same city. You go to different cities. So really, this, the magnitude of, wow, these buildings and, is kind of taken aback. And then also the, especially in Beijing, the lots of cultural sites that you can see is, it's really, it was really nice. I watched the Summer Palace, the wall, and the building I can't remember the name now. I think it is called the Temple of heaven. But Shenzhen here, I have to say there's no much to explore in terms of culture. That's the only thing. It’s plenty of green.
Cities Been In
I've been to Hangzhou, I've been to Shanghai, I've been to Guangzhou, Dongguan, Yunnan, Dali, LiJiang, and Kunming. I've been to Xiamen. I've been to Nanjing, Beijing, Shandong.
Is Shenzhen one of the more habitable ones?
I think in terms of weather and in terms of air, it also has good clean air. I think maybe cleaner than other places, right? And lots of green and location is quite good. You can go to Hong Kong or you can go to other places. You can go to Macau. So? I think it's pretty good.
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