Cultural Exchange

"Sushi" the Vietnamese pop star has gone on tour in Jakarta, Indonesia!

Some of you may be familiar with my stories of the Vietnamese people's expectation of spontaneous song exchange as a means of introduction to new cultures.

One recent evening, after a long day of company and factory visits and absorbing all the unfamiliarity of Jakarta, we attended a cultural exchange with BINUS, an unfortunately-acronymed business school. Turns out this cultural exchange was a dinner, a performance, some crafts AND, what we didn't expect, a performance from US!!!

We pulled into the university traffic circle nearly twenty minutes late, due to the outrageous traffic that is a norm in Jakarta. Students thronged in the lobby and outside of the building, bedecked in smiles and the traditional Indonesian garb called "batik." They brought in a professor and her daughter who gave lessons on how to make batik using wax and multiple dyes.



Before dinner, they gave us a sweet cucumber drink that was surely a nectar from the heavens. Here's a photo:


The students performed a few numbers of Indonesian traditional dancing:



I met some nice business students while there and swapped email addresses with them. Before we even arrived back at the hotel, they had already emailed us! So sweet!

Oh, also...the emcee with the black bouffant hairstyle called up G., one of the guys in our group, to sing! The other guys burst out laughing, as it turns out they had told the emcee that he was a renowned singer when in reality, he really really doesn't sing in public unless it's karaoke after a few beverages. So he turned to me!



As a tribute to my debut in Vietnam, I sang "I Want It That Way," trying to ham it up as much as possible.


Finally, feeling sick at the thought that these culturally-intelligent Indonesians would think that we only sang pop in the U.S., I gave them a rendition of the famous "Summertime" from the American South:


My friends M., C., and J. did an excellent job of jumping in with the traditional Indonesian dancers and performing along with them, but I couldn't get any good pictures!! You'll just have to trust me when I say they represented America well. :)

Our dean spoke at the conclusion of the event and said he was thankful and thrilled by the Indonesian performances and also very pleased that America still has some talent! I felt honored to have been a part of that. Hooray!