Beatles Songs with Chinese Characteristics

My coworker Pete has just started using Twitter under the name @pearltowerpete, and he’s begun a great series of Chinese puns involving Beatles song titles. Here’s what he’s got so far:

– Hey Zhu De
– The Long and Winding March
– So you say you want a Cultural Revolution
– Twist and Denounce
– Here Comes the Sun Yat-sen

More are sure to follow. Pete is ChinesePod‘s translator. (The funny hashtags (e.g. #cpod5) relate to ChinesePod’s new Activity Stream Twitter integration.)

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John Pasden

John is a Shanghai-based linguist and entrepreneur, founder of AllSet Learning.

Comments

  1. My first appearance on Sinosplice! 倍儿有面子.

    My buddy Steve and I were texting these back and forth the other night. We’ve been punsters since way back.

    A few more:

    Liu Shaoqi in the Sky with Diamonds

    Yellow River Submarine

    Maxwell’s Silver Hammer and Sickle

    That’s all I can think of now. Just remember:
    In the end /the love you make / is equal to / the love you fake.

  2. Oh what the hell, a few more:

    I am the Great-Wallrus

    He Said, He Said (a story told by a Chinese person.)

  3. We’re lucky that the Beatles weren’t Hawaiian. I don’t think the lyrics “I don’t know why you say aloha and I say ahola” would have worked quite as well.

  4. “You Can’t View That”. (The Grate F1rewall)

  5. So painful. Although, I must say “He said, he said” is pretty good.

  6. Oh these are excellent! As a ChinesePod subscriber, I am definitely a fan of Pete’s work with the poetry lessons!

  7. Isn’t “Revolution” about the cultural revolution anyway? That one doesn’t count.

  8. truly geeky. but funny. Anybody outside this blogosphere would completely NOT understand. Truly geeky.

  9. Luo Dawei Says: March 27, 2009 at 6:15 am

    How about:
    “A Day in the Life – Of a Model Worker”
    “While My Erhu Gently Weeps”

  10. Imagine

    Imagine there’s no pollution .. it’s easy if you try … lol

  11. “While My Erhu Gently Weeps”- I like it!

    “Lady Madame Mao”

    Ok sorry, that’s kind of lame. I got nothing.

  12. Here comes the Sun Yat Sen has got to be my favourite!

    how about Sze’chuan Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band?

  13. Wow, I’m delighted at the response.

    When I’m Six-Four.

    My body Steve:
    Power to the People’s Congress (technically a Lennon song but we will let it slide.)

  14. Luo Dawei Says: March 28, 2009 at 1:49 am

    “Drive My Rickshaw”

    “All You Need is Self Criticism”

    “With a Little Help From My Friends in the Party”

  15. any Badfinger fans here ?

  16. “Barefoot Doctor Robert”

    That is all I got right now….

  17. 哦,普拉提!哦,晋拉达! , a paean to moderate affluence.

    More “Beatles Songs with Chinese Characteristics”: Zheng Zhihua does a wonderful Minnan cover of “Let it Be”: 火伊去.

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