The Focus of This Lesson is Using 手 Properly
看......那个领唱的歌手真老了。 Kàn... nà ge lǐng chàng de gēshǒu zhēn lǎo le.
"Look...the lead singer looks really old."

Today we review a common pattern used in job titles. This is a relatively common noun followed by the Chinese character 手, shǒu ("hand"). In our dialogue, we saw this in the sentence 领唱的歌手真老, where the word for "singer" is 歌手. There are many other cases of this in Chinese. Other examples include the words 水手, shuǐshǒu ("sailor"), 鼓手, gǔshǒu ("drummer"), and 吉他手, jítashǒu ("guitarist"), among others.

For Example:

1. 一个乐队一定要有一个好的鼓手。
   Yī ge yuèduì yīdìng yào yǒu yī ge hǎo de gǔ shǒu.
   "A band must have a good drummer."
2. 他真是个一流的歌手。
   Tā zhēnshì ge yīliú de gēshǒu.
   "He really is a first-class singer."
3. 好的吉他手在乐队里是不可缺少的。
   Hǎo de jíta shǒu zài yuèduì lǐ shì bù kě quēshǎo de.
   "A band can't do without a good guitarist."

A similar pattern consists of a common adjective followed by the character 手, shǒu ("hand"). In these cases, we have not the name of an occupation, but a description of how someone does something. For example, the word 老手 suggests, "that someone has done something for a long time." They are an old-hand, if you will. Someone who is a 高手 is "very good at something," while a 新手 would be "someone who has just started working in a profession."

For Example:

1. 他是个唱歌的高手。
   Tā shì ge chànggē de gāoshǒu.
   "He is quite good at singing."
2. 我是个新手，什么都不会 。
   Wǒ shì ge xīnshǒu, shénme dōu bù huì.
   "I am a new-hand and don't know anything."
3. 李阿姨可是做菜的好手。
   Lǐ Ayí kěshì zuòcài de hǎoshǒu.
   "Auntie Lee is good at cooking."

These two patterns are easily confused. Just remember, a noun followed by 手 means "a profession or type of job." An adjective followed by 手 "describes "the way in which someone does something."

Rock Music in China

Chinese rock music has a relatively short history compared to its development in the West. Cui Jian, an ethnic Korean Beijinger, is widely considered to be the "Father of Chinese Rock" for his famous album "Nothing to My Name" released in 1986. For the last twenty or so years, the development of Chinese rock music has had its rises and falls along with the economic development and political changes in China.

In the mid-80s, Chinese rock music found its root in the Northwest wind style of music, which drew heavily from the folk traditions of the Shanxi province in the northwest. After going through a peak period in the early 90s, which became the symbol of the urban youth culture at the time, Chinese rock music went into a decline period for the government's policy of focusing on the economic development. However, in recent years, the taste for rock music in China has said to be on the rise again and attracting more and more followers.