China

"In different cultures there are also different norms for how certain sound combinations are perceived. That's why if you listen to Chinese classical music, everything sounds like it's being played on a kazoo and it's thin and weird, but to a Chinese person it's lush. I don't know why a person would think that the tone quality of Chinese classical music was really a warming sensation. The Chinese are different, though. They've got 7000 years behind them. Maybe after 7000 years we're going to think that stuff sounds pretty good, too." - Frank Zappa in Frank's Wild Years, 87-3, Steve Lyons and Batya Friedman, Option, March/April 1987.

"You still got stinkers in China. You got 'em in Cuba. And North Korea. These are real hard-line regimes, and it's going to take a lot to make changes occur there. But you can see that there's hope for China, because I don't believe that the average Chinese wants to live under that authoritarian system." - Frank Zappa - They're Doing the Interview of the Century, Part 2, Den Simms, Eric Buxton, Rob Samler, Society Pages, June 1990.

Albums and tracks

• Almost Chinese: "Almost Chinese, huh?"
• Dummy Up: "A true Zen saying: nothing is what I want."
• The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary (1975 - Record Plant & UCLA): "Is this the old loft with the paint peelin' off it/By the Chinese police where the dogs roll by?"

Other

• Communism
• Happy Together (Film)
• The Little Red Book
• Paul Buff Presents The Pal And Original Sound Studio Archives, Vol. 10 includes a song by Johnny Fortune titled "Chinese Surfer."

In an interview (That Ol' "Fish Thing") Zappa claimed that interest in Zen philosophy was encouraged by his English teacher Don Cerveris.