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Going to any concert in Beijing is an education for the unsuspecting arts lover. But the security checks can be intimidating, if not off-putting.

At the MasterCard Center last week, for example, concert goers were asked to queue in the freezing cold at the car park fringe before they were allowed to track halfway across the cordoned-off square to another line of checkpoints, where they were put through metal detectors and thoroughly frisked by security guards.

Another set of barriers blocked the stadium gates before ticket-holders were finally allowed into their assigned seats. While the rest of the world has had closure after those 10-year old terrorist attacks, someone seems to have missed the point here.

At the National Center of Performing Arts, too, there are also checks, but only at the common entrance.

As China makes the transition from planned to market economy, the attitude of events promoters must catch-up with the rest of the world.

The arts is an ongoing intangible heritage kept alive by public appreciation and support. Art patrons certainly deserve a lot more respect and dignity than what they are given now.

Similarly, the artiste, too, deserves more respect from the audience.

At the Song Zuying concert, some members of the audience were walking around as if they were at a roadside performance.

As Song sang her heart out onstage, some in the stands were talking loudly into their ubiquitous cell phones, whipping out cameras and incessantly taking photographs with their flashes on - or clacking loudly on Styrofoam neon-glow sticks.

There were times during the concert when dark thoughts crossed my mind as I considered doing serious damage with those same Styrofoam sticks.

They were not only an irritating visual disturbance in the darkened stadium, but were weapons of mass distraction for younger members of the audience.

As the concert progressed, the clicking and clacking got louder, as the more juvenile among them tried to knock the sticks together in the hope the weakened batteries would miraculously produce more light.

My husband was trying to calm my agitation by saying the concert was more like a year-end celebration than an artistic tribute, hence the carnival atmosphere.

But I still feel for Song and her fellow performers who had worked so hard to put on a stellar performance. They certainly deserved a lot more than this.

And I am pretty sure they would never have handed out glow sticks at Carnegie Hall or the Kennedy Arts Center.