As The New York Times so deftly puts it, “There are many things about modern China that defy easy explanation: parents posing their children next to live tigers, the sight of grown women wearing furry cat-ear headbands while shopping, the performance-art-like spectacle of strangers napping together in Ikea display beds.” Per a new Times report, the most perplexing phenomenon in modern China might be the country’s ongoing love affair with a 25-year-old Kenny G song called “Going Home.” For years the song has been piped into public venues such as malls, schools, train stations, and fitness centers to signal the end of operating hours. At one famous antiques market, the song plays on loop for 90 minutes to drive home the point. When the Times asked the manager of the facility why she’s been using “Going Home” as her exit music since 2000, she replied, “Isn’t it just played everywhere?” Seemingly no one can explain how the song came to be so popular in China, including Kenny G himself, who told the Times he doesn’t ask a lot of questions about it because he likes to preserve the mystery and that he saves the song for last when he plays “because I don’t want everyone going home early.” Read the full report here, and watch footage of the song being played in China below.

[Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images.]