ATD p356 Chinese Gong Effect

[Dan Hansong]

P356

"...Dally, sakes, you only just got here--and, well, what about the Chinese Gong Effect...?"
"Oh, Bria can do that in her sleep."

"Chinese Gong Effect", according to Pynchonwiki,seems to to be an unsolved myth. Actually,
it's not Pynchon's invention. In my view, it refers to an acoustic effect created by Gong,
a Chinese traditional instrument, which consists of a broad thin disc with a deep rim.
Gong is made of a special alloy (generally copper and tin), tempered and annealed in a 
peculiar manner. The properties of Gong had long remained a secret to the West. Therefore,
this reference suits the context very well because Erlys was trying to talk Dally into
joining their Europe tour by drawing an analogy between Dally's role and the additive in
Chinese Gong's alloy,which is not the main ingredient, but whose effect can never be 
underestimated. Considering Dally's debut in a white-slavery show run in Chinatown earlier,
Erlys's mention of this Chinese reference perhaps is accountable. Naturally, Dally doubted
it and then said even Bria in her sleep could do this job.

BTW: In this section, the white slavery show calls to my mind "Fu Manchu's Mask", a 1930s
movie Pynchon heavily borrows in COL49. A Chinese freaky scientist, Fu Manchu, is depicted
to abduct some British gents and torture them in his underground palace. If he is equipped
with Khan's mask, Fu Manchu may enslave the white in a world-wide scale and totally invert
the world order at that time.