The Anatomy of Singing a Chinese Song

For our yearly traditional Christmas party, I decided to give my students a big surprise. You see, I have been teaching 2 classes for the past 2 and a half years. Ever since they were freshman (they are now juniors) I have taught them one or two subjects every semester.
But next semester they have zero foreign teachers which means we will be separated. We have become very close over the years, and we all assumed that I would be their teacher every semester. So it came as a shock when we recently learned the bad news.
I’ll pretty much do anything for these students, and they know it. But I have my limits. I told them there were 2 things I would never, ever do. One was speak Chinese to them, the other was sing a song.
You see, these classes, along with pretty much every person in China, love to sing songs. In class, during break-time, more often than not someone will come up and sing a song for the amusement of everyone. And inevitably, they will ask me to sing a song. My answer is always a resounding no.
“It’s just not a thing in western culture to sing a song in class,” I said. “It’s too embarrassing.”
So, as our Christmas party was to be our final time together as a group for the next semester, I decided to surprise them by singing a song. But not just any song, a Chinese song.
I roped Iain, one of the other foreign teachers, into doing it with me and I set about choosing and learning the song. My students all know my favorite singer is Wang Leehom, so I wanted to chose one of his songs. He has a slower love song called Wo Yiran Ai Ni, I Still Love You, and I figured it would be perfect.
So first I downloaded the normal video so I could listen to the song to get familiar with the tune. Actually, I try to watch chinese music videos to practice my listening, so I already had this one downloaded.

Then, on Youtube, I found a version of the song with simplified chinese characters. The video has chinese subtitles, but it is traditional characters, as Wang Leehom is based in Taiwan where they use them, and I can’t really read them. So this video helped me learn the words (and the meaning) of the song. (VPN Alert–YouTube video)

There were still some words I was unfamiliar with so I found the pinyin words to the song (chinese written out using the alphabet instead of characters) and printed them out.
Then I wanted to find a karaoke version, so I could practice singing it myself, and use it on the night of the performance. So I found this KTV (karaoke) version on a Chinese video website.

Armed with all of these resources I set about memorizing the words and learning the song. I only really had 2 days to do this because of how busy I’ve been recently. I practiced up to the last minute.
Only one student knew about the song, the host, and I told him to keep it under wraps on pain of death. Iain was a bit more loose-lipped, and he said a few things someone could have picked up on, but really, Becky singing a song for them was such an absurd idea that they didn’t even think about it. I wanted it to be a total surprise.
At the party, things were going well. It was a chinese style party, which means a lot of singing, and the one host whispered in my ear that 2 songs later would be our turn. My stomach was churning.
Then it was our turn. The host just simply introduced us, not saying what we were going to do, and I started it by saying a few words.
“What are the two things I have always told you I would never do?” I asked.
“Sing a song!” someone shouted.
“Speak Chinese,” a few others said.
“You’re right,” I said. “We won’t be together next semester, and you already know I love you. But tonight I am going to prove my love. I am going to sing a song….in chinese.” Total shock!
What followed was 4 minutes that I basically blanked out of my mind. I know I got through it, and I know the students loved it, which was the whole point. Unfortunately, I don’t need to remember it because several students taped it, and one put it up on the internet. It was quickly passed around renren, QQ and weibo (Chinese social media sites) and in 24 hours it had more than 200 views.
And because I have no pride, I will show you my embarrassment: me and Iain singing Wang Leehom’s Wo Yiran Ai Ni. (Chinese speakers will notice I changed the words to Wo Yiran Ai Nimen, which means I love you guys.)

I swore this was a one time thing and I would never ever sing a song for them or any other class again. Afterwards a student came up to me and said she recorded the whole thing. “When I graduate, and I miss my school and friends, I’ll watch it and laugh and feel better.” That made the humiliation all worthwhile. The things I do for my students…