What did we go through in Africa to write a song and make a music video?

Before I wrote this piece, I went through the lyrics of the song, which had been revised four or five times, and the rhythm of the melody, which had been polished six or seven times, as well as the filming script and the three versions of the music video, and I couldn't believe it had finally come to fruition!

I have to admit, there is one person who is responsible for the birth of the song, and that is the songwriter, Sanga, so I have to tell you about Sanga, and incidentally, the lead singer, Pao Ai Chee.

Sanga is one of the few people I've met twice and remembered, not because of his face, but because of his body odor, and I'm not being racist, I've just had to accommodate my sensitive and picky nose.

In the subsequent relationship, I have been determined to maintain a "safe distance" from him, in addition to recording in the studio square inch recording, there are a few ceremonial handshake, and then signing the contract he was a little bit excited, and seemed to want to be more ceremonial embrace a hug, I just in time to take a step back to stop him, only to exhale and not inhale to tell him, we Chinese women can not be with their husbands, but also with the husband. We Chinese women are not allowed to embrace men other than our husbands.

The first time I learned of Sanga's existence was because of the song "Song of the Tanzanian Railway", which was written by Dean and composed by Sanga. The music video shows the Tanzanian Railway and the dusty travelers in a period of time, with Sanga's soaring and desolate voice and rap, not to say it is not moving, but it's a kind of exotic atmosphere with different flavor.

I can't help but be a little curious about the songwriter and vocalist, whom I've never met.

At the end of 2018, the Confucius Institute held a Chinese song contest as usual, and it just so happened that the embassy-sponsored Lunar New Year party would be held in half a month, so we wanted to choose a few programs from the contest to participate in the party.

Among the finalists were Sanga and later the lead singer, Bao Aiqi, as well as Ai Long, a student of the advanced elective course.

That was the first time I saw Sanga, I was on stage, he was on stage, and he didn't surprise me as much as his compositions and vocals, he seems to be quite old, his belly is round, but his eyes are very bright.

Bao Aizi is not the first time I've seen him, he is a very handsome little girl, wearing a baseball cap, teal eyes, often a very neutral T-shirt or shirt with jeans, can't speak a few words of Chinese, but he can sing quite a good Chinese song, he is a very talented singer.

The organizers of the event felt that several of the shows were a bit monotonous on their own, and suggested that we combine them into a single show.

Three programs, Sanga is an instrumentalist, basically no Chinese, singing is also general, the color is his local instruments, Bao Ai Ci's "Chinese words" sung very well, Ai Long performance is a slam, combined is not a combination of, can only maintain their strengths, we briefly discussed, decided to follow the domestic program format into a skit "I want to go to the Spring Festival Festival Festival Gala.

I wrote a script overnight, the lines are tailored to their level of Chinese, three people are a little less, and pulled the office of Lu Yuan, Wang Chao to support the scene. I met with them over the weekend to talk about the script, and I've got a schedule for six rehearsals before we go on stage.

Sanga was the most enthusiastic one, as if he were the boss of the whole cast (he is indeed the oldest), and told them with a serious face, "I think this script of your wife's is very good, and we have to take it seriously, and come to the rehearsal every time on time! "

I was especially relieved to schedule and agree on a rehearsal time. It turned out, however, that if you rank them by unreliability, Sanga was first, Pao Ai Chee was second, and one **** rehearsed five times before going on stage, with only two times when the whole group was present.

They were both always absent in turn. Bao Aizi would be regularly lost come Sunday, she had to go to church, thunder and lightning; while Sanga's presence or absence was irregular, you never knew when he was coming.

The only time he showed up on time was when someone else was late or absent, and he was back to his serious self: "How can you do this? This is a serious matter!"

I looked at him speechlessly, "You weren't there when they were. Don't blame anyone, it's up to you to rehearse."

The rehearsal was accomplished with great difficulty by taking the time when they weren't attending classes, going to church, or losing touch with each other for no apparent reason.

In order not to lose time, it was indeed a matter of who would rehearse who's part, and it turned out that the ones who rehearsed the most were the ones who spoke the best Chinese, Wang Chao and Ai Long, and the ones who rehearsed the least were the ones who spoke the worst Chinese and who should have practiced the most, Sanga and Bao Ai Ci. Until the time when I stood on the stage with them and performed, I was still very apprehensive in my heart, worrying that they wouldn't be able to say their one and only line, and I was ready to save the show at any time.

But Sanga didn't seem to think it was a problem at all. After the second rehearsal, I told him to come on time next time, he nodded that he was very serious, and then coldly asked me, "Any progress on that CI Song?"

I was confused and asked him what CI Song. he said that Prof. Liu (the dean) had told him about the CI Song before and asked him to compose it.

I said I don't connector, Prof. Liu said that it would be good to find Prof. Liu. Then, I immediately pulled back to the topic: "First manage the current rehearsal, the matter of the college song you do not mention again, time is so tight, and strive for the next rehearsal do not be late!"

But Sanga was consumed with me, and every time she saw me, she insisted on asking, "What about the lyrics? I'm still waiting for the score!"

After a few questions, I had to ask the dean of the hospital song Sanga said what is going on, the dean said that he had written the "Tanzanian Railway Song" is Sanga's music, and casually told him to collaborate on a hospital song later.

Sanga obviously took that "casual" invitation seriously, and even after the show was over, when he saw me, he still asked me about the song with a look of anticipation. I told him there was no progress. He was disappointed. However, the next time we met, he continued to ask me about the progress with a look of anticipation as if he had forgotten his last disappointment.

I finally started working on the house song, still spurred on by Sanga.

He asked me again around the end of June about the progress of the lyrics of the house song, and was really disappointed when he got an "unexpected" negative answer: "Oh, I thought you guys have been taking this very seriously! Madam, it would be great if we could really compose a song! I'm a family member of the Confucius Institute too, and I've always wanted to contribute to the family again!"

I don't know if it was his weary disappointment that stung me, or if it was his six months of persistent questioning and penetration that worked, or if it was his "you guys" that made it impossible for me to stay on the sidelines any longer - I found myself consciously putting a foreigner's "you" into my mouth. I found myself always consciously interpreting a foreigner's "you" as the plural "yous", and consciously interpreting "yous" as "you Chinese", and others consciously or unconsciously interpreting "yous" as "you Chinese". "

This is the first time I've ever seen the world's most popular movie, and I've never been able to see the world's most popular movie.

So for the first time, I made him a promise: "Okay, from now on, I'll write the lyrics."

Sanga looked overjoyed, and enthusiastically extended his hand to me, saying he wanted to "work with me". I, of course, shook his hand just as enthusiastically. It was a deal!

When it came time to write the lyrics, however, I realized that I hadn't been anywhere but Dhaka, and I didn't even know enough about our own teaching sites to make it practical to go there one by one.

So I had to Google and ask my colleagues about the characteristics of each place as material for the song. After all, I didn't see it with my own eyes, and my impression of each place is actually very vague.

It was only when I was back home on vacation that I took the time to start writing the lyrics, with the main tone set on friendship and communication, and to include as many of our teaching sites as possible.

The first draft of the lyrics was sent back to the dean, who revised the historical and political issues and the rhymes, and removed some of the words that made me feel weak, which made the lyrics much more pleasing to the ear. I then polished the lyrics a few more times before finalizing them and translating them into English.

After my vacation, I returned to Tanzania and began preparing to find someone to write the music. The director and I were basically in agreement on the general direction, and we both wanted to find a local composer. The tone of the song is about Sino-Tanzanian friendship, and the lyrics are in both Chinese and Spanish, so if we matched them with Tanzanian tunes, it would be a perfect match.

At this point, however, I had a change of heart. Though I was indeed inspired by Sanga to write the lyrics, I did not really want to ask him to compose the music, because I was never very confident in him, and I was looking for a lyrical and optimistic tune, which I wasn't sure would flow from his chubby body.

But we didn't seem to have much of a choice, he was the only musician we knew and could afford to pay, and there were a lot of famous professors in the art department, but the fees were so high we couldn't afford them.

So we ended up signing a deal with Sanga, with the fee divided into three parts: equipment rental, royalties, and production costs, to be paid in installments.

I've always been a bit wary of Sanga's straightforward style and his seemingly under-energized potbelly, and the Spring Festival collaboration also made me fearful of his unexplained loss of contact, so in the spirit of the principle of "saying the ugly words in front of me", I told him in a very "villainous" way that if he was going to be a good artist, he'd have to pay for the equipment.

Of course, when I said this, I was very pleasant, I said that although I do not create music, but I like words, I think that any "creation" is to be inspired, we are a "proposition", then we still need to be I think any "creation" needs inspiration, we are the "proposition essay", then it also needs our mutual understanding, what I want is just what you can give, so that we can all be happy.

He kept nodding his head as if he had decided to take it all in, which made me feel uneasy and wonder if I was too playful for him to realize how serious I was about it.

Knowing what I know about Sanga, I figured composing would inevitably be another long, drawn-out process, hopefully completed before I step down, and hopefully not in the rap style of The Tanzanian Railway Song.

This time, however, I vastly underestimated Sanga's efficiency and inspiration. A week later, my jaw dropped when Sanga walked into the office with a smug smile on his face, handed me a flash drive, and told me that he'd finished composing the song.

The samples sounded good, and Lao Mu (Prof. Mutembe, the foreign dean) and Jane, Zhang Feng, Wang Chao, Lu Yuan, and Han Kailin couldn't help but dance to it when they heard the tune, saying that it was as good as the waves of the sea.

I can't say what's wrong with it, but I can't say what's good about it either, and I always thought it would be strange to have this tune with lyrics.

Sure enough, when Sanga couldn't wait for another week to ask me to bring another Chinese teacher to the recording session, I was devastated to discover that he had indeed rapped it, and that apart from the first four lines, which were sung - with very unclear breaks - most of the rest of the lyrics were spoken.

After four or five takes, I couldn't help but ask him, "Is that how you're going to 'deal' with this song?"

He said, "Yeah!" And then explained to me a lot of what he had in mind.

I said categorically, "No way! Those are your ideas, but not mine, and I'm not happy with this draft!"

Once again, I took the lyrics and analyzed with him, word by word, what the song meant, what was the relationship between the two sections, how it should be divided into sections, and so on. Finally, I told him in a serious tone, "Please put your mind to it and work on it, this tune definitely needs to be changed drastically!"

Mr. Sanga's eyes were full of disappointment and helplessness. Talking to me, a non-musician, about composition in his English, which he was not yet comfortable with, gave him the feeling of "a genius meets a soldier", and his head shook again and again, his mouth opened again and again, and finally he nodded and said "OK". "I'm not going to be able to do that, but I'm going to be able to do it.

I didn't expect Sanga's inspiration to come so quickly!

This time the meeting was not even a week. But the melody I heard was still pretty much the same, no ebb and flow, no echoes. This time it was my turn to be helpless, I feel that in a sense, I am also a "showman meets soldier", need to talk to a person who does not understand Chinese to talk about the music I can not be a fish out of water, I feel that I can say last time has been said, each line, each verse lyrics, the meaning of the core and the breaks, section to section, section to section connection, the whole song, the tone, the climax, I do not know what to say, I do not know how to say. I don't know what else I can say.

After listening to the demo, I was silent, powerless and helpless, my eyes and ears drifted beyond the ripples on the computer to an unknown distance, my mind blank.

Sanga, probably a little messed up by my silence but still retaining a glimmer of hope, asked me tentatively, "Ma'am, how was it this time?"

I withdrew my scattered gaze, unable to bear to hit him, but also unable to hold myself back, and looked at him seriously, "Not bad! But we still have to change."

He also seemed to be mentally prepared, skipped my obviously perfunctory "good", and asked with a sincere face: "Ma'am, you say it, I'll listen to you, you're my boss (Boss) now!"

I couldn't help but laugh, "How did I become your Boss? I can't help but laugh, "How did I become your boss? The money isn't with me!" The money is locked in the safe in the dean's office.

He smiled wryly, with a look that said, "It's obvious.

All I could do was take the lyrics and tell him what I wanted to say, word for word, while thinking, "If I knew how to change it, I'd have nothing to do with you!

After about three or four almost ineffective exchanges like this, Sanga finally went quiet for two weeks and came back with a decent-sounding demo. I was very impressed by the fact that we were two people who seemed to be from different planets, breaking through the barriers of culture, language, gender and so on, little by little, and although it was still a bit difficult to sing by ear test, it was not easy to break through to this point.

When I signed the contract, I said I could give up if I couldn't meet the requirements, but Sanga's persistence kept me from saying anything, and he must have remembered that agreement, not giving me a chance to say anything! I'll change it!"

Then came the recording stage, but the lyrics had to be accommodated to Aizi Bao's Chinese language skills. Her Chinese is a bit better than Sanga's, and she once passed the HSK level 3, but when she went to college, she focused on her music and hung out in the studio except for classes, so her major was out of the question, not to mention her Chinese.

I had to cut out the lyrics that were so emotionally charged, and I kept the language simple, replacing the names of places like "Lake Victoria" and "Kilimanjaro" with Sanga, and adding some Sanga transitions.

Well, she did a good job of interpreting the song, and the director of the hospital was very pleased with the demo that was recorded. But since the lyrics are bilingual, we're hoping that the final music video will feature both Chinese and Tanzanian faces.

But after practicing for a long time, it was still hard for us Chinese teachers to find the right key and follow the rhythm. It was Silverwind and I who ended up in the studio, along with Yuchen's pipa accompaniment. We were still either out of tune or out of rhythm, and it was very awkward to listen to. After a few takes, Sanga said it was okay. I said it's not going to work. He said no problem, it will be taken care of in post.

Two days later he brought the mp3 mix, I can hear basically still only the sound of the bag Ai Ci, the volume of the silver wind is very small, and my voice is almost disappeared.

Again, this wasn't the effect I wanted, I wanted something like "Welcome to Beijing", but Sanga said it wasn't good for the right track, and our tones were too different.

I said, "Look, when I was in the studio, I asked you if it wouldn't work, and you said it was fine, you could do it later, and now you're saying it won't match the track. Do I need to re-record it? Or what to do with it?"

His eyes flickered a bit, "No......"

I noticed and stared at him with a bad smile, "What's wrong? Is it unpleasant?"

He was a little embarrassed by my laugh, licked his lips and said, "As a musician, I can't hit the singer ......"

I suddenly got a little happy and laughed out loud, encouraging him, "I'm not a professional singer, you can't hit me. not a professional singer, you can not hit me, have something to say!"

He still said sincerely, "Madam, the rhythm of this song is not very friendly to you, you are not very suitable for this kind of fast-paced songs, you are suitable for singing lyrics, the other lady is a little bit more suitable than you, but the Speech part you really sang beautifully, very beautiful!"

Perhaps to comfort me, he emphasized "very beautiful!"

I really laughed this time, "Yes, I'm not good at this type of song, so go to the post-production stage, and do it how you want, and of course hear the Chinese voice better. Chinese voice is better."

I heard later that when he gave feedback to the dean, he was very direct and said he didn't think I could sing well. I'm not sure if I'm a good singer or not! The old man, I guess, had a hard time telling me in person.

I couldn't hear my voice at all in the final mix, but the vocalist, Pao Ai Chee, did add a lot of color to the song, and Sanga praised her for being a natural singer.

Later, when I was working on the music video, Hanglu gave me a shot that was so beautiful that it made my heart skip a beat, but in the scene, my mouth was opening and closing, and my voice was clearly coming from a foreigner, like a double act.

The shooting of the music video actually started before we even had a final draft of the song, because the semester was winding down and we didn't have a lot of time. I planned to send a sub-script to the teaching point, but the operation found that the organization of such a shooting activity is not easy, can only come together with the students in class and activities to shoot, the situation of the teaching point is different, there is always the person in charge of the teaching point to send a message to me to communicate with the implementation of the situation, the script is written to change, has not been able to finalize the draft, and then only sent to the Hang Lu to do the post reference.

During the hottest season in Tanzania, the outdoor shoots took place at 6:00am, and we were drenched in sweat by the end of the shoot. Our department has some relative advantages, such as a few loyal fans like William, a second-generation "Peking Opera fan", and customized yellow polo shirts from the Confucius Institute. The drive of the loyal fans and the temptation of free clothes became our godsend, and we accomplished a lot of big scenes.

We're almost done with all the shots we can take, but we can't get the time for the lead singer, Ai-Chi Pao. This girl has been very stable, with the rehearsal skit at the same time to maintain the style of unscheduled loss of contact, easy in the last afternoon before the vacation about her, Hang Lu just not available, I took the phone in the art department outside the pile of creative stone forest to shoot a small section of her cool teal lenses reflecting the row of the opposite side of the mess of the building. A very poor shot, and she was in a hurry to get home, so I had to make a deal with her to make up a set after school started.

The vacation, there are a few groups of provincial lens is not yet available, we were planning a trip to various places, Hang Lu plans to take the Tanzanian Railway to Mbeya, she was also responsible for the production of the video, took the initiative to take the Tanzanian Railway along the rice wave lens of the task of filming. Our family planned to go to the grasslands, deliberately picked a route that included Lake Victoria, and ended up spending two days and one night in Mwanza, so I spent two days on the boat, on the reef and on the shore capturing waterfowl in Lake Victoria.

As I was finally sorting through the images, it occurred to me that I hadn't actually picked up any Sanga shots!

I told Hanglu that I'd have to make up for the Sanga shots after the school year started, and that I'd have to reshoot the Bao Aiqi shots, and that I'd be disturbed by the shadows reflecting on her lens, and that it would be better to have a set of the songwriter and vocalist together, and that there were several other shots that needed to be reshot or optimized.

However, we never got to wait for the same start to the school year as in previous years, because, well, the epidemic hit.

With no hope of a school year, there was no chance of making up the shots, so the "good" had to be the "good".

I asked Sanga to send me some photos, and he sent me photos of him singing, and in every one of them he was so enthusiastic, his eyes shining. It then occurred to me that I had never taken a serious look at Sanga singing.

At this point, I was inexplicably a bit touched by his glowing eyes: at least, he really is a musician, and he really loves music.

Attachment: "Song of the Confucius Institute at TU"

Across the vast Indian Ocean

We come from the far east

From the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, we come to the port of Pingan Dakota

Bringing our greetings to beautiful Tanzanian society

Tunaipenda Tanzania (We Love Tanzania)

Tunaipenda Uchina (We love China)

Wacha Ushirikiano wetu udumu (Let's keep our friendship alive)

Tanga's frankincense soars along the coastline

Mbeya's rice waves follow TAZARA (Tanzanian Railway) Waterfowl cut through the sun at Ziwa Victoria

Kilimanjaro's snowy peaks glisten with gold

Our greetings float on the sea breeze

Hello, dear Tanzanian

Our friendship will last for a long time to come

You and I have an extra We follow the traces of the Silk Road on the sea

We are here to renew our longstanding friendship

From "Jambo Hello" to One Destiny

Let Tanzania understand China's heart

Tunaipenda Tanzania (We love Tanzania)

We are here to renew our longstanding friendship

From "Jambo Hello" to One Destiny

Let Tanzania understand China's heart

We are here to renew our longstanding friendship

Wacha Ushirikiano wetu udumu (Let's keep our friendship alive)

Wonderful Chinese knots weave a thousand years of memories

Mysterious taijiquan and the melody of nature

Ink, paper, and inkstones. Ink, paper and ink slabs, the fragrance of ink and inkstamps, and poetic feelings

The long-sleeved dancers of the Sheng Dan, Jie Jie, and Chou perform ancient rhythms and modern tunes

Our wishes are passed on through smiles

Welcome to Tanzania

Notes from the history of our encounters

The friendship between China and Tanzania continues at the Confucius Institute in TEDA

Karibuni Tanzania, Wageni wetu toka China (O guest from China, welcome to Tanzania)

Hamjambo ndugu zetu, Wageni wetu toka China (How are you, brothers from China?).

Hakuna Matata, Karibuni Tanzania (Welcome to Tanzania, it's carefree)

Hakuna Matata, Karibuni Tanzania-China (Welcome to China and Tanzania, they're carefree)