Musician finds inspiration in the lyrics of life
Print Edition
LAW school student Chu Yunjie, 19, believes Minhang is his muse.
He writes songs about what he sees and experiences. His most popular work currently is called “Old Chap at Xinzhuang Metro Station.”
Shanghai Daily talked to Chu after the song had become a hit among locals on the Internet.
The Shanghai Jiao Tong University student said the idea for the song came during the summer holidays in 2012. Instead of returning to his hometown of Jingzhou in Hunan Province, Chu stayed in Shanghai to do an internship in Xinzhuang.
Everyday he commuted on Metro Line 5 between Xinzhuang and Dongchuan Road stations.
Soon he began to take notice of an old man at the Xinzhuang Station, who looked like a beggar and he pulled a small handcart behind him. Stray cats and dogs seemed to gravitate toward the old man.
“I didn’t know when the idea hit me, but I began to think that old man was happier than I was,” he said. “I was living all alone in an empty dormitory, but he had strays to keep him company.”
The song he wrote and uploaded onto music websites pays sympathetic homage to the nameless and faceless old codger. It triggered quite a response. Some netizens claimed that they also had spotted the man at the station. Others said the song reminds them of themselves.
“Some people told me that they went to the station to look for the guy after listening to the song,” said Chu. “I’m so happy that listeners can feel the empathy of the song.”
‘Summer Breeze’
It wasn’t the first success for the budding songwriter. In 2011, when Chu was just entering university, his song “Summer Breeze” was designated as the theme song for freshmen military training that year. The song talked about the ups and downs of military training week, when students have to follow a strict timetable and harsh training in scorching weather.
“The song only took me a half day to write,” he said. “I was singing the song and playing guitar in my dorm room when some of my classmates overheard me. That’s how the song started to spread.”
Chu took an interest in music from a young age. When he was three, poor health kept him indoors, where he was entertained by his father’s collection of CDs and cassettes. His parents were surprised when their son asked them one day if he could learn to play the piano. Chu started to study piano at age five.
“My parents never pushed me to excel on the piano, and I just saw it as a kind of light entertainment,” he said. “Later, when I was in junior high school, a classmate wrote an essay saying how his parents forced him to learn to play a musical instrument. It was the first time I realized the importance of music to me.”
After playing piano for several years, Chu concluded that he had little feeling for the standard repertoire he practiced. So he decided to write his own compositions.
First song
He wrote the first song when he was 11. It was about how he played tricks to fool his mother.
“I can’t remember exact lyrics,” he said. “Something along the lines that ‘I’m not as well-behaved as I seem to be’.”
Chu wrote about 10 songs during high school. He gave them to friends as birthday presents or as solace when they were having problems.
“I’ve never thought of becoming a superstar,” said Chu. “Writing songs just became part of my lifestyle.”
Now, in his dormitory, that lifestyle continues. His dorm room has become his studio, complete with guitar, headset microphone and a laptop. His most popular song in the dormitory is called “I’m Hungry but I Can’t Eat” — a song about the miseries of dieting.
He said it’s not meant to be a serious song. It just gave very casual lyrics to musician Richard Clayderman’s “Mariage D’amour.”
“Why combine the two? It’s simple,” Chu said. “Because I hate diet control and ‘Mariage D’amour’ the most.”
Chu said when he was a child, he had three dreams: to become a lawyer or doctor, to release a music album and to retire to a home with a swimming pool.
His dreams haven’t changed with time. He’s well on the way to realizing the first two. As a junior, he is preparing to take China’s judicial examination, and last year he won a contract with a recording company to produce his first album.
But the music world is a tough industry to crack. So Chu said he will go on to graduate school and seek stability in a law-related job after graduation.
“Writing songs will remain my biggest hobby, and I’ll be content with that,” he said.
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