Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

Middle, high school and college students from 15 states took part in the Sing With Me Chinese Lyric Competition last year, with nine videos being chosen as the final winners.

In an effort to get students engaged with Mandarin through modern music, the contest challenged students to first write lyrics and the set them to music in popular genres such as rock-pop, rap, musical theater, hip-hop and R & B.

A total of 46 student teams took part, creating music videos. You can view the winners here. The organizers hope to hold another competition in the future if funding can be secured.

A wide range of songs

Some were heartfelt, others amusing.

“I crave peace in my heart,” sings a student from Post Oak Academy in Michigan. “When you look at me, what do you see? Do you see a person or only their dark skin?”

It takes a long time to write Chinese lyrics,” sang students from Washington Fields Intermediate School in Utah. “If you haven’t heard enough, don’t worry, more stories are coming.”

Then there are angsty songs like the one from students at Seaton Hall Preparatory School in West Orange, New Jersey. “Under the weight of sorrow the Earth weeps often. …. Weary from conflicts and separations, many disasters are hanging over Earth.

The creators of the contest hope to give students learning Chinese a better link to China’s popular culture.

“Many Chinese educators have commented that Japanese learners can read manga and anime and Korean learners have popular K-Pop bands. What can we offer from the modern teen culture that would appeal to the interests and curiosity of Chinese language learners?” said Dr. Shuhan Wang, one of the creators of the competition.

The Sing With Me Chinese Lyric Competition was conceived by Professor Sean X. Gao of the University of Delaware, Lisa Huang Healy of Executive Director of New America International Culture Corporation and Wang.

“Our vision is to use pop music to boost Chinese language education nationally,” Huang Healy said.

The full award ceremony is available here.

The organizers also put together a nice list of Mandarin language pop songs which could be a good jumping-off spot for students wanting to create their own Chinese language masterpieces.