American singer Tang Bohu Annie:

To popularize Chinese music worldwide

美籍歌手唐伯虎：让世界听见中国风

(资料图片)

My name is Annie. And I’m from the United States. Most people know me as Tang Bohu Annie. My nickname is Little tiger.

我是安妮，来自美国。很多人都叫我唐伯虎。或亲切地叫我小虎。

I am a singer and actress who has grown up in Beijing. I've been here for 21 years. All of the important firsts in life happened when I was in China. So for me it's more my home than anywhere else. When I was first here, there was so much support for the West and Western cultures and values and music and all of these. 

我是一名在北京长大的歌手和演员。我在这里已经生活了21年。我人生中所有重要的第一次都发生在中国。所以对我来说，中国更像我的家。刚来中国那会儿，很多人推崇西方文化、西方价值观以及西方音乐等等。

And now, I'm very happy to say most of the young people here are starting to get back in touch with their own culture and their own history, and the beautiful things about Chinese traditions. And that makes me happy.

现在，我非常高兴地告诉你们中国大部分年轻人开始重新追寻中国文化历史、以及中国传统之美。我感到很开心看到这样的转变。

What I'm doing now is kind of a fusion, the fusion of Chinese traditional music and various forms of either pop or rock or more Western style.

现在我做的事混编音乐，将中国传统音乐和各种流行乐，摇滚乐等西方音乐混搭起来。

One of my own songs became popular in China and nobody knew that it was sung by a foreigner. For me, it was a very proud moment because it meant that I had achieved what I set out to do, which was to be able to be a singer and to create music where me being foreign did not matter.And the song itself, my voice itself could create resonance with people and make people feel that we were the same.

我曾有一首歌在中国传唱度还蛮高的，当时没人知道那首歌是由外国人唱的。对我来说，那是值得骄傲的时刻，因为那意味着我实现了我最初的梦想，那就是成为一位歌手，创作的音乐，我是不是个外国人并不重要。而这首歌本身，我的声音可以引发听者共鸣，让人们感受到我们其实是一样的。

For foreigners in the entertainment industry, we don't really get to keep one unique side of ourselves. For example, “today we need you to sing this style of music”, then you just have to go do it. And tomorrow, they decide “we want you to sing rock, you know, or we want you to do this.” You have to be very flexible and open to whatever is needed at the time.

在中国娱乐圈打拼的外国人，很难坚守自己的艺术个性。比如说，如果节目组说“今天我们需要你演绎这种曲风”，你就得唱这种曲风。明天他们可能又会说我们希望你唱摇滚，或唱别的曲风。作为外籍歌手，我们得保持开放的心态，灵活应变。

What the pandemic did for me was that it completely changed my life. It gave me a lot of time to spend at home where I learned how to program music and created my Douyin channel, and really you know, work on not just performing, but actually being a musician or being an artist. I think that's a good thing in the sense that a lot of artists need sometimes to step back from the whole crazy TV and all of this stuff and really get back to their roots.

疫情完全改变了我的生活。我有大把的时间呆在家里，学习编曲，开了抖音账号，潜心创作，不仅是表演而是做一名真正的音乐人和艺术家。从这个角度来讲，疫情也带来了一些好处，艺术家有时需要从疯狂的电视演出和聚光灯中抽离出来。

I think the saddest moments are when your family members go back home, and you are alone. I will not be able to spend as much time with my family or my mother. I will not get to watch her grow old. I try to make sure that every day I'm doing something that's worth being separated from my family. 

在中国让我最难过的瞬间是家人都回美国去了，留我一个人在中国。我无法多陪陪家人和妈妈。不能陪妈妈慢慢变老。我努力把每一天都过得很充实。只有这样，我与家人的分离才有意义。

There's still a bit of a misunderstanding in what exactly Chinese traditional music styles, art styles are.

西方人对中国传统音乐和艺术风格还存在误解。

I like to be able to bring in some stuff that can be popular, can be liked by the young people there, and can really broaden the understanding of Chinese culture in the West. I would really like it if my creations were remembered and valued and could live long after I'm gone. Yeah, be a part of the Chinese generations, you know, memories and culture.

我希望自己的中国风歌曲能流行起来，能收到西方年轻人的喜爱，成为西方人进一步了解中国文化的载体。真心希望，我的作品可以被记住，被珍视，在我百年之后，还被人传唱。成为这代中国人记忆和文化的一部分。

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