We Travel World

At all the big social gatherings I’ve been to, everyone sings. Everyone. And they ask, if not expect, you to sing. Maybe since Chinese is a tonal language, no one is tone deaf, so no one is afraid of singing in public like so many people are in the US. Now, I’m not tone deaf, but I haven’t sung in public since I was a toddler; my range isn’t wide enough to ensure that for any given song in any given key I can hit all the notes without having to switch octaves, and my straining at the upper and lower limits of my humble range isn’t much fun to hear.

Anyway, at all these gatherings I have been asked, and indeed almost expected, to sing. And I don’t want to, not only for the reason above but because the selection of karaoke backup music and lyrics is usually pretty limited for English songs. Luckily, I have an oral instrumental alternative. I hope you enjoy.

Oh, it also seems to be the custom for random people from the audience to come bring you and/or decorate you in things while you’re performing. As you will see.

And if my face looks a bit pale or if you can make out the unusual styling of my hair, that’s because it was my rough draft of my Edward Cullen outfit for Halloween.

P.S. Contrary to popular bELIefZA, the title of this post does NOT stand for “Ben Creed Exits China Christmas Day.” (No doubt there are dozens of acronym solvers out there who’ve been thrown for an emotional roller coaster. My apologies.) Ten points if you can figure out the meaning and post your solution as a comment.