Mayor sings for supper in China
CHRISTCHURCH Mayor Lianne Dalziel is singing her way around China, surprising local dignitaries with her vocal skills.
Dalziel has learnt two Chinese love songs and sings them in fluent Mandarin, even though her spoken Mandarin vocabulary is limited.
Wuhan vice mayor Lu Shaye said he had never heard a foreign guest sing so well in Chinese.
‘‘It shocked me,’’ he said through an interpreter. ‘‘Especially the pronunciation. It was very accurate.’’
Dalziel is in China for three weeks, leading a 35-strong business delegation, visiting Chengdu, Wuhan, Gansu, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
The host cities and regions usually hold welcome dinners or banquets for the delegation and there is often a television and karaoke machine sitting off to the side. Karaoke is a popular past time in China.
At a dinner in Wuhan, Dalziel stood up and, much to everyone’s surprise, including the Kiwi delegates, proceeded to sing two popular Chinese songs.
One was a duet and she was joined by a local dignitary, who presented her with a flower from a nearby table arrangement during the song.
A couple of minutes later she finished to a round of enthusiastic applause.
Gansu Province vice governor Xia Hongmin said Dalziel sang the song better than most Chinese people could.
‘‘Her pronunciation is perfect,’’ Hongmin said through an interpreter.
‘‘That song is very touching and full of emotion and it shows the emotion about the friendship between our two cities.’’
Dalziel, a former Labour MP, said some Chinese friends taught her the songs some years ago when she was a Cabinet minister and attending many Chinese events where it was common for them to sing a Maori song.
She wanted to be able to that gesture.
Dalziel’s Mandarin was limited, but she said learning to sing the songs was easier because the four different tones used in the spoken language were not used when singing.
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