A New Zealander’s B i l i n g u a l M u s i c Journey

By Bo Ning & Liu Chang

A New Zealander’s B i l i n g u a l M u s i c Journey

By Bo Ning & Liu Chang

In the morning, Laurence Larson turned on the computer as usual, to see whether the music video he’d posted on the internet yesterday had received any comments. He couldn’t believe his eyes: there were almost 100,000 comments below that song. In New Zealand, where only four million people live, the figure was unimaginable.

That day, he made up his mind to come to China.

Laurence Larson (Chinese name Luo Yiheng, meaning “eternal art” in Chinese),the brilliant “Prince of the Elves” before his audience, seems like a shy “boy next door”when he steps off the stage. When meeting the reporter, he tried his best to express himself in Chinese, occasionally switching to English. “New Zealand is my hometown, but China is where my dream started.” His sincere love for China can be perceived.

Born in eastern Auckland, New Zealand,Laurence has had a sea of Chinese friends since childhood. At the age of ten, he fell in love with the guitar, and naturally took it up as his major at university. When it came time to select a minor subject, he thought of his Chinese friends.“When my friends got together and I was the only foreigner, they would chat in Chinese… I often had no idea what they were talking about, so I thought I should learn a little bit.”

A coincidence led him to combine his music dream with China. “My friend’s mother was a singing teacher and once a guest at a singing contest in Auckland. She invited me to participate in the competition and sang Chinese songs,out of the blue. I lost my heart to those songs immediately.”

In Laurence’s eyes, Western music pays the most attention to rhythm while oriental music attaches more importance to melody and lyrics. In addition,when the language and melody of Chinese songs are integrated, there is a special beauty. While preparing for the contest, Laurence listened to and studied Chinese songs attentively and began his music journey between the two languages.

From then on, he translated English songs into Chinese and vice versa, and uploaded his own versions to the internet. His songs attracted fans from all over the world.

Like many foreigners in China, Laurence came across plenty of difficulties at the beginning of his trip. The hardest part was still the language barrier. “At first, it was totally impossible for me to communicate with others.”

“You can’t be afraid of embarrassment when learning a new language. You just have to feel the awkwardness.” Gone are those days. Now Laurence has already learned to laugh at embarrassment.Surrounded by Chinese friends, he has completely forgotten that he is from another country, and he is fascinated by Chinese diet, culture and lifestyle.

In 2016, Laurence participated in the competition of the TV program Sing My Song and was in the top six in Liu Huan’s group, successfully attaining thousands of fans. When asked about his international success, he smiles and says, “Music is the most honest language we have, so use your music to share your story, and don’t try something just to be a star or be on the stage. Don’t worry about competing with other people; do what you want to do.”

In November 2017, Laurence came to Wuhan as a representative to celebrate New Zealand Culture Week, bringing the song “Rewi” he wrote for Rewi Alley. He hoped that, like Rewi, he could also become a bridge of cultural exchanges between China and New Zealand. ?

早上，羅藝恒如常打開電腦，想看看前一天上傳的音樂視頻有什么反響。他不敢相信自己的眼睛，那首歌下面有幾乎上十萬的評論。在僅有400萬人口的新西蘭，這個數字令人難以想象。

那一天，他下定決心，要來中國看看。

Laurence Larson，中文名羅藝恒，寓意藝術永恒。

臺上他是光芒四射的“精靈王子”，臺下卻像個靦腆害羞的鄰家男孩。面對筆者，他努力地用中文表達著自己，偶爾切換到英文。語言轉換之間，他誠懇道出對中國的熱愛，“新西蘭是我的家鄉，而中國是我夢想開始的地方。”

羅藝恒出生于新西蘭奧克蘭東區，從小就有很多中國朋友。10歲時，他對吉他一見鐘情，大學時便理所當然地選擇音樂專業。到了大學，需要選擇輔修專業時，他想到自己眾多的中國朋友，“當朋友相聚，只有我一個外國人時，他們就會說中文……我時常不知道他們在聊什么，所以我覺得我應該學習一點。”

一次巧合讓他將音樂夢想與中國結合起來：“我朋友的母親是一位歌唱老師，她當時是奧克蘭一個歌唱比賽的嘉賓。她邀請我參賽，演唱中文歌曲，沒想到我一唱就愛上了。”

羅藝恒認為，西方音樂注重節奏，東方音樂注重旋律和歌詞。當中文歌曲的語言和旋律結合起來時，有種特殊的美感。借著參賽的機會，他用耳用心地去學習和理解中文歌曲，開始在兩種語言之間轉換的音樂之旅。

也是從那時起，他開始將自己翻譯的中英文歌曲上傳到網上，無意間吸引來自世界各地的粉絲。

和其他許多來華尋夢的異鄉人一樣，羅藝恒初到中國時也遇到過種種困難，最難之處在于語言，“一開始真的無法交流”。

“學習一個新的語言不能怕尷尬，你就是要感受那個尷尬。”現在的他，早已學會笑對尷尬。圍繞中國朋友身邊，他已全然忘記自己來自異鄉，中國的飲食、文化、生活方式都令他深深著迷。

2016年，他參加《中國好歌曲》的比賽，獲得劉歡組6強，成功收獲大批迷妹。在他看來，音樂是最誠實的語言。他所享受的，是用音樂分享故事，而非試圖上臺成為明星。競爭并不重要，重要的是做自己想做的事情。

2017年11月，羅藝恒來漢參加新西蘭文化周，帶來為路易·艾黎所創作的歌曲《這樣一個人》。他希望自己，也能像艾黎一樣，成為中新文化交流的橋梁。?

“精靈王子”雙語音樂之旅

文/柏寧 劉暢