Have Spotify, find new songs
I heard of the music streaming website Spotify sometime in 2014, the year I listened to, for the first time, my most favorite Jpop group at the moment. I used Spotify for the first time in 2017, thanks to a former workmate who was a Kpop fan.
Thanks to Spotify, I find more greats songs and rediscover old ones, some of which I shall write about in this blog if I have the time and, above all, better memories of them.
As always, I consider myself lucky to have listened to songs such as “Stranger In The North” by the Malaysian-Chinese rapper Namewee.
What this song is all about?
“Stranger In The North” by Namewee and featuring Chinese-American singer-songwriter Wang Leehom and Hong Kong singer-songwriter G.E.M. in separate versions is a song dedicated to migrant workers. The message of the story is inspired by Namewee’s personal journey as a Malaysian-Chinese artist struggling to make a name for himself overseas, specifically Beijing.
In an interview with The Strait Times, Namewee said, “I had some work in Beijing in 2015 and I found it to be completely different from the city I had encountered as a backpacker years ago.
“Parts of it had been torn down and rebuilt and there were a lot more migrant workers there. I took this four-hour walk and observed the difficult and dangerous work they were doing – burying cables, burning coal, preparing food – in the minus 10 deg C temperatures outdoors in winter. I identified with them as I was an outsider there as well.”
In an article for RADII China, Megan Pan wrote:
“Stranger in the North” is an epic rap anthem for the struggles of beipiao, or Beijing drifters. They are the people who make up the capital’s increasingly diverse “floating population” — the millions of migrants who leave their hometowns and even families behind in search of opportunity but lack the Beijing residence permit (hukou), barring them from obtaining basic services like education and health insurance. The term beipiao is a catchall for anyone working in Beijing without the Beijing hukou, from rural laborers to white-collar workers and even the scrappy musician that Namewee portrays in the music video.
Something can be said about the fact that it’s Wang Leehom and Namewee – both technically not Chinese (Wang is American by nationality), let alone beipiao – who take on the first-person here. But the song is a bitter elegy for beipiao all the same. “So many people couldn’t win against harsh reality / and then vanished without a trace / So many people have fallen into a stupor / and leave only a lifeless shell,” Namewee practically shouts. “Rest in Peace.”
Memories of family and friends who went to the north
“Stranger In The North” spark memories of people I know who migrated to the north – the National Capital Region, my country’s capital – in search of work and better income that they could never find and a future they could never build in the central and southern parts of the country.
Many people could relate to the lyrics of “Stranger In The North”. Here is my interpretation of some lines, according to the context I am familiar with of my country:
“I travelled to the North / don’t ask about my hometown” – Many times northerners mock people from the central and southern parts of the country due to their language or dialect, accent, or the ill reputation of their hometown or province.
“I travelled to the North / is my family doing well” – People in my country would never migrate to the north or northern countries if not for the financial situation they are in. When they meet someone they know from their hometown, they would ask about their family.
“Carrying a bag full of gloom on my shoulders” – Sadness over the family’s financial situation will force a parent, son or daughter to seek better opportunities in the more prosperous and developed north. They bring this sadness with them when they go north.
“Some say he is debt-ridden and forced to flee” – Some people move to the north due to massive debts and to escape the risk for imprisonment.
“Some say they couldn’t find any place or opportunity to show their talents” – Underdeveloped areas in the central and southern parts of the country lack opportunities for the sciences and humanities and infrastructure for IT graduates. Medical institutions are unequipped and the most ambitious doctors and nurses, due to economic practicality and (misplaced, in most cases in my country) family pride would choose to work in the north or overseas.
“Some are working hard to fill their stomach and support their families” – Need to say more?
“He’s busy preparing his resume with huge expectations” – People from the central and southern parts have sky high expectations when moving to the north for better opportunities. They are determined to return home filthy rich and successful. They do not want to lose face back home.
“I insist to travel with my dreams / being forced to let go all of my previous pride and status” – The brightest minds from the underdeveloped central and south are ready to hustle in the already competitive jobs market of the north, which has better schools and more competitive graduates.
“Farewell to the South / my most beautiful homeland” – Economic migrants from the central and south love their homelands very much.
“Illusions of my hometown / together with the swaying coconut tree are formed in my dream” – They are often reminded of their beautiful homelands – and also the reality that forces them to seek greener yet less beautiful pastures in the north.
“This will be my last and final attempt” – For many people in the central and south, migrating and making it big in the north is their only way out of poverty. Should they fail, they return home poorer and even more miserable than they were before. Many women return home pregnant and, because their northerner boyfriends abandon them, add to the cycle of poverty.
“I stood in temple of heaven and closed my eyes / praying for the bliss of my family” – Christians and Muslims from the central and south go their places of worship to pray for the health and well-being of their loved ones. Religion strengthens them.
“I still felt loss and not aligned with the public here / Maybe I don’t belong here and have to leave” – Many economic migrants from the central and south are unable to fit in the north for they deeply long for their homelands, their cultures, and their families.
“Many were killed in the cruelty of reality here and disappeared” – Economic migrants from the central and south are often abused and taken advantage of by scrupulous northerners and employers.
“So many of them were fooled into the traps here yet in the end all that remain are lifeless corpse” – People from the central and south who lack better education are abused and taken advantage of. Many of them, due to their low educational background, end up being house help and low-skilled workers earning minimum wage. Some of them become criminals and prostitutes.
This song makes me remember the sacrifices of my parents who went north decades ago so they could bring food to the table and send us to college… of my relatives, most of them who have not returned home for years… my classmates and schoolmates, many of them lucky enough to have married responsible and caring northerners… of the thousands in my ethnic and linguistic group who are mocked at by ignorant northerners… and of the thousands others who work in northern countries to serve people who speak a different language and practice a different culture and religion.
“Stranger In The North” make me remember the stories I have read about the economic migrants who failed to return home, who longed until death the beautiful memories of their homelands and families, and those who regaled their children with tales from their homelands.
Let us pray for all economic migrants. Let us treat them better.
Music and Memories 