Modern Mississauga Media

View Original

Mississauga artist Tennyson King releases new Chinese-language song for Asian Heritage Month

Photo credit: Jen Squires

Tennyson King is set to release his first Chinese single on Thursday May 27 to the world. Re-discovering his roots as a Chinese-Canadian musician has been a long and rewarding journey. Embracing his heritage has been an important process for his evolution, not only as an artist but in finding belonging as a member of the Asian community. Tennyson believes that with the current issues relating to discrimination towards Asian ethnicities, it is important for him to represent his Chinese culture the way he knows best, through the language of music.

生命的进度, pronounced Sheng Ming De Jin Du, was originally written in English by Tennyson during his drive through the Australian Outback, a two week road trip in his ‘91 Toyota Hiace camper van sleeping under the stars and playing concerts. Inspired by experiencing the openness and vastness of the scenery without any encounter with other humans, the song touches on embracing the unknown. Tennyson worked with Hover Chan, founding member of China’s premiere Indie Rock band Golden Cage, to translate and recreate this song with Chinese lyrics, sung in Mandarin. Tennyson is honoured to now share this song’s special message more intimately with the Chinese community around the world.

Click here to listen to the song.