Flying between America and China, McCormick senior David Harris divides his time between competing on Chinese singing shows and studying for classes.
While in China to study Chinese in 2012, Harris auditioned for a Chinese singing competition called Xing Guang Da Dao which is similar to American Idol. In May 2013, his friend called him telling him to come back to China for the show. While there again in June for a program called the Critical Language Scholarship, Harris went on other shows to prepare for Xing Guang Da Dao. He was a regular in a talk show that translates to English roughly as The Beijinger. Another show, which was recently broadcast, is similar to a small-scale America’s Got Talent. For his act, Harris sings a song in Chinese and plays guitar. His most recent trip to China was last week, when he filmed two shows: Xing Guang Da Dao and another competition to make it onto China’s New Year’s Eve show.
Although he’s under contract to not disclose the outcome of Xing Guang Da Dao, Harris said that he made it to another round for a spot on the New Year’s Eve show. He could film the next round as early as this month or next month.
Xing Guang Da Dao will broadcast in China at the beginning of next year, while the New Year’s Eve competition will broadcast this Sunday.
How did you get involved in Chinese shows instead of American shows?
It started, I guess, a few years ago. I started studying Chinese when I was a freshman at Northwestern. I knew that the only way I could become fluent was to actually go over there and integrate myself into the culture. So I went over there. I started studying Chinese, and over the summer I got an internship with the embassy and I found that I had a lot of free time. I wanted to get involved with the community there, so I started to go a bar near my house and played guitar, both in Chinese and in English. I started singing in Chinese, and my neighbor who cooks these Chinese pancakes for a living and had just started playing guitar at the time was like, “Hey David, we’re going to go try out.” I was like, “For what?”
At the time I didn’t know anything about Chinese television. I went along with him and we went all the way across Beijing, to the outskirts of town. When we arrived, there were thousands of people at this building, which I didn’t even know what it was. And so we’re there for like an hour or so and we’re just waiting in line before I even figure out what this show was, and it’s called Xing Guang Da Dao. We get in there and everybody had about a minute to play part of a song. My friend went first and then he dragged me in there. I hadn’t even registered. Well, he told me he registered me, but I don’t know. It was very confusing how it was organized. So I just interviewed right after him. I started playing a song and I played it all the way through. That’s like three minutes, two minutes longer than anyone else, and they’re like, “Okay, play another one.” So, I played another Chinese song. Then they’re like, “Okay, play an English song.” Then I did a little interview, they asked me questions about myself, and then I went back to America just a few days later.
Can you talk about the experience of being on a show like that, especially being an American on a Chinese show?
The one thing about China is that, unlike the U.S., it’s ethnically homogenous so when someone looks at a foreigner, you can see right away that they’re foreign. So no matter how good my Chinese ever gets, I’ll always be that foreigner. On TV, it’s kind of similar to that. On TV they always ask, “Why did you come to China?” or “Why do you want to study Chinese?” I think even if I was 60 years old, they’d be asking me the same questions…. It’s like I’m playing a role as a foreigner. There’s always those certain questions you ask a foreign person whether they’re in the U.S. or in China.
So what do you usually respond when they ask you these questions?
I try to explain it to the best of my ability that the reason I started studying Chinese is that I first started studying Spanish, but then I realized that the Spanish economy is awful and Latin America wasn’t growing all that fast. Also, there’s already so many people that speak it in the U.S. whereas Chinese is really useful because their economy is growing extremely quickly and becoming a major player in the global economy, and they are a very important relationship to the United States, and there’s not as many people who can speak it outside of China. They loved it. They actually just cut out the rest of it about the economy getting better and stuff and they just turned it into a joke. It was like “Well, I first started studying Spanish and then the Spanish economy tanked,” and that’s it. That’s all I say.
How has your family reacted to this?
My parents at first were kind of like, “This seems a little crazy, David,” especially when I told them I wanted to stay – originally I was supposed to film the Xing Guang Da Dao show during the first two weeks of school. They were like, “That’s crazy, David. You can’t skip that much school, you need to come back.” And it was probably a good thing because I didn’t realize that recruitment started the first and second week of school. But once they saw they my first show broadcast and saw pictures from it and stuff like that, they were like, “This is awesome, keep doing it if you want.” So they supported me to go back to China two weeks ago. If I keep going back, I think they’ll be my fans rather than telling me to worry about school.
How have your friends reacted?
My friends just think it’s crazy. It’s one thing to go on TV shows in America, but to do it in another language in another country is just a little unbelievable, to be honest. Last Friday, the local news station in my hometown of South Bend, Ind., broadcast a short story on me, just three or four minutes long. The whole time, the newscaster was on the verge of laughing because she thinks it’s so ridiculous.