Japanese entrant shows how it's done. Photo: Matthew Jukes

By Matthew Jukes

Tim's Texas Barbeque on Dongdaqiao Lu became a temporary karaoke parlor on Saturday night in order to raise funds for schools in Yunnan.

The event, named Sing for Hope, encouraged cross language participation, with expats singing famous Chinese songs, and some of the locals singing their favorite tunes in English. The audi-ence then went on to vote for their favorites of the night.

All participants were asked to donate at least 80 yuan ($12) or the equivalent worth in Chinese children's textbooks to help start a library for a school in Southern Yunnan on the border with Myanmar.

"My grandfather built the school," said Zhao Nanli, a well-known Chinese teacher who had orga-nized the event. "I really want to help the kids; they don't really have many books to read. The education is really not fair, so I wanted to bring different people together to talk about it," she added.

The event was made possible with the aid of Give Children Hope, a not for profit organization that aims to help children from ethnic minorities in some of China's rural areas.

"My goal is to give every school at least 1,000 books," said Zhao, "but it's also to have fun and to meet people. It's about cultural communication too."

Throughout the night, Chinese language speakers from Japan, the US, Canada and more stepped up to the front of the room to belt out their karaoke favorites alongside some local entries which included one cover of The Rolling Stones.

Daniel Finn, a long term resident of Beijing as an English teacher and freelancer was only too happy to try his hand at singing a song by Sichuanese artist Dao Lang.

"I love Yunnan, I spent a month traveling there. It's a magical place," said Finn. "I'd like to help them develop in a way that's in accord with their own culture and environment," he added.

When it came to the singing he was a little worried that his voice was in a lower range than Dao Lang's, but he received appreciative applause from the audience after a surprisingly good imitation of the singer.

By the time the singing had died down, they estimated that around 3,000 yuan had been raised alongside more than 30 books. In order to keep shooting for her target of 1,000 books for each school, Zhao will be hosting more events in the future beginning with an international cooking event planned for next month.

matthewjukes@globaltimes.com.cn