You Are My Sunshine 你是我的陽光
It's lunar new year! Chinese New Year is the biggest annual holiday here. An impressive coming together of community and family to usher in all things desired and auspicious. What with all the struggle with uncertainty in my life, I'll happily board this train to auspicious beginnings.
During the holiday, along with much eating, visiting the temple and worshipping, some will surely also spend time together singing karaoke. Karaoke has deep traditions here—or as it's called in Taiwan, KTV. I get the sense that it's less popular with younger generations, but still there's tiny soundproof karaoke booths big enough for just one or two people at malls, and I'll see happy young couples smushed in there. Or often at parks, older adults will be gathered around a speaker and a mic smiling and singing folk tunes together. Or I'll be hours deep on a mountain hike, and out of nowhere there will be some folks singing KTV just off-trail, their voices echoing off the hills and valleys. G’s dad has a room in their family home that's more or less dedicated to karaoke. A big screen tv, a huge binder playlist of tunes, semiprofessional system and mics – the works! We were singing with him once, and he requested me to sing a song. It took a few moments for me to figure out which song he meant, and I realized it was an old children's song, one that's popular in Taiwan and I was sure I was familiar enough in English that I could probably stumble through singing it.
The music started and I sheepishly began singing the words off the screen. By the second or third line I was suddenly overcome with swelling emotion as I realized that not only was I familiar with this song, but I knew it so thoroughly, so deeply, like the blood that runs through this very heart. It wasn’t until I heard myself singing it that I remembered my mom would sing “You Are My Sunshine” to me. In fact, she must have sung it to me often because it's sewn into the fabric of my nervous system, I can hear her voice singing it clear as a bell. I know this song, you might even say I am this song. An unbreakable link with mom. She died over 14 years ago, but she's not gone. I can feel her in this melody that emerges from my own lungs and voice. Happy new year, mom!