Zimbabwean singer who found fame in China – was dark at home | Art and culture

Harare, Zimbabwe – 2017 and Jo Stak – Red Smokedo jacket, a summer tie and a Homburg hat and tied Mandarin’s song.

The red and yellow lights glittered like a crowd of cheering around him, fans waved in Chinese Chinese were applauded at the end of his action.

The warming of a Chinese song in 1992 in 1992, where Stak was referred to the melody, warm hearts were broadcast on national television.

“I have invited you to speak like a guest singer that year,” he said.

Prime-time stain reflected how popular it will be in China. China’s Tiktok’s version had about five million followers in Doyun. He appeared in one part of the country’s largest television station. Supporters stood on the street to ask a photograph or just talk. Zimbabwe singer rode to high.

“Being black in China is naturally,” he said. “I was a musician (so) distinguished me more.”

People who stop him often admired that a foreigner will sing in Mandarin.

Some ‘Something Great’

Today, Harare’s Zimbabwean capital Joe Takawira – Stak’s true name – Budiriro 5 walking around a street around a street where he was born and raised. In 2019, in seven years in China, his work was completed and returned home.

Signature beard, gray pants, sneakers and black shirt sports, smoking.

Street vendors sell fresh products and flavorings, standing in a corner to chat with a friend, and then pass the day. When someone escapes the one you know, he greets a punch and a gentle with a gear.

When the house is at home, the stock listens to instrumental music and writes songs in Mandarin.

“This is my time in Budiro,” he says.

He feels a long way from China and the career he enjoys. Did not find the same liking to the house.

There was no idea about his previous life of his neighbors.

Clemence Kadzomba, who manages the tire shop in the neighborhood of Stak, did not have any idea that some customers who have some of the 20,000 Zimbabweans living in China.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said the 43-year-old Kadzomba.

“They were very excited to see him, as it was a very big thing, here he was just hanging with us.”

Stardoma Unexpected Travel

The Methodist who joined the Methodist in the Music Travel of the Stak has roots in the school working in the church.

He was part of a group of students who celebrated his church choir, something he loved and a Bible album.

The album did well and some songs have a million meeting on YouTube several times.

Music is running in his family, the stand, in the middle of the three brothers. The youngest brother wrote in school while playing the youngest brother piano.

After graduating, Stak was registered in China to study Mandarin in China, and Jackie Chaman’s love for Chinese culture that started moving movies. When he moved to Shanghai was 20 years old.

This happened in response to the Eastern leader of Zimbabwe’s late Leader Robert Mugabe, in response to the United States and the European Union sanctions after the 2002 presidential election.

Zimbabweans, who opened the doors of Zimbabwe to Asia, went to China to work or study.

Until 2014, Stak was experienced in Mandarin and began to start singing in Mandarin in Mandarin. “I wanted to explore music in a different language,” he said, shines smoking and sits in the podium in a red-layered house of his house.

In Mandarin and English, they will read R & B, hip-hop and pop songs and began to order for gigs.

“The first concert was in Yuingtang, the music bar in Shanghai,” he said. The space says it is not very large but made $ 1500 – enough to pay for food and living for months.

This GIG realized that he could make money from his talent and marked his career as a professional pop singer in China.

After that, in music bars, festivals, weddings, weddings and nightclubs, mainly in Mandarin.

One of the 37 songs, Chinese music streaming service was in the first 10th in Baidu music. “It meant a lot to me,” he said. Although the STAK wins its only 5,000 yuan ($ 865), he says excitedly.

Then in 2017, a group of musicians from Africa, a group of musicians from Africa, the United States and Europe, a group of musicians and European people, the United States and Europe participated in the United States and Europe.

As a lead vocalist, he drew the attention of Chinese television networks leading to the plays of the main stations.

“I’m surprised by my success in China,” said the match.

Life was good. Daily processing consisted mainly from “food, songs and drink”.

The most loved dish was Hotpot – eating raw items like seafood and tofu in a bowl and tofu shared in the table.

“I’m going to Chinese restaurants when I’m still missing now.”

He would perform at the night and spent the colonial and roofs along the historical coast of Shanghai.

Stak made good money. “They pay good artists – means $ 1,000 for a 10-minute show.”

However, he also welcomes the external talent and invests the external talent, saying that he was adopted in China and at home.

Unlike many foreign artists singing in English to get to the Chinese market, there was an edge of the Stak – a African in Mandarin and there were performers like him. The ability to perform popular Chinese songs handed him over to the audience.

Comes home to anonymity

Then in 2019, the visa of the Stak ended. At the age of 27, he returned to a country in the middle of A. Destructive economic crisis.

Parents – an engineer of his father, a teacher of his mother – every teacher in the country, and people in the country fought more than 50 percent of hyperinflation, foreign exchange deficiency and unemployment.

The STAK found a job as a translator – and Zimbabwe’s music and social media views were quickly found in a quick time.

He says his fame and success came from China’s applications, mainly from the satisfaction. However, he is existed only in China in China, because Pekin limits its foreign digital platforms “Great Firewall“.

Without it, the STAK has no longer reached the Chinese audience.

When he left Shanghai, his career disappeared. “I feel like a part of me,” he said.

No one knew him in Zimbabwe. He began to record some of his music – and thought a transition to the gospel that is popular in the country – but fought to introduce their songs. He never heard of a local radio station to play his music.

The STAK believes that if the Chinese social media were accessible to global audiences, it would still be a developing music career.

“It would bring me international recognition,” he says.

So far, the translation works well. He is currently working for a Chinese mining company translating English or Shona. When it doesn’t work, he tries to write music, but the full working day takes less time to rediscover himself or find a spectator for China Pop.

Longing to the scene

Today is torn in the stand. He dreams of returning to China, and at the same time hope to rebuild the music career in Zimbabwe and raise the family and grow a family.

“I want to start combining here,” he says.

“But I miss China too,” he said.

Whether in Asia or Africa, it is itching to return to the stage. Says “I’m drawing attention.”

Five years after leaving the porcelain, the stand remains popular. A few months ago, the Chinese boss was a song that sang in Mandarin. “(He) placed me in Wechat’s status and people asked me about it. They were similar, ‘Where’s this guy?'”

The stand takes a moment and then “Chinese love me”.