Why Is an Old German Song Trending in China?

"What does 'Aloha' mean?" When one of my Chinese friends asked me this back in December – COVID-19 travel restrictions notwithstanding – I assumed he was planning a Christmas getaway to Hawaii. However, his next question left me more skeptical of his real intentions: "And Heja He?"

Much to my surprise, it turned out that at the time, "Aloha Heja He," a popular 90s song by German songwriter Achim Reichel, had become a viral sensation in China.

As it happens, a CCTV reporter produced a video last December about Zhang Tongxue, a Douyin personality who garnered an astonishing 16 million followers after joining the platform just two months earlier, in October. Intrigued by his overnight fame, the reporter visited Zhang in Liaoning province where he creates videos about rural life in Northern China. Incidentally, the German song can be heard playing in the background of that CCTV video.

While an early blog comment described it unfavorably as "brainwashed Russian BGM," Chinese netizens and other influencers quickly took a liking to the song and began using it in their own videos. For a few weeks, "Aloha Heja He" even rose to the number one spot on China’s Shazam charts, followed by two cover versions which made it into the Top 100 list.

When asked to comment on the song's sudden rise to fame, the now 77-year-old Reichel said "I am happy that I am not 30 anymore, otherwise I would be over the moon right now." 

Chris James, on the other hand, has not yet reached his 30s but saw his music gain similar traction in China. The 26-year-old German-American singer – largely unknown in both countries – landed a surprising hit in China after uploading his song "Not Angry" to YouTube last fall. Shortly after its release, the song found its way to Douyin, bringing James overnight fame in a country he's never visited.

Why? It remains a "mystery only known to the algorithms" as one news outlet described the phenomenon.

Such is the outsized influence, albeit wholly unpredictable, that social media can have on music nowadays both in China and abroad. For instance, in late 2020 the iconic classic rock band Fleetwood Mac's 1977 hit "Dreams" was given a second life when it was played in the background of a viral video on TikTok, Douyin's Western cousin. 

And a year before "Aloha Heja He" found success in China, a Chinese song found its own inexplicable overseas success when, some 40 years after its initial release, Fei Yuqing's "Yijianmei" (One Plum Blossom) was used in a video on TikTok and saw a subsequent surge in popularity across Western countries like Norway, New Zealand (#1 on Spotify), and Sweden (#2 on Spotify).

It's worth noting that for most of the foreigners who passionately sing the chorus of "Yijianmei" with little to no understanding of its meaning, so to will the words "Aloha Heja He" remain nothing more than mysterious German gibberish to Chinese audiences.

Nevertheless, it's a testament to the fact that music and melody are more powerful than words when drawing people to a song. In fact, Reichel's tune is about sailors, traveling, and essentially how "the world is getting smaller under globalization." Could its resurgence thus be nothing more than a subconscious longing for a world that has finally overcome COVID-19?

In Reichel's case, it might be better not to focus on the lyrics anyway, as the singer once commented: "Had I known it would become such a hit, I would probably not have mentioned gonorrhea in it." While some German radio listeners reportedly complain about this not-so-pleasant reference today, no such complaints have been filed in China thus far.

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Images: bilibili.com, ostsee-zeitung.de, bandcamp.com, polish.cri.cn, scenesmedia.com