What is this?
AMERICAN EXPATRIATE: WHAT IS THIS?
What is American Expatriate?
American Expatriate is a multimedia project created by rapper/producer Sun Zoo that explores the experiences of an American Expat living in China. This blog, through text and video, chronicles Sun Zoo’s travels and experiences in China, as well as tracks his progress in creating the full-length hip-hop concept album that is to be the final product of this project.
The album American Expatriate will be a fictional account of the experiences of an expat living in China. It will explore a variety of issues from the personal to the political, and will be composed in its entirety–from writing to music–by Sun Zoo alone.
The blog and video entries are meant as supplemental offerings that will complement and enhance listeners’ understanding of the album but are in no means required for its enjoyment. Unlike the album, many blog entires will not be fictional, but rather biographical–Sun Zoo really is an English teacher living in China, and his experiences there will be recorded in this blog. There may also be some short fiction pieces posted as well; these will be noted as such.
As an aspiring (if untrained and unskilled) videographer, Sun Zoo will also attempt to capture expatriate life in China through the lens in a variety of ways, including short musical vignettes, interviews with Chinese citizens and Western expats alike about music, love, and life in the 5000-year-old Middle Kingdom.
Why this topic?
As a student of Chinese language, philosophy, and history, aspects of Sun Zoo’s academic life have always crept into his music (the very name itself was originally derived from the famous martial philosopher 孙子). After graduating from Brown University in the spring of 2008, Sun Zoo took a job teaching English in Harbin, China. Having always wanted to write a concept album anyway, this seemed the perfect opportunity to merge his passion for Chinese language and culture with his passion for creating original, creative hip-hop music. Sun Zoo is also an amateur writer and videographer, and so decided to introduce blogging and short video production to create a multimedia project that builds on itself until the eventual release of the album American Expatriate.
His hope is that this project will give fans, friends, and family reasons to keep coming back to this site as the album is being created. Those interested purely in the music are free to ignore it, but anyone wishing for a deeper immersion in the material should hopefully find some satisfaction here.
What else is Sun Zoo working on?
In addition to American Expatriate, Sun Zoo is working on the following music projects:
Untitled Solo Project - Coming TBA 2009: A full-length regular album that will be available for free on sun-zoo.com, ideally released around the same time as American Expatriate.
Untitled Project with Sarah Clark - Coming TBA: A full-length album with singer/songwriter Sarah Clark. Details on when it will be released, what label it will be released on, and how it will be available all TBA.
How can I find out more?
If you have any questions, from press inquiries to random ponderings, please address them directly to Sun Zoo at sunzoo@sun-zoo.com.
As Sun Zoo currently resides in China, we regret that Sun Zoo is not generally available for US bookings at this time. For inquiries of that nature, please contact Veggie Co Records representative Eric Jainchill. For booking inquiries in mainland China, please contact Sun Zoo directly.
Schattenarzt on 24 Sep 2008 at 6:53 am #
Damn!
I don’t quite know what to say or rather write. If you knew me, you would be shocked about such a bold statement, but I do mean it.
Let me fill you in on the situation: I’m a medical student from Germany,
currently engaged in the fun process of writing a scientific dissertation (that’s the German way of earning the academic title of MD/PhD).
About an hour ago, I was cleaning up my virtual desktop, which was mostly covered by scattered pieces of music. Basically a lot of tracks, mostly hiphop. Just as i was deleting them one by one (bullshit like Lil Wayne…), I stumbled across “morning after” by a certain Sun Zoo.
At first I was like “wtf!?”, but when the music kicked in, I was totally blown away. The flow was surprisingly fresh, and damn, did you nail those lyrics!! I was immediately reminded of my last months, in which I had a couple of experiences with some girls quite akin to the fictitious character in your song. All because I was trying to get over that one girl I actually loved; she left me after being physically separated from me for too long. As I could gather from your blog-entries, you are going through a similar phase right now.
Best of luck, man! Just know that most feelings eventually do pass, and at some point you are left with the good memories. The limbic system in our brain is not wired to exploit emotional scars; it rather tries to do a good cover-up job in the long run:-)
Judging by your complex, self-reflective and socially critical lyrics, I am sure you have heard of one of my favorite bands, Atmosphere. I actually met Slug (the emcee) at three different gigs in Germany! Anyway, you might wanna check out “love life”, “little man” and “wooden ships” by Atmosphere, these songs always help me to put things into perspective.
Speaking of perspectives: I am convinced that nothing shapes your character like traveling, and by that I don’t mean tourism. I am talking about not just seeing a different culture, but actually diving into it, talking to and not just chatting with people from around the globe, trying to understand their point of view while constantly expanding and adjusting your own.
With that in mind, you can probably see why I am so impressed by this site: Good music/rap is one thing, but you take it to a whole new level with your diverse blog topics. I am 25 and have seen half the world–in the next 5 years, it is time to see the other half.
I also did make it to China two years ago (time, just like hope, flies…), so it was very cool to see your clips on youtube, taking a trip down memory lane. Be sure to take the 3h bus ride to The Wall the next time you are in Beijing. Walking that conglomerate of cultural milestones is indescribably satisfying, especially with a soothing tune in your ear, preferably something without lyrics, like some Bach or Chopin or whatever it is you like to listen to when being contemplative!
I wish I had more time to write. Literally literary, so to speak. Because even though I am on my way to becoming a doctor, I still haven’t given up on my dream of one day writing my own book. If I could choose what I wanna do in life, completely independent of my surroundings and financial situation, I would live life like the famous Brazilian author Paolo Coelho–traveling around the world, writing about the seemingly insignificant little anecdotes of daily life on our beloved planet earth. The amount of things that people in general, no matter what their background is, share in common is so much greater than what we differ in. From my experience the awareness of this very simple basic fact is raised by every interpersonal/intercultural/international encounter that we (as in: humans) are lucky enough to experience.
And with these words I’m outta here. Back to academic business. Your site did make my day, though! Thanks for all the inspiration, keep updating sun-zoo.com, I’ll be checking it out regularly from now on. Submerging yourself in different cultural settings, assimilating certain aspects while still being you and, to top it all off, reflecting about everything with well-chosen words, both orally and written–you, Sir, are most definitely living the dream! And as we both know, it’s not an American (anymore), but a global one. And also, in a way or two, mine.
Greetings from an equal thinker,
Klemens de Alemania
PS: Get back at me if you’re looking for a new part-time roomie, I happen to have a few months off and Asia is pretty high on my priority list of places to go/revisit. For real!