Has China found its own Gangnam Style? From Beijing parks to Shanghai skyscrapers and in Guangzhou factories to karaoke rooms in Macau, people are singing Xiao Ping Guo (My Little Apple) – a song apparently so catchy, it has also won over the army and police.
Calling themselves the Chopstick Brothers, Xiao Yang and Wang Taili are neither brothers nor composers, but are responsible for a hit that has become a nationwide phenomenon.
Xiao Ping Guo was originally intended to promote their latest film when it was released in July, but has proven to be an earworm – the kind of song so insistent it gets stuck in the brain.
“This song is easy to follow, the pace is basic and repetitive. Even little old ladies in public gardens are learning it quickly,” said Zeng Qiumei, a marketing manager from Sichuan province.
The accompanying music video has notched up more than 60 million views on popular Chinese video websites such as Sohu, iQiyi and Youku.
The lyrics are largely nonsense, with the chorus running “You’re my little apple, you’re my little apple”.
Even so, and perhaps aided by relaxed attitudes towards intellectual property in China, the tune has become ubiquitous – whether playing on smartphone ringtones to shopping malls, nightclubs and gyms.
The People’s Liberation Army in the city of Xian has used the song in a recruitment video, while police in Shandong last month modified the lyrics for a broadcast warning about phone-banking scams.
And a clip showing soldiers dancing to Xiao Ping Guo with child survivors of an August earthquake that killed 600 people in the south-west became an online sensation.
There are countless other amateur videos of groups of people dancing to the song, including air stewardesses, cheerleaders, firefighters and students.
One parody brings together world leaders like North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the secretary general of the UN Ban Ki-moon.
The song’s success has also put a spotlight on Da Ma – the old ladies who gather every morning and evening to dance in city squares across China.
Despite its nationwide appeal, there are few expectations that My Little Apple will become the kind of global phenomenon that was Gangnam Style, the stratospheric 2012 hit by South Korea's Psy that has been viewed on YouTube more than 2.1 billion times.
In contrast the Chopstick Brothers’ video has only clocked up three million hits on the site, which is blocked in China by the country’s vast network of internet controls. Chinese pop music has remained within its borders – unlike K-pop. And for all its mass appeal, it seems that Xiao Pin Guo still has a long way to go before it wins the hearts and minds of the state.
