The Grammar of an Ode to Stinky Tofu

I never imagined that collaborating with a musician to create a fun song for learning Chinese grammar would result in a love song to stinky tofu (臭豆腐), of all foods! But that is indeed what happened last week. Check out the result, from Chinese Buddy:

It’s a fun song, and there are two kids in my house (and even an adult or two) that can’t stop humming it. From a grammatical perspective, the use of the verb 要 with various objects is highlighted.

My input into the Chinese learning part of the song was:

• Include 要, 不要, and 要不要 as well as a variety of objects
• Try not to let the melody of the song “warp” the tones of the important words too much (especially “yào”)
• Keep the tones as clear as possible, including the tone change for 不要 (bù yào → bú yào)
• Include some “spoken” audio in the song

Yep, four checks! If you’re a beginner working on basic sentence patterns, I hope you find this song helpful. As for the stinky tofu… well, I’ll leave that up to your own judgment.

Do also check out Chinese Buddy on YouTube. There are a bunch of songs (mostly oriented at children), and the styles of the songs range quite a bit, so don’t judge the music on just one or two songs. Probably my second favorite song would the the Tones Song. (Yeah, I have a thing for tones, and also ukulele music, maybe?)