Bicycles, breakdance and a pair of gloves: locals recall Kanye West’s year in China
- Article about the American rapper’s time in Nanjing as a 10-year-old gets people talking on social media
- Post based on book by musician’s mother, Donda West, who taught English at Nanjing University
Kanye West has probably forgotten how to speak Chinese now – but in Nanjing, they have not forgotten him.
The American rapper has been trending on Chinese social media since an article about his year living in the eastern city as a 10-year-old with his mother was posted on WeChat.
The article by Xiao Qiang Shu Shu, who writes about international music, includes anecdotes from locals reminiscing about seeing him cycling around the city and breakdancing, and has been read more than 10,000 times.
It is largely based on a book by the musician’s mother, Donda West, Raising Kanye: Life Lessons from the Mother of a Hip-Hop Superstar, published in 2007. In it, she recalled their year in China in 1987, when she taught English at Nanjing University. “Living in China was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that neither of us will ever forget,” she said in the book.
Many students from Nanjing University have being sharing the article online, gushing about it being a “pleasant surprise to know that Kanye West once walked on our campus”.
Liu Haiping was dean of the university’s foreign languages faculty when Donda West worked there. One of his students, Luo Zhi Qiu, commented on the post that Liu remembered Kanye West and his mother fondly.