The picture on the left is Yang Chen Gang. He’s the one who wrote the song, “Lao Shu Ai Da Mi”, 5 years ago, in 2000. That was everyone believe at the moment. However, the song is now featured on this Wuhan singer’s album.

The story behind, it is said that the song remained unknown until a ‘friend‘ of Gang’s put a recording of it on the internet in November 2004. There is no information as to who made this recording and what date it was recorded. A report in Phenomena/Beijing Today (April 15th, 2005) said that by November 5th, 2004, a Chinese search engine was receiving over 200.000 clicks each day for the song. This massive attention earned 26 year old Gang the disparaging nickname of ‘the internet singer‘. However, the success of the song eventually lead him to an official recording contract (on November 25th, 2004) with Guangzhou based ‘Fei Le Records‘ for 5,000,000 yuan. Astonishingly, the Phenomena article quoted above, goes on to state:

“At the same time, Yang Cheng is fighting for the copyright of Mice Love Rice with three previous owners of the song. Actually, Yang had sold the song to them but had since wanted it back. In the end, Fei Le Records paid 400,000 yuan to the last permanent owner to make its ownership legal”.

Now here goes the controversy. Two version of “Lao Shu Ai Da Mi”, that scattered around the internet, both were credited as being Yang Chen Gang’s, reveal a voice that does not sound like him at all. At least not the Gang on the official Gang album! But that’s not enough. The version that available on most Chinesse CD shops doesn’t sound like him either. So, how can he changed his voice in just a few months since the first version was recorded?

The Moustro, from Mouse-Loves-Rice.com, has made his own deep research about this.

Both the internet MP3s run for exactly 4:35secs. The first and most preferable out of these has a rather ’rounded flow’ and is a 4.27meg file size. This one is now very hard to find and sounds as if it has been badly compressed and decompressed, MP3 style! The other version (at 4.20meg) although very similar, has more of a ’springy chorus’ and ‘rhythmic’ sound. This version is still widely available. However, – as previously outlined – the version featured on Gang’s album sounds like a totally different singer and what is more, sounds whiney and lacks quality instrumentation. This runs for 4:58secs.

Then there is an unauthorized remixed Disco version featuring Gang’s voice (it’s typical techno type stuff and rips the heart right out of the song) and a duet version with Xiang Xiang (who will be mentioned more in a moment). Again, the Gang voice on these two versions, matches the voice on the official album release. But, again, this does not sound like the voice heard on the vast majority of internet downloads, which are by far the most popular versions.

Regardless, this song has been very popular, and many singers has sung “Lao Shu Ai Da Mi”, each with their own version. One of the most popular version came from Xiang-Xiang (picture on the right). She has two version of it, the English version, titled “The Mouse Loves The Rice”, and the Mandarin version. From Hongkong, there were Wang Qi Wang, Liu De Hua, and Twins (who recorded 2 versions, the Mandarin and Cantonese version).

It is said that there are at least 16 different versions of “Lao Shu Ai Da Mi”! Not quite surprising, since I have Guo Mei Mei – Lao Shu Ai Da Mi album which has 8 (yes, EIGHT) different version of this song, including accoustic version, ballad version, and club dance extended mix version.

Before I end up this post, there’s another “mystery” left. The English translation of “Da Mi” is “Big Rice“, not just “Rice“. So why everyone who sing the English version never use the title “Mouse Loves Big Rice“, instead, they use “Mouse Loves Rice” title. Well, only time can answer it :p

[ Download MP3 (Xiang-Xiang version) ] [ Source ]