"Little Apple" is a single by Chopstick Brothers, a duo of Wang Taili and Xiao Yang, released as a promotional song for the movie . Since its release, it has quickly attained great popularity in Chinese cyberspace, making it a widespread internet meme and a global hit, with parodies, flash mobs and covers from around the world.
Lyrics
The music and lyrics are written as two stanzas of ten verses each, with each stanza followed by an 8-verse refrain which repeats. The simple and intentionally sentimental lyrics for the first stanza translates as:
I planted a seed that finally bore fruit/ Today is a great day I give the stars to you, I give the moon to you/ Raise the sun everyday for you I'll turn into a candle and let myself burn/ Just to shine a light on you I'll give everything I have to you/ As long as you're happy You give me new meaning everyday/ Though life is short, I'll love you forever, never abandoning you.
The refrain which repeats after each of the two stanzas is translated as:
You are my little apple/ I can never love you too much Your red face warms my heart/ Lighting the fire, fire, fire, fire, fire in my life You are my little apple/ Like the most beautiful cloud in the sky Spring arrives again, and flowers bloom all over the mountainside/ I reap the hopes that I sowed.
Music video
The of the song on Youku shows scenes of a square dance, interwoven with several short stories about love and romance resultant of a male partner's disapproval of his girlfriend's appearance, resulting in a failed attempt at plastic surgery. It contains elements from 1950s Korea and the legends of Adam and Eve and uses Chinglish in an expressive manner to portray the underlying tension of appearance. The square dance in the music video has also gained popularity in the public. Bae Seul-ki also starred in the video. A video of the Korean-language cover of "Little Apple" by K-popgirl groupT-ara, featuring Chopstick Brothers, .
Reception
The song became famous shortly after its release on 29 May 2014. Since release, its music video has been adapted into various parodies by the public. However, some critics have criticized the song for its low artistic value.
Chart performance
This song has also attained high positions in main online charts in China. It peaked at number one in the CCTV Global Chinese Music Chart released every Saturday. This song, referred to by one commentator as a "brainwashing song", also brings up the psychological factors that contribute to its success—its simple rhythm and lyrics cause the "earworm effect", forcing people to listen to it over and over again, and another reason that lied underneath is the "snowball effect", which means that people tend to follow others in a trend, suggesting that some people may not actually like the song, but just blindly following others.
Covers
Army recruitment video
China's Ministry of National Defense released a video with the song on 27 July 2014, as a part of their recruitment campaign for the Army. The video features footage of soldiers dancing the square dance in the original music video, plus some scenes from the Army's training sessions and some words of encouragement.
T-ara version
South Korean girl band T-ara released a Korean/Chinese cover of "Little Apple", featuring Chopstick Brothers, on 24 November 2014. The song was produced by Shinsadong Tiger and was released as a digital single by MBK Entertainment and distributed by KT Music. Chopstick Brothers were also featured in T-ara's music video. This is the first time that a K-pop artist has released a cover version of a C-pop song.
Other versions
Strawberry, May Ng and Stella Chen of RED People, otherwise known as Amoi-Amoi, released a cover version of the song, including various Malaysian fruits. The video includes scenes of Chopstick Brothers' original music video as well as T-ara's music video. Norwegian Power Metal artist PelleK uploaded a cover of this song on his YouTube channel Pellekofficial on January 14, 2015 in a metal style and has been both complimented and criticized for his pronunciation of Chinese words.
Awards
American Music Awards of 2014: International Song Award
When "Little Apple" won the International Song Award at the November 2014 AMA's, the Chopstick Brothers along with 2 others actually gave a live lip-synched performance of it. However, American viewers didn't see it because it was done during a commercial break.
In video games
In 2015, Ubisoft from China have manufactured the music video game named 舞力全开2015, which the song appeared in video games has officially landed on Xbox One at the national profession version. The national profession version have added 5 Chinese songs for players in mainland China are: Little Apple by Chopstick Brothers, Dancing Diva by Jolin Tsai, We Under The Sunshine by Wanting Qu, High Light High Life by Eason Chan, and Let It Go by Hu Wei Na. The national profession version have also released for the PlayStation 4, however, the video games manufactory have removed away 1 song track.
