Students and alumni of New York University Shanghai have formed a virtual choir to pay tribute to the people of Wuhan and communities affected by the coronavirus outbreak. It is also a message of unity for all students of the university now spread across the world due to the epidemic.
Students recorded themselves singing the song “We Are Not Strangers” from wherever they were located, from outside the NYU Shanghai campus to a dorm room in New York to a living room in Singapore.
David Pe, dean of students, and Meizhi Ng, of the class of 2017, then worked with an editor to splice the video and voices together to form a virtual choir. Shane Shen, of Ebay Productions in Shanghai, volunteered his time to assemble the video.
“We Are Not Strangers” is the theme song of the Reality Show, a musical show performed every fall on NYU’s three campuses to help first year students navigate the various challenges of university life. The cast consists of sophomores who have spent the summer after freshman year writing and rehearsing the show.
“We see the same moon, feel the same sun, and when we wake up we’ll recognize we are not strangers,” the cast sing at the end of every show.
NYU Shanghai alumni were enthusiastic about reuniting virtually to record the song.
“When word of the outbreak first spread, it was incredibly isolating to find the world reacting with fear before compassion for the people of Wuhan and of China,” said Roxanne Roman of the class of 2017, who recorded her video in Washington, D.C.
“Coming together in ‘We Are Not Strangers’ with all the generations of the Reality Show casts was an emotional reminder of how important it is to face such hardships with grace and love,” she said.
Students said they drew strength and inspiration from singing and reacquainting themselves with the lyrics of the song.
“This disaster is another tough test of our humanity, it also reminds us again of the importance of love and care, to converse and listen, to respect and reflect, and most importantly right now, not to lose faith and carry on,” said Casillas Sun, also of the class of 2017, who sent in his recording from Atlanta, Georgia.
“I wish people can really get a message of hope and care in this new version of ‘We Are Not Strangers,’” said Miki Bin, of the class of 2019, who sent her contribution from Seattle. “Despite the distance, we are all human. Empathy isolates the political identities we have and reconnects us as human beings.”
Tian Tian Wedgewood Young, of the class of 2020, sang standing under the NYU Shanghai logo on Century Avenue in the Pudong New Area.
“Being back here in Shanghai during the coronavirus has been quite lonely. Despite the fact that millions of people are going through this at the same time, it’s been difficult to come together, for obvious reasons,” Young said. “But being able to sit outside our campus building and sing this song gave me a huge sense of relief.”
Singing from across the world...some of the students and alumni in the virtual choir.
“NYU Shanghai was created to bring students together across national borders to build intellectual and cultural bridges,” said Jeffrey Lehman, the vice chancellor. “The virtual choir of our students and graduates who came together to sing this well-known NYU song beautifully expresses our spirit. We may have come to Shanghai from all across the globe, but now we stand united, working together to overcome the challenges we are all facing, demonstrating that ‘We Are Not Strangers.’”
Lehman was in the US on a business trip, but flew back to Shanghai after he heard about the outbreak.
Some friends had tried to persuade him to stay there. But he said: “Over the course of the past eight years, Shanghai has become my home.”
He told Shanghai Daily: “At the end of January and beginning of February, with our campus closed, our school had to invent ways for our students to experience true active learning education from home, something very different from a passive ‘MOOC’ or ‘webinar.’ The city of Shanghai is the beating heart of our university. I needed to be here with my colleagues at this critical time.”
Now, signing on across oceans and time zones, more than 1,000 NYU Shanghai students and faculty have completed more than two weeks of distance learning smoothly. Using state-of-the-art technology, students and faculty engaged each other in virtual lectures, discussions, and even dance classes from as far away as Brazil, India and the US, and as close by as the Jinqiao Residence Halls in Shanghai.
The NYU Shanghai community launched a fundraising campaign to support relief efforts in Wuhan and Hubei province. So far, they have raised more than US$56,000, about 113 percent of the goal. One NYU Shanghai alumnus donated more than US$53,000 in medical supplies.
