A CHINESE national who is studying Irish music has gone viral for a unique performance of a well-known Irish song.
Jaylin Chu, a musician from eastern China, moved to Ireland last year to study traditional Irish music in the University of Limerick.
The talented student has now garnered widespread praise after being featured by music-focused social media channel Dust-to-Digital, which showcases musicians from around the world.
On Sunday, the page shared a clip of Jaylin performing Irish reel 'The Bucks of Oranmore' on a Hulisi, a traditional Chinese instrument similar to the tin whistle, and the unique performance quickly went viral.
Jaylin Chu is a musician from eastern China. In 2019, he moved to Limerick, Ireland to study Irish music. Here he is earlier this month performing “Bucks of Oranmore” on the Chinese instrument, the Hulusi. pic.twitter.com/Ci6bWgQ6JX
— Dust-to-Digital (@dusttodigital) January 31, 2021
Praise for the music student came flooding in from people across Ireland and beyond, with many thanking Jaylin for giving them a "lift" with the energetic reel at a time when seemingly constant bad news is dampening people's spirits.
According to Dust-to-Digital, Jaylin described the Hulusi instrument as belonging to "a minority ethnic 'Dai' ... in Yunnan province".
Usually it is used to perform traditional Chinese music, Jaylin said, but the student "played it in an Irish way" to combine the two traditions.
The "wildly talented" student took to Twitter to thank everyone for their kind words, and said while he usually uses a Chinese website, Bilibili, to host videos of his performances, he will begin posting more clips on Youtube.
With the short clip currently standing at over 15,000 likes and 3,000 retweets, it seems like Jaylin's music career is just beginning to take off, and we doubt it's the last we'll hear of him.
You can find more of Jaylin Chu's music reels on his Youtube page here.
