If, like me, you are late to the video gamer’s dream Chinese drama The King’s Avatar, along with the cute guys, the phenomenal CGI-created gaming scenes, the backstabbing, the camaraderie and the tear-wrenching drama, you will know the series also features some pretty addicting songs.
Songs like the pretty one played on The King’s Avatar, Episode 1 after Ye Qui (beautifully played by Yang Yang) logs into Glory as a new character, and heads to where his late friend Su Mu Qiu had left his most powerful weapon.
As Ye Qui walks into the empty roundhouse, over to the chest holding the Thousand Machine Umbrella, and opens it up to reveal the weapon, the first melancholy notes of the song begin to play.
‘Above The Peak‘ by Mao Bu Yi
That song on The King’s Avatar, Episode 1 is called ‘Above The Peak‘ by Mao Bu Yi, and is a song that features some of the most poignant lyrics of any of the Chinese drama’s songs:
You are always
Moving from adversity to glory
I am as always
Writing an end for the storyI am ordinary, but more than ordinary
I am at the peak looking for another peak
We will meet again when the day comes
We are stronger than we used to be
Lyrics that not only illustrate the pain Ye Qui feels when he thinks about his best friend who died, but also hopeful lyrics that illustrate his feelings about his capabilities and about the power and limitlessness of the video game Glory itself.
Who is Mao Bu Yi
Mao Bu Yi is currently one of the most popular male pop singers in China.
He is a 30-year-old self-taught singer who came to prominence in the country when he entered and won the popular national singing competition The Coming One (明日之子) in 2017.
Since then, he has released four studio albums all of which have been spectacularly successful, and recorded several hit theme songs for Chinese dramas, video games and movies.
He also composes and writes the lyrics for most of his songs himself, and has won awards for both his singing and his songwriting.
Mao Bu Yi is also one of the most unassuming people, as he not only thinks of himself as just an ordinary person, but he prefers a life that is both simple and authentic.
Meanwhile, his Spotify channel alone has almost 650,000 monthly listeners — amazing for a Chinese singer, as Spotify is blocked in China, so Chinese artists don’t tend to promote their channels.
You can hear ‘Above the Peak‘ by Mao Bu Yi from The King’s Avatar, Episode 1 on both the Spotify player, and in the video released on the WeTV YouTube channel featuring scenes from the drama.
All 40 episodes of The King’s Avatar (aka 全职高手 in Chinese) are now streaming on WeTV (aka Tencent Video) for that platform’s VIP subscribers.