A cunning linguist with rhyming abilities to match, Matthew Bloomfield's alter ego employs both putting across bespoke messages in a digestible and uncannily entertaining format.

 

Matthew Bloomfield, aka The Rapping Professor, touts himself as a language instructor, corporate trainer, singer-songwriter-rapper, voice talent, and creative copywriter/exporter.

 

Accusations of spreading himself thin are valid, but when push comes to shove, Bloomfield says first and foremost he's a singer-songwriter-rapper.

 

The professor half of his moniker springs in part from being the first non-Chinese to pass the United Nations' Language Proficiency Test in Mandarin in 1991. He hosts a party on Friday launching his considerable talents and services at Talkdetalk Clubhouse.

 

The Rapping Professor is now officially ready, willing and able to perform at events big and small, weddings, christenings, bar mitzvahs, private or corporate happenings. The entire event, "The Unwrapping of the Rapping Professor," will be Webcast on Live Talkbox featuring Bloomfield in both rapper and professor guise with a group of hip-hop dancers.

 

It was in Cincinnati, Ohio, the United States, where the Canadian-born Bloomfield grew up that he acquired his "blackness."

 

"I was just crazy about Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel & the Furious Five and their track 'White Lines.' I played and sang it all the time," he says before launching into an entirely convincing rendition.

 

His rapping skills burgeoned but a US government fellowship at Cornell University intervened and he set about acquiring his now fluent Mandarin.

 

"I was given the option of studying Japanese, Indonesian or Chinese and I'm very glad I chose Chinese. I figured the world didn't need another Westerner who could speak Japanese and as it's transpired it did need a Western Mandarin speaker," says the Rapping Professor who has an air of perpetual amusement that is weirdly, almost annoyingly, infectious.

 

"I was lucky, I was being taught six hours a day by some of the best teachers in the US and there were just two other students in my class," he says.

 

His Mandarin was further honed by a year in Beijing circa 1988-89. While studying at Peking University, Bloomfield shared a room with a certain Canadian named Mark Rowswell, now more famous as Da Shan. Watching his former roommate become the most recognized foreigner in China hasn't, Bloomfield insists, had any affect on him at all.

 

"After two little jobs on Chinese TV, his star took off and he was suddenly hugely famous," says Bloomfield, only the very faintest trace of bitterness creeps into his Samuel Jackson-esque voice.

 

Bloomfield returned to the US to work in the UN headquarters in New York. "I edited documents, my job itself wasn't that exciting but it was just amazing being part of the process and seeing everything going on around me."

 

Still working with the UN, Bloomfield traveled to Cambodia where he assisted with the 1992 UNTAC elections. Back in the States and with another fellowship, Bloomfield tuned his linguistic skills in to Indonesian which led to work on Sulawesi but the lure of nearby China proved too hard to resist.

 

A spell teaching at Macao University and the professor with a penchant for rap pitched up here in Shanghai. For what he's been doing here in Shanghai, see the list at the start of this article.

 

On the subject of the city that has been his home for the past two years, the clown with roguish elements and clearly a fully functioning, if unusual, brain defaults to rap setting:

 

When asked 'How about Shanghai?' I first give a pause

 

It defies simple description; it's not The Land of Oz

 

One thing that I've noticed during these past few years:

 

It seems that people in the know are all gathering here!

 

The business climate's vibrant, it's clear for all to see

 

Big companies from round the world have come to zuo shengyi (do business)

 

Affluent Chinese used to fly down to Hong Kong

 

Now great shopping is in Xujiahui, rich lifestyle in Minhang

 

To catch the world's hot spot, why run to London or Dubai?

 

The land of opportunity is right here in Shanghai!

 

For the latest news that's going down,

 

Shanghai Daily's the best rag in town

 

Ok, ok, that last bit was me - DW.

 

(Shanghai Daily December 12, 2006)