Photo: Supplied / Levi Patel
Levi Patel is no longer dating a woman from Liuzhou, but he remains a regular visitor to the city.
The usually Auckland-based composer fell in love, and as is often the case with lovers, followed the object of his affection to their home town.
The love faded, but Patel is still in love with the city.
In fact, he was in the Southwestern Chinese metropolis when he spoke with RNZ Concert's Bryan Crump, about his recent musical adventures and his new album - his first as a singer-songwriter.
Liuzhou: provincial, in a Chinese sort of way. Photo: EditQ
Patel embraced the local culture and the language during his first visit to the city of three million - relatively small by Chinese standards - which sits in the heart of the scenic South China Karst region, dominated by spectacular limestone mountains.
And the feeling was mutual. When Patel posted a video of a trip be made in the region, mixed with one of his new songs, it garnered hundreds of thousands of hits on Chinese social media.
Even the end of his relationship didn't put Patel off returning to Liuzhou, where second time around he's found himself invited onto regional television to perform his music with local folk singers, in a broadcast which ended up going nationwide.
Which leads to the possibility Patel is one of the most recognisable New Zealand musicians in the world right now.
Patel composes mostly with guitar and piano, and film music has been one of his fortes up to now.
As has been the case with a lot of his music, the singer-songwriter project grew organically out of his own life situation. He needed to write to express his sadness, and then he began to wonder if he could turn that writing into song.
This despite not really liking his voice when he was younger.
Evidence suggests his voice is doing just fine these days.
