Well, I'm the wrong side of 70!

The "Chinese Ears" is clearly aimed at the fact that Chinese poster Jason will have been exposed to huge amount of Chinese music which might make him more open to the Jimmy Newman "awkward" ( to my ears) chord/melody connection.

As to legacy! The Zoo song is surely the one song that has the best longevity prospect of all of Tom's compositions.

It's nowhere near Tom's best song ( in my opinion, ) and it's not the most loved but it will endure because of its subject matter/ target audience,