See China

Casual Notes on West China Music

(5 Parts)

by Zou Lan (邹蓝)

Yangguan Sandie, Bidding Farewell to A Friend (MP3) 

In Europe and America, the classification of music is funny, UK, US, Germany, France and Nordic countries are classified by distinctive nations whereas others, even Greece in Europe, is labeled as world music as a whole, which covers a wide geographic span from Cape Horn to South Pacific Islands. Therefore China is listed under the World Category.

Though without the maestros like Mozart, Verdi, Grieg, Gershwin or Khachaturian, Chinese music in itself is a big world and in fact, West China is in fact no less than a world, with so varied resources. Yangguan Sandie （阳关三叠，bidding farewell to a departing friend）as an ancient musical composition, is based on 8^th century poems by Wang Wei (王维, 701-761). One of the three is “渭城朝雨挹轻尘” （Early Dawn Drizzles Clean Morning Air at Weicheng）as an ancient song is best known and still enjoying wide popularity among the Chinese audience today.

I am an economist having worked for Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and State Commission for the Reforming of the Economic Systems (SCRES) and CITIC for almost two decades since 1981.

As an economic researcher, my focus is on two aspects: China’s international economic relations and regional development and West China poverty issues. On the first aspect, I co-authored a 26 page paper on EC-China economic and trade relations on the Journal of Common Market Studies, by Basil Blackwell Press. And on the second I am author to a book in Chinese language《巨人的跛足－中国西部贫困地区发展研究》（The Lame Leg of the Giant: Studies on West China Poverty）and have been working on West China poverty issues for more than two decades with many field visits in West China.

I traveled extensively in China and especially in West China. There were professional field visits, and there were also private travels and vacations which brought me to Qinghai, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan etc. The side effects of these travels in West China are my passion for West China music, or mostly the very original music of the ethnic minorities in China.

Of the various genres of Chinese music, I like so many, from classical to rock, from Amadeus Mozart to George Gershwin, from Guiseppe Verdi to Bruce Sprinsteen, and from Vladmir Ashkenazy to Wynton Marsalis, from Peer Gynt to Peter Tchaikovsky. I even have collected a lot of Andean Folklore and Inti Illimani of Chile and Mercedes Sosa of Argentina.

Of all the music in China, I do not appreciate pop, most of which are only inferior imitation of the same of HK and Taiwan, without any originality and passion, but hallow and fake emotions.

Music tradition in China is not so strong as silk, china or calligraphy and painting today. But it was very influential in ancient times and the ancient classic 《诗经》（Shijing）is a typical illustration of the music in life then. People sang for any emotions, love, joy, sorrow, and for anything you name it.

However the music tradition faded with the history unfolded in Coastal China, which is mainly inhabited by the majority Hans. But in sharp contrast, in West China the tradition remains with the ethnic minorities and also with the Hans in immediate neighborhood with the ethnic minorities like in Shanxi and Shaanxi which were frontier with the invading nomadic tribes in the past. The folksongs in both of them are similar or even the same though each side claims that it is their own folksongs, as in the case of the popular“Wuge Goes Shepherding(五哥放羊)”(MP3)。Or is it that the ethnic minorities’ distinctive cultural features influenced the neighboring Hans in customs and music? That is true for the case in northern Shaanxi and Shanxi, and also in Midu County, West Yunnan.

Wuge Goese Shepherding, stylized cover design for 80s LP record.

Mine is not serious music criticism, but only casual notes. So goes my stories and notes.

My first cassette worthy of mention is the Folksongs of Shanxi, which I brought to UK together with another cassette of Central Orchestra Choir’s “海韵（Rhythm of the Sea）”which contained a song from Yangguan Sandie mentioned before by Tang Poet Wang Wei I like very much. When I went to West Midlands for academic visit for a year in October 1985, I thought to have some Chinese music with me or it could be very boring without the comfort of the favorite Chinese music overseas. I did not worry about classical or other music because there were plentiful of them in UK and other European and American cities. And I never imagined that the Public Libraries of Birmingham’s music section also lent out music products upon paid registration. So I later registered with a small fee and enjoyed and also tried to taste so many kinds of music including native music in many parts of the world, during my stay in Birmingham.