See China » Music

When modernity meets tradition

Emma Xu — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:08:54 +0000

(picture from online sources)

We have seen various mixtures of different artistic forms and styles, so I guess it is not hard to imagine collaboration between modern orchestra and traditional folk instruments. On January 10, the Concert of Symphonic Music of SHCM was held in Beijing Music Hall, following their performance in Shanghai Music Hall on January 5. The performance was given by an ensemble of prestigious artists and talented students from Shanghai Conservatory of Music accompanied by Shanghai Opera House Orchestra.

The concert is entitled He Yi Zhuang Cheng (和毅庄诚) in Chinese, which is also the motto of Shanghai Conservatory of Music. The four characters mean harmony, perseverance, solemnity and sincerity respectively in Chinese. The concert was considered as a witness to Chinese musicians’ 15-year exploration in symphony composition. The performance was composed of works by musicians all from the conservatory, one of the best in China. The 7 compositions represented the composers’ pursuit of the interfusion of national culture and symphonic concepts from different perspectives and with various techniques. Some said it was a postmodernist concert.

The works performed included Long Song for Desert (漠壁长歌) by Zhang Xuru (张旭儒), Traces IV (痕迹之四) by Wen Deqing (温德清), Yun (韵) by Xu Shuya (许舒亚), Late Autumn (晚秋) by Ye Guohui (叶国辉), Sound from Ancient Times (元籁) by Xu Mengdong (徐孟东), Da Jia Ye (打家业) by Zhou Xianglin (周湘林) and Chanting and Allegro (《引子、吟腔与快板) by Yang Liqing (杨立青). All of the works have had different kinds of collaboration between modern symphony and traditional music forms. In Long Song for Desert, traditional Mongolian singing art is involved where a young man with a low tone imitates the wind roaring and the camels mourning. The vivid imitation of natural sounds produces lasting effects in the audience. Other traditional instruments included suo-na, erhu and da liuzi from Chinese minority ethnic group Tujia.

The concert was conducted by Zhang Guoyong (张国勇), who is a well-educated and experienced professor from SHCM. His artistic style is both passionate and profound. While conducting the orchestra and individual performers, Zhang also took the responsibility of introducing the works performed and interacting with the audience. Probably not so satisfied with the lukewarm response from the audience after the first piece, Zhao stopped and turned to audience, starting an almost five-minute-long talk. He started with Chinese symphonic music that according to him was in a primary stage and just beginning to develop. Original creation needs support as well as audience. In terms of traditional and modern music, he said that it was impossible that a master of modern music had no idea about traditions, which were the basics one should be command of. Then he went on to tell the audience one anecdote he once had when he was listening to a concert in Beijing to joke about how warm he thought Beijing audience are. After that he begun to expound on how difficult he thought it was for composers to create their works and how complicated the works were by showing the audience how long his music score was.

Zhang Guoyong (picture from online sources)

Before the composition Late Autumn started, Zhang Guoyong took this piece as an example to approach the topic of comprehension of a composition. Late Autumn by Ye Guohui is a piece to highlight the composer’s perception of human and nature which is based on the season, as well as composed in the impressionistic style with simple and concentrated music words. According to the conductor, music is the most abstract artistic form, not as comprehensible as drama or even body gestures. There should be worries about how to understand what the music is about; just enjoy is enough.

Among all the instrumentalists and vocalists, two young faces stood out among a group of senior artists who already enjoyed worldwide recognition. There were two Mongolian artists Na Ren (娜仁) and Haimu Ritai (海木日台). One of the two vocalists performing in Yun Li Xiuying (李秀英), who played Cio-cio San in Madama Butterfly, was “a really striking performer”, according to New York Times, and “offered big, clear singing with dramatic nuance as the Brescia Butterfly”. Chen Xiaolong (陈小龙) and Ying Yiting (应怡婷) were both current students at Shanghai Conservatory of Music. At an early age, the two have already won several international awards and various titles. Both of them performed in collaboration with the orchestra with instruments they specialized in. Chen Xiaolong is an outstanding young celloist and Yiting played erhu exquisitely that surprised the audience. An excellent student at SHCM, she plays the two-stringed Chinese fiddle with power and emotion. Watching her playing, one may wonder at how powerful her muscle is.

The 1,200 seats in Beijing Music Hall were not fully occupied at a time when Chinese Spring Festival was approaching and all the theatres were tightly scheduled. But the performance was warmly received and enthusiastic applause broke out from time to time. The performance was sponsored by China Symphony Development Foundation and Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

Qiao Xiaodao: a good life is not necessarily expensive

Emma Xu — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:46:42 +0000

On his Sina weibo account, Qiao Xiaodao (乔小刀) introduces himself simply as “a very amiable person”, but there is far more than that when it comes to his life experiences. His stories can make a good read. A welder when he first came to Beijing, he started his pursuit of dream in a dark basement, like most of the other drifters in Beijing. Starting from there, he has staged an installation exhibition with the waste materials he had collected, become an art editor, started his own design company, formed a band and released a well-received album etc. What a colorful resume! He has made fortunes as well as suffered from bankruptcy that brought him back to the basement.

Not only a dream seeker, Qiao is to most people a dream maker. He loves music, so he formed a band with his niece and released an album. He is interested in creative designs and products so he held individual exhibitions. He is devoted to helping others so he initiated the program “Weibo Zhi Yan” (微薄之盐, A Pinch of Salt) to support independent young musicians. Many found his experiences interesting and he has inspired people to join him. While Qiao’s stories appeal to more people, they start to encourage more dreamers.

Do not let money keep you from pursuing dream

“What the future looks like? I do not want to know. “–from a song written by one of Qiao’s friends

Like many others, Qiao has a lot of dreams. Also like many others, he has money concerns. In his book “Live A Good Life is Not Necessarily Expensive” (好的生活没那么贵), he wrote in the preface, “Money is the biggest obstacle when one is to start a business or plan to do something. How to lower the cost, save the time and human resources? Only by changing the set thinking pattern and knowing clearly where one’s strengths and resources lie can one find the nearest and most plausible path. Through pooling resources and execution, one can gradually grasp the dream in hands during the process of practice.” When Qiao took the first step toward his dream, he only had 400 yuan and his ID card. He got on a train heading for Beijing. The idea that sent him to Beijing was “Now that I am suffering at home, why not go suffering in the best place in China?” And in his mind, the best place in China is Beijing—the capital.

The early days in Beijing were not easy for someone who had such a meager amount of money. To survive in the capital, he had to take on various jobs as a manual laborer to keep life going on. For Qiao, the best way for him to realize dreams was knowledge. He took every job as an opportunity to learn new things and gain experience. Once he became skilled at one job, he turned to a more difficult one. He used to copy what aroused his interests in the bookstore onto a notebook and took it everywhere. It was the books on installation and abstract art that attracted him most. He was enormously impressed with art works made from wasted materials and he found those reminiscent of what he did everyday. Later he started collecting all the materials that could not be used anymore and study installation and abstract art at the same time. With his efforts, he came up with the idea of an exhibition showing all his works at the end of that year. His friends became the audience, among which were some underground musicians in Beijing. Although he did not stick to art in his career path due to economic concerns, it was a beginning of his artistic pursuits in various forms and brought him the courage and confidence to do something big.

Another possibility: to live a good life without too much money

Sometimes all one needs is to think out of the box and explore unusual ways to approach one’s dream.

It is true that one does need money to get things started, but it does not always have to be a large sum. With only 400 yuan, Qiao survived in Beijing and started his new life. Just like the art exhibition on which he spent only 500 yuan, his other achievement were as well low-cost and jaw-dropping. It is all about the pooling of resources and best use of what one already has. His records include 3000 yuan for a documentary, 500 yuan for an art exhibition, 50 yuan for an outfit, and 35 yuan for a dinner for ten, etc. He became a living example to those who take adequate wealth as the prerequisite for a happy life.

Qiao Xiaodao and his niece

Among all his different identities, one of the most known is the ballad singer who formed the ballad group with his niece—Da Qiao Xiao Qiao (大乔小乔, Big Qiao, Small Qiao). Music has always been one of his loves and he particularly likes watching people playing guitar. He certainly hoped to sing for others with his own guitar. The first thing was to get to know about music. His more than 200 fragments of composition suggested how difficult it was for an outsider to do music. After several failed attempts to form a band with some of his friends, he stopped trying and decided to go solo for the moment. Later when Qiao performed for his family, his mother suggested that his little niece Qiao Munan (乔木楠) sings with him and this was how the group came into being.

After several performances, the group got famous and people started to ask for their album. The biggest challenge they were facing was where the money came from. Qiao Xiaodao made up his mind to make an album hoping to explore a way for other independent musicians who were struggling to stick to their music dreams and to attract more support. Thanks to his friends in the music circle, he managed to finish the recording of the whole album in a one-square-meter studio and the music video was also self-made, simple and rough. All the family members helped in the process of making the album. It was the success of such a simple album that led to the later more ambitious project.

Weibo Zhi Yan (微薄之盐)—A pinch of salt

Weibo stands for “small”; Yan stands for contribution and Weibo Zhi Yan stands for “a small contribution”.

The idea of “Weibo Zhi Yan” came from that Qiao wanted to help others but he knew well that his ability was limited. So he came up with such a name for his project. Supported by some of the entrepreneurs he became acquainted with, Qiao started to build the platform he had always been thinking of to pool resources to help independent musicians like him. Based in an art zone turned from a storage house, he found some friends and hired new hands. In this way the platform was established and Qiao and his people started to scout for talented musicians. The way the project works is that it help young musicians to achieve their goals such as releasing an album with the social network it has built. For example, it may introduce musicians to producers and publishers who are possible to provide support. They provide resources as well as show them how to tap into opportunities for long-term development.

Following the traditional Chinese philosophy that “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”, the project works towards the ultimate goal to help independent musicians to stand firm on their own feet and find their own paths. Qiao and his friends also made a project magazine to let more people get to know about it and attract more support from the society. As the project grows, so does the need for an even bigger platform. With an idea to provide these musicians a stage to shine, the Weibo Zhi Yan concert kicked off. Weibo Zhi Yan concert welcomes all kinds of music styles and is open to whoever is interested with a low threshold. Qiao compares Weibo Zhi Yan to a public lavatory where people from all walks of life come by. Strangers meet here and make friends. People come and go, leaving different stories.

One leg of his nationwide tour in Renmin University of China

As he thinks that money cannot stops one from pursuing one’s dream, Qiao also thinks that finance is not the prerequisite for non-profit initiatives. From a commoner to someone who helps people realize their dreams, Qiao lives a colorful as well as simple life. His life philosophy of thinking out of the box and use the ready resources to do things we want inspires the following of us to look back on our own dreams that have been postponed for various excuses. Now with his guitar, Qiao Xiaodao is busy meeting his fans in different cities for his 2012 A Inspirational Tour around China (2012励志中国行) and sharing his stories with them. Engaged to helping others with his limited power, Qiao Xiaodao and his stories might shed some light to those who also have big dreams but have not taken any actions yet.

Shao Yibei: sing for the present (0)

Shao Yibei: sing for the present

Emma Xu — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:30:59 +0000

It is not my intention to appeal to the Era; what I am focused on is us who are as small as ants and how we successfully fit into the gigantic surroundings.

On her Douban music site, Shao Yibei (邵夷贝) labels herself with tags such as indie, folk, ballad, realism etc. Dubbed the independent young female artist, Shao manages to express her ideas about personal and societal issues with these seemingly contradicted concepts. Graduated from Peking University, Shao became an independent musician, formed her own band and started to produce her own albums.

Starting December 2011, Shao has begun her 2011 music tour named “Go to Your…” and the itinerary includes Tianjin, Beijing, Xi’an, Chongqing, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou. The musician took her band to the 11 cities to have parties with her fans.

The song of single artistic women above the average marriage age

Most of Shao’s fans got to know her because of a song she wrote about the group of single women who are independent, have good tastes, and are above the average marriage age. It was a folk song about what kind of men such women should marry and the weighing of different options. The song was easy to understand and had a simple melody and a touch of humor.

It was inspired by a performance by the Chinese musician Zhou Yunpeng (周云蓬) and Shao wrote it just for fun. Later her friends made a video with cellphone when Shao performed the new song for them and the video was posted online. At first mad at what her friends had done, Shao asked the video to be eliminated from the internet. However, by the time the video disappeared, it had been watched for thousands of times. There were as many as 300,000 clicks in just one of the video websites. That happened when Shao had just learned how to play a guitar for only three months and the title of the song was even given by a friend. This was, however, Shao started her career in music.

The girl with talents

Another thing that has been talked as often as the song is the Shao’s background of graduating from Peking University, one of the most prestigious universities in China. Originally from Qingdao, Shandong, Shao got admitted to Peking University by doing excellently in the National Examination for College Entrance. Shao chose the major of journalism in university and started her pursuit of music in early college years. Such a major might have relevance to the concern of current societal issues in songs she wrote later. She had already formed several bands when she was still in school and got popular on campus. Shao was also interested in plays and once directed one herself.

After the first song hit the Internet, Shao continued writing songs and by far has released two albums. Most of her songs, as mentioned above, are about current societal issues and her own observations in life. Songs like The Happiness and Dignity of 2011 and Things Change as Time Goes by were all her reflections upon what had happened in China and the consequences that had been brought. She cares much about the planet as well as common people in the very bottom of society. Talking about the theme of her songs, she said, “I hope my songs can keep a record of the present and they will remain meaningful when people listen to them years later.”

Meaningful lyrics suggesting deep concerns

Talking about Shao’s music, one of the critics Qiu Dali (邱大立) said in his column that Shao is one of today’s few female singers who have independent thinking. Unlike other young folk musicians, Shao does not only sing about romance and sentimental experiences. Many of her songs convey profound ideas and serious reflections of Chinese society. Her subjects include air contamination in the city, survival pressure of the grassroots and the lost young generation. Besides these large topics, she also sings about herself, her experiences and her love for music.

In her 2011 music tour, the band divides the mini concert into five sections with different themes—the 21^st century, the Era, being artistic, love, music and surviving. Shao is particularly concerned with the environmental issues in today’s industrialized cities. She touches on the topic of suffering air quality in several of her songs and during the event in Beijing she jokingly blamed it for her not being able to strike the high note. She has composed a poem about the air written by Chinese poet Daxian (大仙) in 1989 named A Breath of Air.

一口空气

大仙

噙在口中是未开之花的名字
收集星辰的凉风
我出自新生的地貌
出自岩层的唯一一滴水
在青藤曲回的坡地
和月光斜穿的三角林
我掉转心中的往事

我于人生所求无多
一张空椅，让我秋天来坐
环视空旷的岁月
以及跌满双膝的落叶

让一颗露水立在舌尖
我，凝坐于合目聆听的黑夜

在空气中我只要含上一口
澄清一气，就足以为雨声而沉默
为尘倦的灵魂设下居所

我只要吸进一缕异香，就足以
为下一个季节找到花朵

是我，为落叶而飘落

1989年9月

A Breath of Air

Daxian

In my mouth is the name of the flower that has not blossomed yet
Collecting the cold breeze of the stars
I come from a newborn landscape
From the only drop of water in the rock stratums
On the winding slope
And in the woods bathed in moonlight
I turn around my memories

I expect no more of life
An empty chair that I can sit when autumn comes
Looking around at the hollowness when time goes by
And the fallen leaves as high as my knees

Let a drop of water stand on the tip of my tongue
I, quietly sit to listen to the dark night

As long as I can take a breath of
Fresh air, it is enough to silent me for the rest of my life
To accommodate my tired soul

As long as I take in a breath of fragrance, it is enough
To find flowers for next season

It is me, that fall for the fallen leaves

September 1989

Shao Yibei's latest album Grey People

Other than melodic ballads and quiet tunes, Shao sings rock and roll as well, such as the song Who Has Stolen Your Era? Her love for rock and roll dates back to high school and Zhang Chu (张楚) has been an idol since adolescence whose concert she used to save up to see. Insisting on singing what she cares about, Shao takes her band to different cities of China with the release of the second album Grey People. In this album, several songs are Shao’s collaborations with singers from other famous bands such as gala. What impresses her audience most about this girl who has a powerful voice is probably her touching and echoing lyrics through which everybody can see himself/herself as part of the picture.

Qiao Xiaodao: a good life is not necessarily expensive (0)

Zhong Lifeng: Sad As Love Affair

Benson Song — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 08:54:55 +0000

Singing Free Like a Bird

Be intimate with both reality and fantasy / I walk through the scattered time

About all the lust and temptation I write/ For all the brightness and pureness I sing

Like all his poetic lyrics, from the above lines written by Zhong Lifeng(钟立风), a famous Chinese balladeer as his declaration for Vancl(凡客) (a leading on-line clothing company), we can feel the genuineness, melancholy and talent of this young artist.

Zhong Lifeng(钟立风), born in Zhejiang province, went to Beijing in 1995 to pursue his music dream. For those young artists who came to the capital city and became a member of dreamseekers in Beijing, life wasn’t as easy as they thought. However, after five years’ struggling as a pub singer, Zhong finally gained some fame in 2000 when he was selected by a group of famous Taiwan music producers like Xiao Chong(小虫) as Top 10 Talented Young Musician. It was at this time when Zhong made a surprising decision to leave Beijing for Qinghai and become a shepherd. When talking about this experience in one of his interviews, Zhong said that he did this to seek an inner peace in the music industry which was becoming more and more commercialized. He tried to listen to his inner voice, trust his own understanding about life and music and use his ballads to express his true feelings. “I am making music that is faithful to myself, not to make money or gain fame. The moment I stop thinking about what the audience might like and begin to sing in my own voice to express my understanding of the world, I feel happy and free.”

Poem is the accident of words

Someone you know came and left/ A man a little sly, sad and absurd

While walking away a snowflake fell on his nose tip

Looking afar he is such a joke.

After coming back to Beijing in 2002, Zhong’s music career stepped into a new phase. Not only did he signed contract with a new record company, Zhong also published his first book Imaginary Trip on Trolley Bus《幻想坐电车旅行》. With all these years of pursuit and persistence, Zhong finally found the balance between music, literature and life.

“There was a time when I believed that music should be an important part of my life and I should devote a great amount of time and energy to music in order to be a great balladeer. Not until recently did I realize that music is life itself. When you’ve experienced life, you’ve experienced music.”

In 2006, five years after Zhong’s return from Qinghai, he issued a new album named On the Roadside《在路旁》 which was later apprised by the media as “the first real ballad album of the mainland China in recent years”. And with his talent in both music and literature, Zhong becomes a hot topic in the circle of music and literature and is considered as one of the most artistic temperamented balladeers in China. Zhou Yunpeng(周云蓬), a famous Chinese balladeer and writer, compared Zhong as the representative of arts and literature of Chinese folk music.

A Bigamy Criminal in Love with Music and Literature

Music is my faithful wife while literature is my lover. I love both of them to death. Call me a criminal. I am a man committed bigamy with music and literature.

In 2005 Zhong formed his own band with the name Borges, his favorite writer. With his sexy voice, Zhong sings for his love of music, literature and life. In April 2011, his new book Sad As Love Affair《像艳遇一样忧伤》 was published which turned out to be a bestseller. When asked about the meaning of the book title, Zhong explains like this:” I always remind myself not to set specific goals for things I do. Everything I do, I do it for love, not for money or fame. I like the contingency of life that one can never know what will happen. With all the love I devote to my music, after each concert, I just can’t help feeling depressed when facing the empty auditorium. The feeling of hollowness and depression is just like the loss of a lover. So I need to throw myself into life again, read new books and write new songs. This is sad but exciting, just like life itself. ”

A Courier Quiet yet Happy

Of course, he is only a courier, knowing nothing about the content of the letters he is sending, while the expressions of his eyes, smile on his face and every single gesture of his unconsciously convey some kind of message.

This is a quotation from the famous writer Franz Kafka, put by Zhong at the front-page of his blog. Zhong always says that he gets most of his inspirations from the books he read. “Reading and enjoying music are equally exciting for me. Just like an adventure, a random walk through a strange city, you would never know what you would encounter at the next corner. Sometimes when you overhear a piece of music or read a great book, it feels just like a love affair; thrilled inside, you couldn’t constrain the eager to share it with others.” Just like all encouraging stories, when we keep doing things we love and are good at, fortune sure will smile to us.

After years of struggle, between himself and the world, and within himself, Zhong finally figures out what kind of life he is trying to live. A balladeer, writer or poet, I can’t tell. Zhong is just like that courier who knows nothing about the content of the message he is sending but unconsciously becomes a soul-touching message himself and quietly sends it to the world.

The Miraculous Mandarin Opera

Rudolph Tang — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:20:55 +0000

The Miraculous Mandarin Opera

Zheng Xiaoying, China’s first woman conductor and initiator of western opera in Mandarin.

La Traviata in Xiamen, April, 2011

ZHOU Long’s (surprisingly) award-winning Madame White Snake

Although introduced to China in the early 20th century amid foreign occupation, the western opera was still new to the Chinese audience, but its genre and way of expression has been modified and localized by daunting political maneuvers with the years. During the Cultural Revolution when all the western art forms were literally dismissed, madam Mao saw the importance of operatic and theatrical form and hence commissioned model dramas, stage works promoting proletarian value while taking the shape of singing with orchestra accompaniment or of the ballet to serve the great course of class struggle. Eight model dramas were created in total: five Peking operas with symphonic touch, two ballets and one orchestral piece. All of them since then have enjoyed immediate and standing popularity among the Chinese people, seen by some as the mystical paradox between ideological control and artistic freedom.

In the late 1970s, the Soviet trained veteran conductor ZHENG Xiaoying was appointed head of the Central Opera Comany in Beijing. Believing in universalism and proletarianism and eager for a massive and instant appeal of western opera in China, she initiated western opera sung in Mandarin. La Traviata was first put to test, followed by Carmen and some Soviet classics. The libretto was prudently translated and rhymed to match the vocal lines, some bourgeoisie vocabularies replaced by words accessible even to the philistines. Her brainchildren proved to be a hit, with more than 160 runs of La Traviata when touring in major cities, including month-long daily performance in Shanghai alone. But the practice was suspended long before ZHEN retired from the company in 1991 with the help of subtitle system and better prepared program books. Some critics also saw opera sung in Mandarin as counterproductive and unnecessary.

In 1998, ZHENG was approached to establish and run the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra. Her operatic dream was not fulfilled until this May. With the help of some local sponsors and a music college, an opera centre named after her went into existence early this year. La Traviata saw the soft opening of the opera centre on April 23-24 with two performances, both sung by local talents in a fully-staged production directed by Jin WANG，former music director at the Mainfranken Theatre and Wuerzburg Philharmonic Orchestra in Germay who was fired due to an alleged sexual harassment two years ago, conducted by ZHENG with Xiamen PO. The grand premiere of La Traviata sung in Mandarin was presented on May 21st after a lapse of two decades. RUAN Yuqun sang the title role. The performance was reviewed on Xinmin Evening News in Shanghai as “first ever operatic performance in the city of Xiamen”. China Newsweek called the performance “passionate but mediocre”. According to Music Weekly, ZHENG “offers a model role of budget production that is accessible, affordable and respectable”.

Opera sung in Mandarin remains one of the several attempts to localize and fertilize western operatic achievement in China. To the lighter side of the operatic canon, French trained director David LEE first adopted dialogues spoken in Mandarin or in dialects in 2009 with operettas like Le nozze di figaro, followed by Il barbiere di Siviglia, Die lustige Witwe, La Serva Padrona, Gianni Schicchi and Der Fledermaus (currently on run at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing till June 6th), while the arias are sung in original languages. His witty and sometimes sarcastic adaptions have always been rewarded by audience laughter. In the opera seria array, generations of Chinese composers strove to write operas that can outlive their life expectancy in vain, maybe with the only exception of ZHOU Long’s Pulitzer winning Madame White Pulitzer and Ye Xiaogang’s Song of Farewell, to be premiered outside China by Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris later this year.

(Exclusively written for SeeChina by veteran music critic Rudolph Tang 唐若甫)

Young Jazz band from PKU: Mr. Miss

Jessica — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 07:04:26 +0000

Funny Midnight Sun by the rising Jazz band Mr. Miss.

douban profile: http://www.douban.com/artist/mrmiss/

Since its formation in May, 2009, the band has performed in Ant-book-Coffee Bar and Jianghu Bar, had two successful concerts in Chaoyang 9 Theater and PLA Theater, and won the first prize in Peking University Top Ten Singers Contest in May 2010.

Singer: Miss. Liu Lian (刘恋), student in the Department of Archeology, born in Sichuan, a fanatic lover of indie、post-rock、bossa and wired-women-type songs, member of Peking University Guitar Association and active singer in many jazz bars in Beijing.

Guitar: Mr. Du Kai （杜凯）, M.A.candidate of musiology in Peking Univeristy, born in Shandong, started music composition since secondary school and now author to over a hundred songs and soundtrack titles, including “The Nameless Lake is an ocean”, Muma & the Third Party “Velvet Highway”, Shen Xincheng “We Make The Music!”, lead singer in Prozac band and composer, guitar, singer in Mr. Miss.

Last hermits: Dr. Wang and his family (1)

Casual Notes on West China Music (I)

Jessica — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 01:24:37 +0000

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.

Chinese Opera singers: from Mao to the Met

Jessica — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:10:31 +0000

In a recent interview of Opera News, DAVID HSIEH talked with two Chinese artists who established their names in the world opera scene — bass Hao Jiang Tian (田浩江, literally meaning big river) and bass-baritone Shenyang (沈洋, somehow also literally meaning big ocean, and the English spelling of two names are not even coherent, with the former being “westernized” and the latter in natural Chinese order).

The article is here:http://www.operanews.com/Opera_News_Magazine/2010/5/Features/Face_to_Face.html
Excerpts:

When Hao Jiang Tian left China, in 1983, the per capita GDP of China was less than $400. By the time Shenyang won the Cardiff Singer of the World competition, in 2007, per capita GDP had risen to more than $5,000, China’s trade surplus with the U.S. exceeded $200 billion, and the country was on its way to overtaking Germany as the world’s third-largest economic entity. Chinese economic progress over the past thirty years is hardly news. But outside the economic arena, what else in China has changed during those years? Born several generations apart during a time when China saw tremendous developments, bass Tian and bass-baritone Shenyang both appeared on the Metropolitan Opera stage in the current season, and they recently sat down with OPERA NEWS to discuss the opera scene during their respective times in China. The conversation took place in Tian’s apartment overlooking the Lincoln Center campus.

Wall Street Journal on Shenyang, with short videos, written in 2009:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123689964106113017.html?mod=article-outset-box

Excerpts:

Traveling in Shanghai two years ago, the superstar soprano Renee Fleming discovered a 23-year-old with an unusually mature bass-baritone voice. He was a striking discovery: While many classical musicians have come out of China in recent years, opera singers have been rarer.

She quickly introduced him to voice coaches at the Metropolitan Opera. Next week, Shenyang — he combined his name, Shen Yang, into one word for the stage — is scheduled to perform a recital of works by composers including Schubert and Brahms at Alice Tully Hall in New York. His Metropolitan Opera debut, in the role of Masetto in ‘Don Giovanni,’ is April 13.

Ms. Fleming calls Shenyang one of the most promising singers she’s heard in years. The soprano, who rarely mentors young singers, thought he could benefit from the Met. ‘He needed polishing but, of course, we all need to learn,’ Ms. Fleming says.

Phoenix Press on Hao Jiang Tian and one of his co-production with quite avant-garde director Lin Zhaohua (林兆华):

http://ent.ifeng.com/special/yanchu/wogewoge/news/200907/0721_7407_1260993.shtml

Excerpts:
Tian HaoJiang was born in Beijing with a very special voice: it was so big that very soon he could use it to call friends down from the fifth floor. Big voices were rather common in those days – China in the 50’s and 60’s before private telephones and elevators – so his went unnoticed for years until it was discovered by accident by a voice teacher. From then on, his life changed drastically, and his voice became he: Tian, the bass singer who will be singing his eighteenth season at the Met this fall.

The trajectory has been anything but smooth. Tian arrived in New York from Beijing in 1983 with $50 in his pockets. He promptly spent $8 on a standing room ticket at the Met and watched, wide-eyed, Pavarotti in Verdi’s opera Ernani. The next day he was plunged into the classic struggles of a young artist in a foreign country. Ten years later, on that very same day, he was singing with Pavarotti on that very same stage that stole his heart ten years before. Since then Tian has sung in more than 40 operas in some 1300 performances, at the Met as well as in other renowned opera houses around the world. In addition to the traditional repertoire, new operas with a Chinese theme began to solicit Tian in recent years: In December, 2006, he sang with Domingo in Tan Dun’s “First Emperor”, and six months later, in July 2007 he sang for the first time in Chinese as the poet in Guo Wenjing’s opera “Poet Li Bai”, and in 2008 he appeared in Stewart Wallace’s “The Bonesetter’s Daughter”. All this is graphically recounted in his book “Roaring River”, published in 2008.

Having sung on stage and having told his stories in black and white, Tian is now ready to combine the two and, for the first time on stage, to act himself. It is, after all, his vocal voice that best expresses his feelings and thoughts. The enthusiastic reception of his recent ‘singing’ book tour around the world reinforces his belief. Now he wants to use stories, bombastic revolutionary songs as well as nostalgic underground melodies, to recapture the sounds and sights of his growing-up years in turbulent China. He will also describe his Met years with behind-the-scene anecdotes peppered with snippets of operas. He will use the death of his brother in 1999 as a turning point in his pursuit of worldly fame and fortune…All this is a new challenge for him, stylistically and emotionally, and he is approaching it with great expectations and apprehensions.

He hopes to invite his contemporaries, especially fellow artists from China who started in the 80’s, matured in the 90’s and reached their respective pinnacles in the new millennium to a collective review of their past against their visions of the future. Songs are powerfully evocative, and Tian in his role as a seasoned singer would like to use his songs to revisit with his contemporaries the long road they had traveled together. Maybe they could figure out, collectively, why there is at present such a strong movement towards returning ‘home’, towards retiring into the ‘wilds’, towards letting go of ‘everything’. Tian has no ready answers, therefore he continues to sing.

His intended audience, of course, is not limited to his contemporaries alone. But how to reach the younger generations who have grown up in totally different sounds and sights? Tian would amuse them with the story of his first guitar, in fact one of the country’s first guitars. Or with the difficult choices of staging a scene. Or with his brother’s obsessions with the navy. The bottom line is: will the young mock or sympathize with Tian’s sense of loss: in faith, in direction, in the joy of living itself? Will they listen with interest to this particular ‘Witness of the times’, to borrow the role of an artist as defined by Simone de Beauvoir?

But Tian has been preparing this show since 1999, the year his only brother died in Beijing. In between performances, Tian managed to fly 16 hours each way and spend 3 hours with his brother in the hospital. They talked and for the first time in their lives they sang together, songs that they knew from the past. Tian could not believe how well his brother sang, could not accept the fact that his brother never saw any of his operas, and regretted deeply that he never took his brother to catch trout in Colorado as promised. More than anything else, he began to doubt who was the true singer, who lived better as a human being in spite of appearances. This one-man show is in part Tian’s homage to his uncomplicated brother with a short but contented life.

Denver has generously commissioned Tian’s one man show; PBS has also confirmed their interest. Now in Beijing, Tian is working hard with director Lin Zhaohua to bring his libretto to life: with passion and with an uncompromising sense of humor.

–

Hope we’ll be hearing more about them and more OF them in the future.

Music Festival Season: Strawberry, Midi, and Ditan Park Folk

Omar Jones — Mon, 10 May 2010 02:21:13 +0000

This article is by Jennifer Conrad, the music editor of Time Out Beijing. You can see her photos of the festivals on her Flickr page.

Over the past two weekends, Beijing played host to three major music festivals, showing the breadth of the Chinese music scene. Local independent music label Modern Sky put on the Strawberry Music Festival, which has an indie-rock bent featuring Chinese acts and a smattering of international bands. The Midi Festival, organized by Beijing’s Midi School of Music, has a more rock ‘n’ roll vibe, a punk- and metal-heavy lineup, and an eleven-year history. And the smaller Ditan Park Folk Festival was launched just last year by an independent promoter who also owns a guitar shop in Beijing.

The day broke gloriously on Saturday, May 1, the first real day of spring and the first day of the Strawberry Music Festival. Over the three-day festival in Tongzhou (an eastern suburb of Beijing), Chinese hipsters broke out their best outfits, sporting flowing skirts, floppy hats, and checkered shirts. Across six stages, bands ranged from student acts to the best of Chinese independent bands to heavy metal to former Super Girl contestants. (Modern Sky founder Shen Lihui was also a judge on the TV singing competition Super Girl.

As I arrived, The Dancers, a new group made up of former members of some of Beijing’s top rock bands, were on the main stage offering a mix of punk and early rock ‘n’ roll. Later, local electro-rock art band Pet Conspiracy sent giant red balloons bouncing into the audience and had Brazilian drummers SambAsia join them onstage. Longstanding hard-rock band Tang Dynasty closed out the day with their mix of heavy metal and Tang Dynasty–era poetry.

On the second day, I started at the smaller stages watching bands like Cassette on the School of Rock Stage (a stage for university bands). Cassette’s sound mixes grunge and synth with a female singer straight out of a lounge act—it’s a weird combination, but I give them credit for trying something new. Beijing post-punk band Re-TROS gave one of the day’s most compelling performances as the sun went down, playing their intricate songs that often feel like they have a bit of Queen or glam David Bowie sprinkled in.

Despite long lines and chronic shortages at the bars, the atmosphere remained festive, and of the three festivals, Strawberry boasted the strongest lineup—there were almost too many good bands to choose from.

Across town, the Midi Festival took up residence May 1-4 in Haidian Park, in Beijing’s university district. Midi has the reputation for being the festival that’s really about the music (detractors say Strawberry is more about fashion), and several of the bands on the bill, including Miserable Faith and Brain Failure, have been playing the festival for most of its decade-plus history.

When I arrived on May 3, the vibe immediately felt different and more organic than Strawberry—more people camping out and a big flea market of small-time vendors. The scene was more punk and rock ‘n’ roll, with lots of kids wearing black slogan-ed T-shirts.

Mongolian folk and rock band Hanggai, one of the best live bands in Beijing, put on the most exciting show of the day, with a high-energy set that had the crowd dancing and kicking up a cloud of dust. It was definitely the only time I’ve ever seen people moshing and crowd-surfing to a folk band.

While visiting Swedish pop-rockers Sahara Hotnights played on the main stage, I slipped over to another stage to watch CMCB ("Chinese MC Brothers"), a rap-metal group that drew a huge audience reaction. After a quick dance at the electro stage, it was time to go home.

On the final day of the festival, the crowds at Midi were thinner—most people had to go back to work on Tuesday. But all six stages hosted some solid acts, with the folk stage transformed to a hip-hop stage for the day.

The rain that mostly held off all weekend broke through in the late afternoon while I was watching Free the Birds, a local synth-heavy post-punk band. And the power was cut as soon as lightning appeared on the sky.

Some people jetted immediately, while others huddled in covered areas and waited out the rain. When the downpour stopped, several bands rallied and played improvised acoustic sets on the main stage, aided by flashlights and megaphones. Hundreds of fans crammed toward the stage and sang along.

It was chilly and impossible to hear from the back, but one of the sweetest moments of any of the festivals, when everyone came together, straining for a little music.

This weekend, the much smaller Ditan Park Folk Festival provided a chilled-out end to festival season. In Beijing’s Ditan ("temple of earth") Park, this festival featured just one stage on which a range of Chinese folk bands played along with international acts spanning styles from traditional Irish music to bluegrass to Afrobeat.

The Redbucks, made up of American expats living in Beijing, played sweet bluegrass in the late afternoon, with two banjoes, mandolin, stand-up bass, guitar, and members trading vocal duties. A little later Zhang Quan, a member of seminal Chinese folk act Wild Children, sang and played the dombra, a stringed instrument from China’s northwest.

While two-day Ditan Park Folk can’t compete with the other festivals in terms of the lineup and number of attendees, it definitely had the best atmosphere, lots of grassy space for spreading out blankets, a relaxed crowd, and cheap drinks.

Over five days—and counting—of festival-going, it’s clear that the Chinese music scene defies easy categorization. There are some bands that slavishly follow Western styles, and some fans who care more about looking cool than what the bands sound like. But there are also people who will stand in the rain for an hour to catch an unplugged song or two from Brain Failure. There are super-cheesy acts, and there are folk bands pulling from Chinese musical traditions to create a sound that’s totally unique. But ultimately, the Chinese music scene is too big to cover in one article—it’s something you have to check out for yourself.

Other reviews of the music festivals:
China Music Radar: Art vs Commerce – a review of the Beijing festival weekend
The Beijinger: Posts on Strawberry Festival, MIDI Festival.

Strawberry Music Festival

Omar Jones — Thu, 06 May 2010 02:37:43 +0000

A video by Janek Zdzarski of a motorbike trip to the Strawberry music festival that took place near Beijing on the May 1 weekend. Music by Wu and the Side Effects.

Video also on Tudou.

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