Tag Archives | China

Roman Tam, Grand Godfather of Cantopop

All hail Roman Tam, Cantopop’s “Grand Godfather!”“Cantopop,” music that most often originates in Hong Kong, fuses Cantonese-language music with Western styles such as jazz and rock. It increased in popularity throughout the ’70s when vocalist Roman Tam scored several hits with Cantopop TV theme tunes. In the 1980s, “the Golden Age of Cantopop,” Cantopop record sales boomed, performers like Danny Chan and Teresa Teng, former “Queen of Mandarin Songs,” became Cantopop stars, and Cantopop record companies signed musicians to lucrative contracts. This led to an era in the ’90s in which “Four Heavenly Kings” dominated Cantopop music — Andy Lau, Aaron Kowk, Leon Lai and Jacky Cheung. in this video you’ll see Tam at his 1983 prime.

Hong Kong and Taiwan and China, oh my!

This week in our online class we told two different stories of two traditionally Chinese territories that have two very different relationships with China. Hong Kong was a British colony for over 150 years but is now formally part of China. Taiwan was first part of China, then Japan, and, the government on the mainland would say, it’s part of China again…though that depends very much not only on who you ask, but how you ask and why. Telling these two tricky tales is exactly the kind of challenge we here at “All Around This World” enjoy, so let’s get to it.

Dancing in the Street Like a Dragon

The Chinese dragon dance is another exciting way to celebrate the New Year.
A couple of days ago we met Chinese New Year lion dancing. One of the other most popular things to do to celebrate Chinese New Year is to join your neighbors in the street to enjoy the very popular “dragon dance.” In this extremely festive Chinese dance, between several and several dozen people parade in the street together holding a colorful dragon above their heads on poles. It’s electric! Watch this video and you see what we mean. (There are no dragons in China, by the way, so this is pure symbolism.)

Celebrate the New Year like a Lion

The Chinese New Year lion dance is one of the most exhilarating ways to celebrate the holiday.
Chinese New Year–often called Chinese Lunar New Year although it actually is “lunisolar”–is the most important holiday in China. It’s a two week long celebration marked by gift-giving, food-sharing, firecracker-cracking and much joyful celebration. The festival traditionally takes place at the end of winter and marks not only a start of a new year, but the impending coming of spring. The festival is full of jubilant dancing, often performed in the streets by trained dancers in colorful costumes. For example, as you see in this video, in the Chinese New Year lion dance, two performers hidden inside the brightly-colored costume of a lion perform a choreographed, martial arts-like series of steps.

China’s Oldest Song

Do you know “Youlan?”

According to legend, the founder of music in China was Ling Lun, who made bamboo pipes that sounded like the songs of birds. Very much like the songs of birds, Chinese music seems to have always existed. The oldest known written music is a song, called “Youlan,” which we hear in this video. “The Solitary Orchid,” attributed to the great songsmith — and ground-breaking philosopher — known as Confucius, who was born in 551 B.C.E. For the next two millennia, almost every Chinese emperor valued music as a high art form and prioritized making it part of his court.

A Billion People Strong and Growing

We being our tour of East and Southeast Asia in the most obvious place: China. A billion people strong and growing, China is an economically and militarily powerful behemoth that is overwhelming in almost every way. Chinese history is an awe-inspiring tall tale jam-packed with high drama: warring dynasties, palace intrigue and a never-ending struggle, in the context of the grand philosophical/spiritual/religious movements that have taken root in China (Buddhism, Confucianism Taoism…Maoism..?), to enlighten the human soul. The first Chinese dynasty took root more than three thousand years ago. Since then China has experienced long eras of political unity and eras just as long of devastating unrest. The ethnic Han Chinese have dominated most often, and while other Asian peoples have also ruled, most of them in turn assimilated into mainstream Chinese society. China’s continuing strength relies on this practice of enveloping cultures and philosophies into what we consider “Chinese,” whether it’s the assimilation of the Tuoba Xianbei people into Han Chinese culture by the end of the 5th century, or the much more recent fusion of Western Capitalism (though not yet Western-style multi-party democracy) into Chinese One-Party Communism.

Oh Oh Beh Loh Oh…!

We sing “Oh Oh Beh Loh Oh” as we enjoy this Hokkien folk song from Taiwan.
“Ti Oh Oh” is a playful folk song from Taiwan, in the Taiwanese language of Hokkien, about a grandpa and grandma who fight over how to cook a fish and end up breaking the fish pot. “The sky is dark,” the song beings “It’s about to rain. Grandpa picks up his hoe and goes digging for taro. Dig and dig. Dig and dig. Digs up a loach. He finds it very amusing.” Grandpa brings the fish home to Grandma. “Grandpa wants to cook it salty. Grandma wants to cook it plain. The two of them argue and fight, and end up breaking the pot. They wind up with clinks and clanks. Ha ha ha!” In this video you can watch “grandpa” and “grandma” in action.

Cui Jian’s Wild Horses

China’s all-time favorite rock star is none other than Cui Jian.
Cui Jian (pronounced “sway jen”) is generally acknowledged to be the father of Chinese rock. Born in 1961 of Korean-Chinese parents, Cui was a classically trained trumpet player who joined the Beijing Philharmonic at the age of 20. By the end of the ’80s he’d strayed from the classical tradition and started to play guitar-based Western pop songs. In 1986 he debuted “Nothing to My Name,” which electrified the burgeoning underground music scene in China by fusing Chinese and Western music and lyrical themes. On its face “Nothing to My Name” is a love song but many, such as the student protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989 who adopted it as their anthem, view it as a thinly veiled political statement of discontent with the Communist regime. Throughout the ’90s Cui Jian became an icon of the Chinese underground, both for his innovative music and his overt defiance of Communist leader; this appearance in 2003 on stage with The Rolling Stones was a milestone moment for Chinese rock.

How to Dance like a Chinese Lion

We know you want to learn the Lion Dance before you celebrate the new year in China. You’ve always wanted to do more than just sit on the sidelines during Chinese New Year celebrations, right? You have just enough time to learn the Lion Dance…and why not? The guys in this video will teach you. Start with the “Jump and Kick.”

The Song of the Suona

Han Chinese music wouldn’t be the same without the suona….

The most prevalent ethnic group, with almost ubiquitous music, is the Han, who make up more than 90% of the population of China. Traditional Han Chinese music is “heterophonic,” meaning musicians will play songs that are a version of one melodic line, and, like the Mandarin language, it’s tonal, implying that the music’s shifts from one tone to the next change the music’s meaning. Han folk music is still popular today at life cycle events like traditional Han-style weddings, and often includes a soloist on an oboe called a suona, which you really have to see to believe.

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