EASC Study Tour 2006
Topic of the Week

Welcome to the "Topic of the Week" series! Each week we will discuss areas of interest or things that need your attention in preparing for the Study Tour to China.

Week 12: The Arts

This week I'd like to address the arts, specifically musical arts, in China, and then provide you with some links to websites with information on other arts.

There are two general things to remember in regard to the arts in China.

First, China is a huge nation with many regional and ethnic variations. Traditions in Xinjiang province, with its large Muslim population and geographic proximity to Central Asia, are much different from those of the Han majority or the numerous other ethnic groups. Even within the same Han majority, geographic location, with differences in climate, available materials, etc., can influence the arts.

Second, the history of the PRC has had an enormous impact on the arts. Since 1949 the Communist party has often used the arts to further their own agenda. The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) was a particularly difficult time for most artists. You may experience something which is advertised as having a long unbroken tradition, but in fact it may be resurrected specifically for tourists, often in the form that they expect rather than how it really was. (Note that this is not unique to China !)

Music

Vocal music and theatrical genres in China are heavily influenced by spoken language. Chinese language is tonal, meaning that if you say the same syllable with different inflection, the meaning of the word changes. (See TOW 4 - Language ) Vocal music must follow the inflection of the spoken language, so if the tone on the spoken word goes up, the melody must reflect that by also moving up. The same word may have different intonation in different regions of China, so if a song with the same lyrics is sung in regions with different spoken dialects, the melody of that song must change to fit the dialect. For this reason, there are many different styles of regional narratives and sung theater (usually called "opera" in English).

This also may affect Chinese artists when they cover Western songs. The melody is set, so the lyrics may have to be modified when they are translated in order to fit the rise and fall of the melody. (Sometimes, though, it's a straighter translation and the listeners just have to cope with tones that are inaccurate.)

With the various opera forms, there is a conventional "coping device" for a musical play which may be performed in areas with different dialects. The musical accompaniment consists of stock musical phrases which are assembled in different ways to accommodate the change in the intonation of the language. In other words, it's the lyrics which are of primary importance, and the melody serves to support the lyrics by mimicking the intonation of the lyrics.

Post 1949 music often must be discussed in terms of the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, and to a lesser extent to Hong Kong. I often tell my students that much musical development has little to do with the music itself. Rather, it's formed by government policy, migration, war, and other non-musical factors. And this is why it's hard to talk about contemporary "Chinese" music without specifying which "Chinese" music you're talking about.

Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and Music

During the Cultural Revolution there were a limited number of authorized musical works which could be performed. (Click here for more information on some of those works.) With titles such as "The Red Detachment of Women," "Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy," "The White-Haired Girl," these Revolutionary operas (as well as a few purely instrumental works) center on the virtues of the Communist party ideals and uplift the workers. They denounce others-including the Japanese, landlords, and intellectuals. Whereas Peking and other styles of regional opera are highly stylized and often use very little in the way of sets and props, Revolutionary opera is much more realistic. Today Revolutionary opera seems to be a "nostalgic" art form, and videos, VCDs, cassettes and CDs of this art from are readily available.

Other non-musical influences on the music since 1949 include the suppression of instruments associated with the literati, particularly the 7-string guqin. Old guqin were highly prized, but because of their association with the literati, the government attempted to destroy as many of them as possible. Though the guqin is no longer banned, the number of performers is dramatically less than in the early 20th century. (Today most of the scholars and performers are in Taiwan or North America .)

On the other hand, the 2-string erhu was lifted from its status as a beggar's or entertainer's instrument to art music status, with teachers at music conservatories and composers encouraged to write music for the erhu. The instrument symbolized the common person triumphing over the literati.

What kind of music are you likely to experience in China ?

Popular Music:

The popular music industry is a recent phenomenon in the PRC, and owes much of its development to the return of HK to China in 1997. Prior to that time, HK and Singapore were the centers for Chinese-language popular music (all in a Western popular music style, but sometimes using traditional instruments). Most of that music is in Cantonese, so it would not be understood by non-Cantonese speakers in the PRC (the official language of which is Mandarin). In addition, much of that pop music was banned by the PRC government which felt that the lyrics were inappropriate for the people of the PRC. Cui Jian is one of the original PRC “rockers,” and he has played an important role in PRC pop music and politics. With the return of HK to the PRC in 1997, Mandarin became the official language of that region, and the music industry business suddenly had easier access to a market of over 1 billion people. Artists such as Faye Wong, who was originally from the PRC but who moved to HK and became famous as a Canto-pop (popular music in Cantonese) and movie star, are now recording and performing in Mandarin (Mando-pop, or popular music in Mandarin). With the HK music industry behind them, native Mandarin speakers are perfectly poised to enter the Mandarin-language market, and non-native speakers are scrambling to keep up.

Traditional music in the PRC:

Much traditional music in the PRC was officially suppressed during the Cultural Revolution (or altered to fit the Party's needs), but several forms have been making a comeback in recent years. However, they have undergone permanent changes in those years. I'll deal with two forms of music which we may have the opportunity to experience.

Peking Opera:

This regional style of opera has come to represent the national style of opera. Although its roots are in old styles of opera from a number of regions of China, the art form known today as Peking Opera was established in 1790 at the celebration of the 80th birthday of the Qianlong Emperor. Peking Opera is the sum of its parts; music, staging, movement, make-up, costumes and acrobatics. Although it was nearly wiped out in the Cultural Revolution, it has been making a comeback in very recent years.

Today Peking Opera schools and troupes are found in other cities, such as Shanghai, and the tradition has been continuous in Taiwan. Chinese opera was also once quite common in Hong Kong; Jackie Chan was trained as an opera singer. However, with the growth of Western popular music and the decline of traditional styles in the 1960s, many men who were trained in traditional opera were forced to find other ways to support themselves. With their extensive training in acrobatics, many became martial arts action film stars.

Prior to 1949 all roles in Peking Opera were usually played by males, but under the Communist leadership this has changed and women now usually play the female roles.

I'm sure at least one of you is wondering why I refer to " Peking " opera rather than "Beijing " opera. This is one of those terms that was so firmly entrenched in the English vocabulary before the switch to pinyin that most scholars have continued to use Peking rather than Beijing. If you're doing an Internet search, Peking opera usually yields more results than Beijing opera.

Western music:

From European symphonic music to Western pop artists, you'll find that Chinese are familiar with much of the same music that you are. Both European and Chinese instruments and musics are taught in music conservatories in China.

Hong Kong :

Chinese pop music, Western pop music, Chinese traditional music, Western art music, Japanese pop music, African music; anything you can imagine is available in HK in both recorded and live performance forms. You may also find impromptu sidewalk performances of traditional music at temples or night markets.

Some websites you might want to visit:

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Last updated: 05/17/2006
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