 |
DoomsdayIdealism paces about the intersection, uncertain of which way to go Confidence lowers its head on the way, counting the stones beneath its feet Sunlight is slightly blinding, and the air isn't too fresh He thinks, uncertainly without advancing Beauty is shedding tears, bidding itself farewell Pretentiousness shows its happy face, mingling in the crowd Reason cannot convince itself, decides to give up Craving has bought everything, yet cannot satisfy its emptiness Virtue is meaningless; indecision is alluring Doomsday arrives, a little curious No one will care -Wang Fei (translations by Grape) |
|
Once in a while I become interested in music from a particular part of the world and it serves as an entrance way leading to many new discoveries. Most recently I have discovered the work of a Chinese vocalist Wang Fei (Faye Wong.) I found out about her music from a short article in a news magazine that mentioned she had a large following of fans who used the internet. I mentioned her name to several of my ESL students from China and they said she was very famous. I have recently read that though the interest in world music has increased dramatically in recent years, music from China has been largely overlooked. If this is the case, then a good place to start correcting that oversight is with the music of Wang Fei.
Born in Beijing, she is the daughter of a busy engineer and a classical singer who sings cultural folk songs. She spent most of her early life in day care and living with an aunt. In her teen years she became interested in singing and won many awards in school for her fine voice. At around the age of eighteen, she was supposed to go to Fuching University in Fujian but her father asked her to come to Hong Kong instead.
Not knowing Cantonese, the main language of Hong Kong, she was terribly bored there. She took up a short term modelling course and suffered some ridicule from her peers who regarded her as a backward mainland girl with no taste. Through the arrangement of her parents, she took vocal courses with a voice trainer named Dai Shi Cong. After about a year of training, Dai Shi Cong recommended her to Chan Siu Poh (then manager in Cinepoly Records) who was impressed with Fei's vocal talents.
Because of her fine voice she was quickly signed to a contract, and talent managers began shaping her into one of the Hong Kong music sceneÕs leading pop stars. One has to wonder what a young talented girl felt about the music industry of Hong Kong coming as she did from Beijing. Apparently she felt alienated by the inauthenticity of the show business scene. She was a pretty face singing what she was told to sing. Despite her own dissatisfaction, she experienced some success in the business playing the role of a teen idol singing love songs that were not all that interesting to anyone over the age of fifteen.
A significant change in her development seemed to occur during a short stay in New York where she went to study singing and dance. During this time she was able to escape from what she described as the caged and self-doubting feelings she had felt in Hong Kong. In the freedom of New York she began to gain self-confidence, and relished the independence that came with it. She described her New York experience as giving her the chance to express her real self, and to renew her spirit.
This rebirth was reflected in music she released some time after returning to China. Many of the songs were in Mandarin which is her native language instead of Cantonese. She also composed a number of her own songs for the first time. Songs from recordings like ÒImpatienceÓ and ÒSkyÓ are remarkably fresh and different from her previous work, and they have gained her international recognition. Her most recent release, ÒFaye Wong,Ó put out by her new international recording company is also quite strong, and it bodes well for future releases where I would expect to see the uniqueness of her talent flower and develop as she matures.
I recommend any of the work she has done from 1994 on. In particular, I like "Impatience" (1996), "Didar" (1995), "Sky" (1994), and "Please Yourself(1994)." A compilation recording entitled "Not For Sale" has many of the best songs from the recordings I mentioned. Her newest recording, "Faye Wong"(1997), released on the EMI label is also excellent. There is a lovely song dedicated to her recently born child, entitled "Mortal World." Her 1998 release, "Sing and Play", or "Song Tour" is quite excellent.
To acquire Wang Fei's recordings, I had to ask my students about where to find Chinese music stores in the New York Chinatown district. New York has a large Chinese population, but none of the major non-Chinese music stores I usually go to carried her recordings.
I had never spent much time in Chinatown before. It was quite a little adventure wandering the streets without being able to read the many store signs. If it were not for the merchandise displayed in the windows and a few English phrases, I wouldn't know what kind of store it was. Also, I found it impossible to figure out how CD's are organized in the Chinese music stores. No one yet seems to be able or willing to explain it to me. People tell me to just ask a sales clerk. When I went shopping, the store clerks were very helpful, but they seemed somewhat amazed to see me there asking about Wang Fei. They sometimes wanted to know how I found out about her music.
Talking about Wang Fei seemed to open up some of the Chinese students I have who are otherwise a little shy. The topic also got me into conversations with strangers who normally I would not have had the opportunity to speak with. Some of the people I spoke to did not like her work and felt Wang Fei was a strange singer. I would rather describe her as inventive, and willing to take artistic risks.
Wang Fei's beautiful singing voice, and whole experience of learning where to get her recordings has gotten me interested in learning some Chinese. Beginning to learn the Chinese writing system has brought back childhood memories of learning to write the Roman alphabet. It is giving me a fascinating look at the process of becoming literate from an adult perspective. Learning to write the characters is not as difficult as I thought it would be. That might be because I like to draw, but it is also because there is often a discernible, though highly stylized, image that makes complete sense embedded within the characters.
A good book that explains the pictorial etymology of many Chinese characters is "Fun with Chinese Characters: The Straits Times Collection," published by Federal Publications (Singapore, 1980.) A straight forward writing guide with Cantonese and PinYin phonetic transcriptions is "Understanding Chinese: A Guide to the Use of Chinese Characters" by Rita Mei-Wah Choy, published by China West Books, (San Francisco, CA, 1989)
-John Korber, February, 1998 (Special thanks to Sujuan of Singapore for setting me straight on some Faye facts.)
If you want find out more about Wong Fei, follow the links below:
