Dr. Cheng, Assistant Professor of Music Theory at the University of South Florida, presents a compelling exploration into Chinese popular music against the backdrop of China and Taiwan’s tumultuous history of the past 100 years. As a Taiwanese, Cheng provides an astute analysis of popular music’s serpentine development, shared traits and varied roles in the two major East Asian countries that currently do not receive the same level of attention and scholarship as Japanese (J-pop) and Korean (K-pop) popular music here in the West. Cheng’s extensive research and well-balanced writing offers a comprehensive tour through the decades and different genres as one of her objectives is to examine, “The role of Western music genres-folk, hymn, jazz, folk-rock, rock, and hip-hop-on the Chinese population.” (p. 1) While intended for an academic audience, Cheng’s writing is accessible for interested readers as she presents her research in a straightforward manner and in chronological order. She makes it clear in the introduction that her emphasis will be on the music itself vs. the more common, yet valid sociological-historical approach that Andrew F. Jones takes in his outstanding book Circuit Listening: Chinese Popular Music in the Global 1960s. Throughout the book she demonstrates a strong command of music theory and uses it as foundational support to acknowledge the perpetual push and pull between Western and Eastern music.
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| Dr. Ya-Hui Cheng |
Years spent living in both the East and West and frequently traveling across the Pacific for fieldwork in both Taiwan and the Mainland China, has allowed Cheng to weave in her experience and research and offer a nuanced portrayal. Chinese popular music, especially from the mainland, has been largely unexplored or covered only in generalities in the West. For example, she mentions both China and Taiwan’s mistreatment of the father of Chinese popular music Li Jinhui (1891-1967) during his later years. If this pivotal figure is mentioned in the West, it is usually only in passing vs. the chapter-length treatment he received by Cheng. Further, her music-centric emphasis is an original approach and what makes this book both groundbreaking and grounded. Cheng argues that Chinese popular music absorbs Western and global influences, to a greater or lesser extent, but it always retains its Chinese characteristics. She's able to demonstrate this dynamic by including musical notation and analysis for each of the selected songs. Her sweeping historical coverage supported by “musical-analytical” examples sets her work apart and the book’s inclusion will provide depth and breath to music libraries along with the many public libraries serving the Chinese diaspora. Her introduction is especially strong as it explains her methodology, while also providing the prerequisite historical context of China, Taiwan and the symbiotic Taiwan Cross-Strait that separates and connects the two countries and cultures. Overall, Cheng’s examination of the music itself places her book in a realm of its own, while extending the range of scholarship.
She investigates the ”initial emergence” of Western music in China during the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). In the late 1840s, Christian missions arrived in China and Taiwan and brought with them their hymns including the evergreen carol “Silent Night, Holy Night.” The appearance of secular music followed sacred music. She introduces seminal figures such as the aforementioned Li Jinhui (1891-1967) who took the leading role in introducing popular music to the country, connecting his compositions to the young through his music school and laying the modern foundation. For instance, he adapted “The Rakes of Mallows,“ a traditional Irish song,” for his Chinese folk song “Fly, Fly and Fly.” Additionally, he sought to retain Chinese aspects, while also incorporating Western influences with an underlying goal to help China transform from its feudal past to the modern age. For instance, his 1928 composition “Drizzle,” sung by his daughter, Li Minghui (1909-2003) is widely-considered to be the first Chinese pop song. It’s also an early example of shídàiqǔ music-an amalgamation of Chinese folk and Western jazz with high-pitched vocals. During the ‘30s, Shanghai became the epicenter of Chinese popular music with its many ballrooms and cabarets combined with full-scale production from several domestic and international record companies. However, Shanghai’s conducive and cosmopolitan atmosphere would come to a quick halt with the rise of the Chinese Communist Party in 1949. The Chinese sound recording industry then re-established itself in Hong Kong. The British commonwealth experienced their own halcyon era during the ‘50s & ‘60s as it filled the ongoing demand for musical entertainment. Mandarin & Cantonese pop songs were the prevailing style before being supplanted in the mid-60s when British beat and American pop became favored by the Hong Kong youth and the musically-inclined formed groups like Mod East, the Lotus and Teddy Robin & the Playboys.
Cheng comprehensively covers the ‘70s when Taipei, Taiwan became known for its soft & sentimental “Gangtai” style pop music, spearheaded by female vocalists Fei Fei Fong and Teresa Teng as well as the Campus Folk movement. She contends that Campus Folk allowed the students to establish a distinct voice with lyrics in Mandarin, but it did so by utilizing Western folk melodies, instrumentation and structure. In response, a faction of the Campus Folk musicians like Li Shuangze sought to retain distinct Chinese characteristics by utilizing traditional Chinese instruments like the erhu, pipa and suona to counter the encroachment of Western influences. By presenting these dichotomies, Cheng reveals the movement was not completely unified, nor purist and also to recognize the limitations of evaluating only by Western methods and standards. After the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), China began to slowly open to music beyond the state-sanctioned Red Songs in the ‘80s. Taiwanese Campus Folk was permitted as well as music from the universally beloved Teresa Teng. The pop music that spread in the mainland continued to be characterized by its Western elements, but there was also a shift towards indigenous influences and instruments in what became known as Northwestern Wind Music. The ‘90s unfolded with the development of multiple musical genres and scenes in China as well as the ascendance of Faye Wong, once an acolyte of Teresa Teng, to the status of an Asian icon.
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| Dr. Cheng in Tulsa, OK at the annual ARSC conference-May 2005 |
Cheng’s writing flourishes when she discusses the music of this century along with international contextual elements involving modernism, post-modernism and globalization and the inherent challenges of reconciling differences and competing priorities. The new century saw an era of enormous economic growth, technological acceleration and an unexpected openness that lifted the mainland music industry to new heights. In 2010, China surpassed Japan to be ranked as having the second-largest economy in the world and the Chinese entertainment industry followed the lead of Japan (J-pop) and Korea (K-pop) to bring (C-pop) quickly up to speed. She considers the immense popularity of the televised idol-type singing competitions judged by singing superstars from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China that has defined mainstream popular music in this century. This period of economic prosperity and stability has also allowed for the expansion of stylistic ranges and the continual evolution of Chinese music. Subsequently, Cheng asserts the cultural significance of vernacular Chinese Wind Music merging with Hip Hop as it has empowered Mainland Chinese youth to forge their own sonic identities against the ceaseless forces of Western dominance as its Chinese qualities distinguish its sound. Cheng accomplishes the imposing task of succinctly addressing an unwieldy modern history, while presenting the music itself as a soft power that bridges the cross-strait divides and connects listeners in China and Taiwan on artistic and human levels. Further, this connection to a shared sound offers the possibilities to transcend temporal politics and progress towards improved relations and greater understanding.
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| 2024 Certificate of Merit Award, for Best Historical Research In Recorded Country, Folk, World, or Roots Music, by the Association For Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) |
This review has been submitted for consideration to be published in the ARSC Journal for Fall 2025.
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