12
SPOTLIGHT
OCTOBER 12, 2001
EDITOR: ZHANG XIAOXIA
E-mail: zhangxiaoxia@ynet.com
DESIGNER: LI SHI
Teenagers Feast their Eyes, not Ears By Zhu Lin
T
welve beautiful women carrying Chinese traditional instruments lit up the stage as soon as they appeared at the Beijing Century Theatre on October 5 and 6. Aiming at exploring a new path for Chinese traditional music, the ‘Twelve Girls Band’ makes a worthy attempt, but leaves room for further work. It’s a brilliant idea to establish a band with the 12 players since they all have two things in common. First, they’re professional traditional Chinese music players from all over the country. Second, they’re all pretty young women clad in elegant dress. Thus, the visual effect of the concert can be assured, and such an arrangement serves audiences at different levels. Audiences were also expecting a sound revolution, but met with much disappointment. When the artistic director Yard Guo mixes rocky rhythm with ancient Chinese tones, he forgets to adapt either of them. Rock rhythm bumps through the Midi equipment without
Photos by Liu Ping
‘New’ Traditional Chinese Music Pelted with Rock
any adjustment in dynamics, let alone tone color. “The background rock and Chinese traditional music sound separated,” said Wang Bo from the audience. In the piece ‘Spirit Dance’, the heavy rhythm doesn’t even hold off when Chinese flutes are imitating the birds’ crystal singing. “Bang! Bang!” Two little birds are killed by a shotgun! According to famous music critic Jin Zhaojun, Chinese traditional instruments have
their own identity in tone color, and the accompaniment should work for that. But during the whole concert, there’s only one moment of success. The piece ‘Free’ develops convincing ensemble between electronic bass and Erhu. ‘Twelve Girls Band’ is not the first one to combine Chinese traditional music with rock. Many musicians have tried various ways to promote ‘New Chinese Traditional Music’, but few have made it. ‘New Chinese Traditional Music’ shouldn’t imitate them. ‘Twelve Girls Band’ should have waited until both the compositions and their performance matured. Chinese people still expect to hear good interpretations of Chinese traditional music.
By Zhu Lin A drumstick was hurled off the stage to hundreds of frenzied fans, cranking the party up to its panting climax. The hand responsible belonged to exhilarated Dai Daming, the drum player of the band ‘Rosex’, performing at the second ‘Japanese Music Fans Party’ at the Sunshine Club on October 5. At the party, the wackier the performers, the more excitedly the teenagers reacted. Female fans, known as ‘cosplays’, dressed in dazzling kimonos skipped up and down among the audience imitating their idols. When the male artists from visual rock bands appeared
Girls in Cosplay Photo by Michael Reynolds
on stage, hysterical applause broke out in celebration of the performers’ faces made up as women. Ever since Japanese singers captured Chinese teenagers’ hearts in the late 1990s, some young music lovers have started to imitate Japanese rock and pop bands. ‘Rosex’ is one of them. “We thought there were too
many bands in Beijing mimicking American and European styles, and we wanted to do something special,” recalled Li Yao, singer in ‘Rosex’. The fans raised their hands, showing ‘X’ and ‘I love you’ as they screamed and gestured. They were copying Japanese fans’ reactions from VCD or DVD. According to many fans, the most important thing is not the music itself, but the far out qualities of the performers. “Actually I don’t care about ‘X-Japan’s music so much,” said Zhu Zhu, a 15-year-old fan, “as long as they have something special to excite me.”
A Movie on Strings By Shi Xinyu People can see hatred, intrigue, conflict and romance, but no actors or actresses could be spotted in ‘Legend of the Sacred Stone’, the first puppet movie in the world produced by PILI Multimedia Inc. Costing over $8 million, and taking more than 3 years to produce, the film is on show in Beijing this October. High-tech computer graphics are the puff of breath that brings the puppets to life. The story comes from the traditional Chinese Puppet genre. Su Huanzhen, the main character in the film has been popular with puppet fans for a long time. The Stone of Heaven, a magic stone wielding immeasurable power, is the focus in the story. As an ancient legend in ‘Wulin’ (warrior’s world or
circle), the final result is a victory of good over evil under the guidance of the Stone of Heaven. “The movie is excellent, even better than some films performed by real persons,” commented Cindy Zhen, a viewer at Dahua Cinema, “though there are many fights in the movie, it does not make people feel its gore. I was really moved by those little puppets.” Chris Huang, CEO of PILI, is both the director and editor of the film. He was born into a family in the puppet theater world, and is the fourth generation to continue the family tradition. After taking on such a responsibility, he tirelessly explores new possibilities in puppet theater to revive traditional culture.