| Earth's profilePELTONATOR'SPhotosBlogLists |  Tools  Help |
|
November 22 Chinese Music Part 10B: Rock Bands and Singing Groups, 2000sThe following is a continuation of Peltonator's series on Chinese rock music, the previous entry of which can be found here:
The first entry in the series can be found here:
Chinese music has predominantly lain in the arena of pop singers whose material has been handed to them by separate composers. The idea of forming a rock band who played their own instruments and composed their own music, though occurring occasionally in the history of modern Chinese pop music, has been rare. The tragic demise of the foremost Chinese rock band, Beyond, served as a huge setback to the formation of rock bands in China.
In the new millennium, however, things began to change. Bands that performed serious rock music as opposed to the so-called bubblegum pop that dominated the airwaves, began to form. While this phenomenon occurred in Hong Kong with rock bands like Dear Jane and Boy'z or in Mainland China with Beijing's Brit-pop-influenced Super VC, the most successful of the new rock bands formed in the island of Taiwan. The two biggest of these in the 2000's were Mayday and F.I.R. Others include folk-rock band Sodagreen and, in recent years, Lollipop.
In terms of singing groups, besides the aforementioned S.H.E. and Twins, Mainland China provided the male/female duo called Phoenix Legend. And Taiwan gave us the male counterpart of S.H.E., namely the quartet called Fahrenheit.
Mayday
 Band Type: Male "Alternative" Rock Quintet
Debut: 1999
Chinese Name: 五月天
Mandarin Name: Wuyuetian
Region: Taiwan
Members:
A Xin (Lead Vocal)
Guai Wu / Monster (Guitar)
Shi Tou / Stone (Guitar)
Ma Sha (Bass)
Guan You (Drums)
Mayday started out as a garage-rock band and, over the years, with its increasing popularity, has gradually moved towards a slicker production of more anthemic songs. After performing in a music festival, the band sent demo tapes out ultimately attracting the attention of Rock Records. They released their debut album in the summer of 1999 which went on to sell 300,000 copies, an impressive feat for a new band. Their song "Peter and Mary" was one of the 10 biggest of the year in Taiwan. The quintet's second album, Viva Life, exceeded their first in sales and they won Band of the Year at the Golden Melody Awards.
From 2001–2003, the band took a temporary hiatus because Ma Sha was up for mandatory military service. Shi Tou proposed to his girlfriend then went to England to learn production techniques, and Guan You went to Los Angeles to hone his drumming skills. When they regrouped, they marked the occasion with a concert in Taibei Stadium which attracted nearly 400,000, breaking the attendance record (previously held my Michael Jackson). Their fourth album, Time Machine, helped them snatch their second "Best Band" award. They embarked on a world tour with dates in China, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and the U.S. They also performed on top of the tallest building in the world (at the time) – the Taibei 101 tower. In 2009 they went on another world tour which included Australia. That year they won their third Best Band Award.
F.I.R.
 Band Type: Male-Female Rock Trio
Debut: 2004
Chinese Name: 飞儿乐团
Mandarin Name: Fei'er Yuetuan
Region: Taiwan
Members:
F: Faye Chan (vocals)
I: Ian Chen (guitars, keyboards)
R: Real Huang (guitars, vocals)
F.I.R. performed the theme song of the hit Taiwanese TV Drama "The Outsiders", a song called "Lydia". The result was overnight success for the male-female trio. They released their debut album in 2004, aptly named Fairyland In Reality, a backronymn of the band's name. The title-track of their third album Flight Tribe was a number one hit in 2006 in China. The most unique aspect of the band is that it is comprised of both male and female members, which is rare in both the eastern and western worlds.
Phoenix Legend
 Band Type: Singing Duo
Debut: 2005
Chinese Name: 凤凰传奇
Mandarin Name: Fenghuang Chuanqi
Region: Mainland China
Members:
Female vocalist Ling Hua (玲花) from Inner Mongolia
Male rapper Zeng Yi (曾毅) from Hunan
Ling Hua who sings in both Mandarin Chinese and Mongolian teamed up with male rapper Zeng Yi. The result is a unique combination of traditional Mongolian chants and modern rap beats. The duo released their first album in 2005 but it wasn't until they appeared on a TV show called Star Boulevard and performed "On the Moon" (月亮之上 Yueliang Zhi Shang) that they became extremely popular. Their songs are now frequently played in China and the duo has churned out several more hits, including "Fly Freely" (自由飞翔).
Fahrenheit
 Band Type: Male Singing Quartet
Debut: 2006
Chinese Name: 飞轮海
Mandarin Name: Feilunhai
Region: Taiwan
Members:
Aaron Yan (Taiwan / U.S.)
Wu Zun (Brunei / Australia)
Calvin Chen (Taiwan / Canada)
Jiro Wang (Taiwan)
Fahrenheit is a concept band in that each of the four members represents a different season (or temperature) that corresponds to his personality. Calvin Chen represents warm spring at 77 degrees (Fahrenheit), Jiro Wang represents hot summer at 95 degrees F, Wu Zun represents cool autumn at 59 degrees, and Aaron Yan represents cold winter at 41. Note that each of their temperatures is separated by 18 degrees.
Before releasing their first album, which peaked at #2 on the charts, the group had contributed to several TV drama soundtracks. Their first big hit was "I Have My Youth". They performed a couple of songs with S.H.E. and it's individual members. Their second and third albums topped the charts, and they scored a number one hit in early 2009 in China—"Lonely Ferris Wheel". November 19 On Beating ChildrenNovember 20th marks Universal Children's Day. I always thought it was June 1st, but I looked it up and found that June 1st is International Children's Day. What's the difference? I haven't been able to find a solid answer.
Anyways, in honour of Universal Children's Day, I wanted to address the issue of beating children. In my travels around the world I have found that most places and cultures, in North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe, believe that it is both necessary and healthy to beat children. The belief is that children are born bad and this proclivity towards evil can be corrected through the act of spanking or beating. I'm not sure how people came to believe this. But in reading older literature I have found that people used to believe that those who behaved badly were possessed by evil demons. And by beating people, the demons would be exorcized and scared away.
I remember back in 1986, I was walking along at the Expo in Vancouver. I saw a man beating a child (perhaps it was his own; I couldn't be sure). There were security guards nearby, but, though they obviously saw it, they did nothing. I walked along to another zone of the grounds and, this time, I saw two adults engaged in a fist fight. Security guards came running from all over to break it up. I gathered from this that if two equally-matched opponents are punishing one another, this must be stopped. But if one much larger and stronger person is beating a small one, who is too young to defend himself, it is acceptable. Is it just me or is something wrong here?
Nowadays more and more people who are of the reasoning kind (rather than the ignorant who blindly follow tradition) are questioning the whole phenomenon of beating children. They are coming to realize that beating children doesn't make the children good; it makes them more bad. And this creates a vicious cycle. A child behaves badly, the parent beats him causing him to behave more badly, triggering the parent to beat him more.
We are on the brink of decadence if we fail to come to terms with this. What is the truth? Is beating children a good thing? Does it make them better people? Or does it make them all the worse? The one the media called "The Peace Prophet", after a lifetime of Persian and Ottoman prison and exile with his dad for espousing beliefs that upset the authorities of the time, beliefs which we take for granted today, traveled to Europe, then to the United States and Canada back in 1911-12. He said the following on this issue:
"Whensoever a mother seeth that her child hath done well, let her praise and applaud him and cheer his heart; and if the slightest undesirable trait should manifest itself, let her counsel the child and punish him, and use means based on reason, even a slight verbal chastisement should this be necessary. It is not, however, permissible to strike a child, or vilify him, for the child's character will be totally perverted if he be subjected to blows or verbal abuse."
—Abdu'l-Bahá (1844-1921)
From hubpages.com:
10 Reasons to Never Strike a Child
1. The risk of child abuse increases with physical punishment. Hitting too hard can cause severe injuries such as broken bones, bruises, welts, and nerve damage.
2. Physical punishment encourages an erosion of trust between child and parent.
3. Regular physical punishment is shown to worsen, not improve behavior. It often leads to an increase in antisocial behavior such as cheating, lying, assaulting, stealing, bullying siblings or peers, and a lack of remorse for any wrongdoing.
4. Hitting children teaches a pro-violence attitude. It transmits to children that striking people who are weaker and smaller is permissible.
5. Fear is not an effective method of teaching acceptable behavior. Fear can lead kids to obey only when the person who strikes them is close by.
6. Childhood memories of resentment and anger linger in adults who were frequently hit as kids.
7. Often, people hit children for behavior that does not need correcting, but is instead related to basic needs for food, sleep, attention, and exploring.
8. When hitting a child, the caretaker loses an important opportunity to correct the misbehavior and teach a more appropriate behavior.
9. Although striking a child may end a misbehavior for the moment, other methods such as reasoning, time out, time in, talking, and implementing non-violent consequences work even better and do not have the potential for harm that exists with hitting.
10. Better alternatives work! Children learn best through discussing, teaching, and observing adults who model caring, responsible, and self-disciplined behavior.
________
One last note. These days those of us especially in the western world have become obsessed with the whole notion of qualifications. People are not allowed to do something or become something unless they are "qualified". Becoming qualified often means passing some particular set of exams that often cover material unrelated to the subject. And then, if they obtain a certain score, they are awarded with certificates. They have to pay a lot of money in order to write the exams and get the certificates. And sometimes, they have to pay a fee every year to keep their qualification status. Sometimes they are given particular letters that they are supposed to put before of after their surname to announce to everyone that they are qualified to do or be something. With all the trendy fanaticism over this in recent years, here is a question:
What qualifications must a person obtain in order to be allowed to become a parent? November 18 Gigi in ShaanxiHere's an interesting question: What is the most valuable treasure a community can possess? Precious metals? Gems? A mammoth shopping mall? A zero crime rate? A park? A hospital?
While all of these, to varying degrees, may be seen as valuable, the most valuable treasure is none of the above. In my opinion, the most valuable treasure a community can possess is children. Without them, a community is living simply to die. It is stagnant and has no purpose.
But these days, with cancerous materialism having infected most of humanity, with the self being placed on the altar, with pleasure and diversion being seen as the most important features of life, increasingly, children are being seen not as a treasure but a burden to society.
People are marrying later and later in life. And many people do not regard the procreation of children as the primary purpose of marriage. Many who marry don't want to have children or want as few as possible. They use every excuse imaginable: it's too expensive to raise a child; I don't have time to raise a child; it would mean sacrificing my lovely career; it's too big a responsibility / hassle.
Rather than spending double incomes on the needs of their children, many prefer to lavish their own lives with extravagance, buying themselves huge homes, fancy sports cars, the latest electronic gadgets, world cruises, what have you.
There are also a number of people who have children simply because they believe in the tradition, but abuse them or neglect them. They think paternalistically, that they needn't teach them anything—no morals, no manners, not how to deal with making a life for themselves in a decadent society—but simply buy them things, lots of things, and provide for them.
As an ESL teacher, I know that most ESL teachers don't want to teach children; no one does. They think it's too much hassle. Classroom teachers of children don't earn much of a living, so why bother, many say and become oil tycoons.
Well, after saying all this, here is a noble thing…
In the summer, Chinese celebrities Gigi Leung, Valen Xu, Charlie, and Angelica Li lent a hand to four representatives of the HOPE Charitable Education Fund by attending a Book Fair called "Summer Bookworm". Gigi wrote a book of stories for children entitled, "Little Flower of the Fantasy World". She personally traveled from Hong Kong to the much poorer Shaanxi Province in Mainland China to hand-deliver the books to children at various schools.
What was really sweet was that, according to her, the children were very orderly, taking the book one at a time, and not opening them until they got approval from their teachers. She also said that one of the principals asked her, "May I have one?" And she commented that happiness can come from simple things. Children in Hong Kong spend a thousand bucks to get a video game console. But here, with her simple gift of a children's book, the kids were much happier.
Well done!
 See the following link for more photos:
November 05 November 2009 UpdateCarolyn and I have found a new apartment. It's in a good spot in Pudong, close to the subway, closer to my work and to Carolyn's parents' place. It's bigger (113 square metres) and cheaper than our current pad and has two balconies. I told Carolyn we're going to have to buy a barbecue. But she's more into getting a flat-screen TV.
Work is going better now. They gave me a bonus. They're realizing that getting good foreign teachers isn't an easy task, so treating those well who teach well is a must. The least sign of contempt by employers to their employees is usually an act of corporate suicide. But most places don't realize this. The fact that I'm getting paid well for teaching only 13-14 hours a week is pretty good. And now that we're moving I won't have to spend 3 hours on the subway everyday wrestling with kung fu masters for a seat.
Now that our move is official, we're busy packing everyday. Let's hope some ticks and roaches don't sneak inside any of the boxes to infest our new home.
What else is official is that they've just agreed to build the world's biggest Disneyland in Pudong. So, we'll be able to hang out with Mickey everyday, eh. |
|
|
