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Theater & Arts
Floating like a butterfly
By Chen Nan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-26 10:28
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Chinese folk singer Sa Dingding. |
Like many other young girls who love singing and dancing, Zhou Peng was excited to appear on television when she won a national singing competition in 1999 at 16. Then she released an album that sold well and became known as "China's first dance music singer".
But instead of following along the usual route of pop stardom she paused and re-branded herself. Like the caterpillar becomes a butterfly, Zhou transformed herself into Sa Dingding, a stage moniker that comes from her mother's Mongolian surname, and a childhood nickname.
"The albums and dances were childish. I was just a singer then. In a short time I became a star and earned some money. But I wanted to create and produce my own music, something special that allowed me to express myself fully," she says.
She drew on her childhood experiences as a nomad on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, with her grandma, where she learned how to sing and play the guzheng (a zither like six-stringed pluck instrument) and the horse-headed fiddle (Mongolian bowed instrument). Today, she not only sings in Mandarin and Mongolian but also Tibetan, Sanskrit and a language of her own invention - "Zi Yu".
Her exotic costumes, on and off stage, mysterious music videos and songs, which incorporate Buddhist mantras, traditional Chinese instruments and electronica, got her nicknamed the "Asian Bjork" by Western media.
Her album, Alive, which mixed traditional Chinese tones and Buddhist mantras with electronica, won her a BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music in 2008. It sold more than 2 million copies in Asian countries and was also released in the United States.
Sa recently previewed her new album, Harmony, which absorbs influences from ethnic group music and folk tales in Yunnan province.
At the concert she appeared in a bright blue Chinese ethnic skirt and a pair of hand-made cloth shoes. Sa had her long hair tied in a topknot and sang eight songs from her new album, and concluded with a re-mixed version of her popular song Alive.
She designed the costumes, lights and set design, making them an extension of her music.
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Sa Dingding at the concert preview of her new album, Harmony. |
The performance started with Sa's distinctive chanting and high-pitched voice, to go with the drums and traditional instruments like the horse-headed fiddle and pipa (a four-stringed lute).
"Legend says the sky and the Earth can never be set apart. Diligent people live with some mystical animals in the cave. Suddenly, a light comes up and drums rumble, the old prophecies on the wall become true," she sang during the first song from her new album, HaHaLiLi, while dancing.
During the following 90 minutes, Sa presented songs like Pomegranate Woman, Girl in Green Dress, Blue Horse and Xi Carnival, accompanied by her band and two Yunnan natives, who murmured and roared in their native languages.
She also invited Liu Xiaogeng, a famous Chinese musician who went to Yunnan province 30 years ago and learned from local folk culture before combining it with modern music, to join her band.
A day after the concert for an interview at 11 am, Sa looked like an artwork, from the purple knee-heeled boots to the multi-colored layers of silk tops, black, almost waist-length hair, resting over her shoulder, and Buddhist beads and bracelets on her skinny arms.
"I spent months in Yunnan province and I found that the happy rhythms could be found everywhere, from an ordinary person's dinner to holiday celebrations," Sa says. "Now, lots of people travel from the big cities to Yunnan, to get close to nature, I believe that, like me, they are overwhelmed by the uplifting songs and joyful dancing there."
She says writing music comes naturally to her, though she is not sure whether it is because of her childhood influences, or her instinctive preference for new-age music, that formed what she sounds like today.
"I didn't expect all this," she says of her achievements and her latest collaboration with Marius de Vries and Ross Cullum (the men behind Madonna and U2's albums).
"But I always have lots of new ideas and stories derived from music to tell. That was why I changed my direction years ago. I am happy that my music is appreciated and shared by so many people worldwide and it is an honor to bridge Eastern and Western cultures."
"Mainstream Chinese pop is too common and all the same," explains Caralinda Booth, an A&R consultant at Universal Music China. "Chinese artists who can crossover are rare. And minority artists offer something different that people will remember.
"It's taken something special to crack the world market and we believe Sa Dingding is unique."
