Music

Can't help falling in love

By Chen Jie (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-01 08:25

BYLINE  CHEN JIE

On May 13, Bob Dylan wrote to fans on his website about his April gig in Beijing: "If anybody wants to check with any of the concert-goers they will see that it was mostly young Chinese people that came."

I agree with him and I bet the youngest one was my 4-year-old son.

You might question bringing a 4-year-old to Dylan's concert, since he cannot understand a word of his songs. I just wanted to take him to the event and when he grows up he can brag to his peers, saying: "I attended Bob Dylan's live concert at the age of 4."

If my son was the only child at Dylan's performance, he met many friends his age at the recent Strawberry Festival and Beijing Electronic Music Festival. A number of young parents took their children to these trendy outdoor events, enjoying music and the sun.

At his age, in the early 1980s, I didn't know any international artists, let alone watch their live shows.

My grandmother occasionally took me to local operas in a teahouse or a conference room.

When my parents bought a tape recorder, neighbors came to see the fashionable thing and sometimes borrowed it. What they listened to were a few cassettes featuring revolutionary songs.

As a teenager with a thirst for pop music, I had limited choice. Most were songs from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The radio was my favorite toy since it played many pop songs, but I had never dreamed of seeing my idols live. China Central Television's Spring Festival Gala Show was the only opportunity in a year to see one or two hot singers on TV.

I will never forget the first live concert I attended. In February 1998 a roommate and I each spent 380 yuan ($47.50), almost double my monthly expenses, to see Taiwan pop star Chyi Chin. It was a terrific night and we sang until we were hoarse.

Unexpectedly and luckily, I joined China Daily in the summer of 2000 and became a culture reporter. On June 23, 2001, the Three Tenors performed a landmark concert before 30,000 people at the Forbidden City to support Beijing's bid to win the 2008 Olympic Games.

I interviewed Pavarotti and wrote the front page story for China Daily.

On May 7, 2008, I witnessed the historic moment when the China Philharmonic Orchestra and Shanghai Opera performed Mozart's Requiem for Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican.

China's culture scene is becoming more and more open-minded. Even a Kunqu Opera about lesbians was performed last year.

"When I tried to do avant-garde or experimental drama in the 1980s, I was considered a bad student. My parents and teachers were ashamed. We had a limited audience and could not find sponsors. But now avant-garde has become such a popular word that everybody is proud to be avant-garde," theater director Meng Jinghui told me.

"The Tang Dynasty was the most prosperous in China's history. Its biggest legacy, or what we mostly talk about it today, is not its GDP but its rich and diverse art and culture," says Yu Long, artistic director of the China Philharmonic Orchestra and Beijing Music Festival.

I really feel lucky to be with China Daily to record China's flourishing contemporary culture.

Chen Jie is deputy features editor of China Daily.

(China Daily 06/01/2011 page52)