Music serves as bridge for Sino-British cultural exchanges

Transition

Transition, a British rock band, this month launched their tour of 21 cities across the Chinese mainland. The three-man band, known as Qianjin Band in Chinese, have already rocked stages in Wuhan and Chongqing with cities such as Shenzhen, Wenzhou, Dalian, Handan and Hohhot next in their line-up. This is their second tour on the Chinese mainland, having performed in ten cities last year.
One reason why they’re increasingly popular is because while they’re British, they sing songs in Chinese.
Set up in 1997, the band went to Taiwan in 2005 to develop their music career. “Before we went to Taiwan, we hardly had any knowledge about the place. We only remembered having toys in childhood labeled ‘Made in Taiwan,’” said Josh Edbrooke, one of the band members.
While the band received good feedback for their English songs in Taiwan, feedback was even better when they tried to sing in Chinese. So they began to translate their English songs into Chinese with friends’ help.
After years of practice, they have their own Chinese songs. Their debut first Chinese album released in December 2013 won the band fans and fame both on the Chinese mainland and in Britain.
“Playing Chinese music created by ourselves make audiences feel we are learning their culture, rather than bringing western culture to them,” said Josh, adding: “That’s a fusion of eastern and western music, and mutual-respect.”
In 2014, Transition was nominated for the “Best Foreign Mandarin Band” at the Taiwan Golden Indie Awards. “It was great honor to be nominated for the award, as we are the first-ever band from the UK to be nominated for a Mandarin music award,” said Josh, with his brother Jesse Edbrooke sitting next to him, a smile crossing his face.
Jesse, the lead singer, said he found it was very difficult at the beginning to understand and integrate into Chinese society and culture without knowing the language. They spent more than 10 years in Taiwan learning Chinese, the culture and the music. Gradually, they succeeded, and fell in love with the culture.
The band members are often invited by British schools to encourage students who are learning Chinese and to share their stories of the Chinese mainland.
One of their most famous Mandarin songs, “Sorry My Chinese Isn’t So Good”, is well-known in Britain. Their YouTube video has racked up more than one million hits, and has been sung by thousands of students learning Chinese.
Another Brit, Shaun Gibson, became a celebrity last year after making the English version of the famous Chinese song “Xiao Ping Guo” or “Little Apple”.
He recreated the music video, playing the Monk Xuanzang song and sang in both English and Chinese.
He told Xinhua he visited several cities on the Chinese mainland last year, when “Xiao Ping Guo” came out and grew massively popular.
Different from the experience of Transition, Gibson didn’t specifically learn Chinese. The 24-year-old recently graduated in music from the University of Liverpool.
He said he started taking a liking to Chinese music after his Chinese friends introduced him to karaoke in Liverpool. Gibson was charmed by Chinese music and couldn’t wait to explore more on the internet.
The first song he rewrote into English was “Tian Shi De Chi Bang”, “An Angel’s Wing”. And the first Chinese song he sang was “Ai Wo Bie Zou”, or “Love Me Don’t Go”.
“Chinese culture is something I really love, so is music. When I make, or translate, or sing, or talk about Chinese songs, it’s because I love it,” he said.
“It’s really nice that British people can appreciate such music even though they don’t understand it. And that’s the same way that I approached it, that the more I’ve learnt the more I’m interested in learning more,” Gibson added.
In a Chinese singing competition held in Manchester on June 7, Gibson won the best performance award. “I hope more competitions like this are held in Britain, and I hope I can share Chinese music with more Britons,” he said.
“An increasing number of British people are learning the Chinese language and Chinese culture. Many British young people like to sing Chinese songs when studying the language,” said Li Yongsheng, Consul General of Chinese Consulate General in Manchester, which organized the competition.
“Music has no borders, and the singing competition can build a bridge of people-to-people exchange in the form of music, which is loved by everyone,” he added. Xia Xiao, Xinhua