2 folks shake up the music world
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, April 9, 2013
The Monkey King is one of the most beloved characters in Chinese legend, depicted in books, film, TV and animations. His golden cudgel changes shape and size and can be wielded in any way imagined. It can be as small as a needle or, according to modern measurement, it can weigh more than eight tons.
Many in the audience were not amused, some Internet users called her physical image and performance "weird" and "frightening." Some said her performance belittled the iconic Monkey King in what seemed like a comedic but unfathomable performance - with a chorus of all-red monkeys wearing monkey masks and pig masks.
Xu Jingqing, composer of a song for a "Journey to the West" TV series, called the performance "auditory pollution."
Gong and Lao Luo are not in the least put off by criticism and plan to continue with original songs that push boundaries.
"Controversy makes songs more meaningful and then people can think more deeply about them," she told Shanghai Daily.
While singing "Golden Cudgel," she was expressing both her own emotions and depicting the character, she said.
"Our design was meant to break with tradition. Lao Luo and I spent a whole afternoon making the Monkey King's Golden Hoop with my own hair and we created a remarkable feather decoration traditionally seen on the Monkey King's head or shoulders."
Another song that disturbed listeners was a love song of separated lovers, based on the beloved love story "Madame White Snake." No one had ever before turned the legend into catchy folk-pop-new music tune.
"Fahai, You Don't Understand Love" is about love conquering all, and the chorus "Fahai, You Don't Understand Love" is repeated again and again. It refers to the wicked monk Fahai who separated Lady White Snake (a benevolent snake sorceress in human form) from her mortal lover and husband Xu Xian (and imprisoned her beneath the Leifeng Pagoda. Gong, as White Snake, sings to Fahai. Lao Luo appears as Xu Xian.
In another number she sings, "I Am In Love with a Big Idiot," which is definitely not conventional and talks about the difficulties of ordinary marriage. He sings "I'm such an idiot." Performed in three parts, it includes an adaptation of a Jiangsu Province folk song and a well-known poem by Song female poetess Li Qingzhao (1084-1155), titled "Like A Dream." The poem depicts an interesting lake cruising when the drunken poetess accidentally rowed the boat into the deep lotuses on her way back home.
It was altogether unsettling and some of the musical arrangements were strange to Oriental musical sensibilities.
Just because some people don't like her music doesn't make it bad music, Gong said.
At the Chinese Top Ten Forum to honor the best original Chinese songs of the year, Gong and Zollitsch were outspoken about the shortcomings of the domestic music industry, which they described as shallow and lacking in vitality and originality. Zollitsch once said there were too many Western elements in Chinese music today; that provoked a fire storm. They called for stronger financial and social support for talented musicians and for creative, non-mainstream ideas.
Their message: Originality is the soul of art.
Early life
Gong, who is around 38, grew up in Guizhou Province and studied folk music at the Chinese Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Honors followed. In 2000 she was named the best female singer at the national singing competition and became a popular performer at galas. But she was dissatisfied with stereotypical performances, frequent lip-syncing during shows, and general lack of imagination.
In 2002, she met Lao Luo at a small concert in Beijing. He would later tell her that her former stereotypical gala performances were not the "real" part of her and called them a waste of her talent. When Gong told him, "I don't want money, I just want freedom," Zollitsch responded, "I don't have money, but I am so rich because I have freedom."
Two years after meeting, they married and moved to Germany. They traveled widely and Gong said she absorbed the music of many cultures, enriching her own art. They have two sons, seven and five years old.
The couple moved back to China in 2010 after "Tante" became a hit.
Lao Luo, a native of Munich, has written most of the music for Gong's albums, including "Tante." He is an established composer, producer, director, ethno-musicologist, and musical painter. He used to perform on classical stages, at folk and world music festivals, and at jazz clubs.
In 1993 he arrived in China to study traditional Chinese music at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he also studied guqin, a seven-string zither favored by ancient poets and literati. He combines elements of Chinese folk tradition, ancient poetry, Peking Opera and Western harmonies and aims for a kind of global language.
The couple also has a band, "Five Elements," including musicians from around the world. They returned to China in 2010, opening a studio, Gong Linna and Lao Luo Music Creations, to promote their new sound.
They are well-received in the West, but at home, there's still disharmony.
One Internet user called "Ahdahada" said he was shocked at the repetition for a couple of minutes of the simple words "golden cudgel" in different tones and rhythms. "If a golden cudgel were a commodity for sale, the song would be the best promotional video," he joked.
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