On Dec 24th Xie Tian Xiao (incidentally also from Shandong for those keeping tally) gave his fans a memorable Christmas Eve, coinciding with the release of his new EP Chinese Zither Reggae Vol 1, with four new songs. XTX, who started off grunge, influenced by Bob Marley later became fascinated with reggae, and incorporated it into his latter albums. In this new EP he blended in zither instruments like the Gu Qin to create a style of “Chinese reggae”. A full album of “Chinese Zither Reggae” is in the works to be released later.
One of the most frustrating things about introducing new Chinese artists are the “they don’t look Chinese” comments. Considering China has 56 official ethnicities with their ancestral homes in China, and who knows how many unofficial ones, and 1.3 billion people, it’s unfair to homogenize any part of China (or of the world ). And according to wikipedia, minority populations are rising at 7 times the rate of the Han Chinese because the One Child Policy only applies to Han Chinese (no, China is not trying to eliminate its minorities via One Child).
Photographer Chen Haiwen recently paid a tribute to the diversity of China by producing a series of photos that captured this diversity. Along with a team of photographers, he traveled across China for a year to take photos of a family from each ethnic group. Those, along with thousands of other photos captured on the trip, were put on display in Beijing’s WangFuJing Street last month. zhouzhzh on youtube has a slideshow of all the photos.
Here’s a spot light on some, definitely not all, minority Chinese artists in pop culture.
Super Girl He Jie
our Yi-group
manager: Super Boy Ji Jie and brand manager for Bacardi
members: two powerful and tomboyish songstresses SM’s lost cause Zhang Liyin
and really lost cause Super Girl He Jie
and boyband Blue Bird Flying Fish‘s 70.
HuHu’s not Yi, but he’s there by association. Maybe Zhang Yunjing can join, too, by marriage. Continue reading →
This is proof that Cfensi is increasingly not the best place to keep up with alternatives to Cpop. I came to this sad sad realization when I discovered that these guys had released new albums, and I didn’t know about it even though they’re all mainstream. Instead I entreat you to join More CMusic at livejournal to keep more up-to-date.
