CONTROVERSIAL folk soprano Gong Linna has hit the spotlight again with three new experimental songs.

    The three songs include “Fahai, You Don’t Understand Love” released at HNTV’s New Year gala, “Golden Cudgel” released at HNTV’s Spring Festival gala and “Love Big Idiot” at JSTV’s Spring Festival gala.

    Unlike “Disturbed,” which was first released in China in 2010, strong doubts have been raised over Gong’s exaggerated movements and strange vocals. Some netizens even found her old performances, which were videoed before she went abroad in 2002, to mock how she has changed.

    Xu Jingqing, composer of the theme song for the TV drama “Journey to the West,” said that Gong’s works were “slapstick.” “Since ‘Disturbed,’ Gong has gone too far with her experimentation. Her noveletish works mislead audiences. I don’t think ‘Golden Cudgel’ is a song,” Xu said.

    Gong said the criticism was not expected. “I will read audiences’ comments and think about our styles, but these cannot change my style or that of Lao Luo (Gong’s German husband), because we want more changes in our music,” Gong said.

    Gong told ynet.com that the three songs were actually new experiments from their band. “Our band does not only have music like ‘Disturbed,’ but also has other styles featuring ancient Chinese poems and folk music,” she said.

    In Gong’s opinion, the three songs were a mini musical for New Year celebration. “This is who we are. We are trying to make music, not ‘amazing songs.’ The title of ‘amazing songs’ is to be given by audiences,” she said.

    Gong said she could understand that the songs would be initially controversial, but she was satisfied with the result. “We are really serious about our music, not just singing for attention or fame. We want to show energy and passion. Some people don’t like the songs. I think these songs may touch them. Our works are completely open. I sang Xu’s songs before and completely understand him, but I will not get angry about what he had said because we are on different paths,” she said.

    Born in 1975 in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, Gong competed in numerous national singing contests in her childhood and began her studies at the Chinese Conservatory of Music at age 16. She was runner-up in the Chinese National Singing Contest’s folk category in 2000.

    In 2002, she met her husband Robert Zollitsch (also called Lao Luo), with whom she started a new artistic life. All of her later works were composed by Lao Luo, a German expert of traditional Asian music. Lao Luo studied traditional Chinese music and the Chinese zither in Shanghai in 1993.

    Gong was not well-known in China until 2010, when a video of her singing an experimental song went viral. The song, “Disturbed,” has no lyrics, only some interjections, and Gong sings with exaggerated facial expression and body movements, netizens called it “an amazing song.”

    Not only Gong, Lao Luo also faced serious criticism this time over his comments on Chinese folk music. “Much contemporary Chinese folk music just imitates Western sounds and Western expressions,” Lao Luo said in an earlier interview.

    The comments raised heated discussion on the Internet and some netizens asked him to “get out of China.”

    “Lao Luo was hurt by these words. He made those comments because he respects Chinese folk music culture. A foreigner helps us find some problems with his own observation, so he thinks he is helping Chinese people. He has never regretted this,” Gong said.

    According to the plan, Gong said they would continue with their current approach to making music. “We will organize a concert this year featuring different factors and styles. We also plan to hold a small poetry concert and will try to tell stories with music. Having fun with audiences is what I want to do most,” she said. (Wang Yuanyuan)

    Youngsters at a loss over family trees

CHINA’S decades-old family planning policy has had the effect of shrinking family trees over time, leaving younger people with fewer relatives. However, the rules that dictate which titles are used to refer to different relatives are still boggling the minds of these same young Chinese.

    In traditional Chinese families, where all brothers live under the same roof with their parents even after they are married and have children of their own, the terms “aunt,” “uncle” and “cousin” are far from enough to address everyone.

    A child has to call his mother’s sister “yima” (maternal aunt) and that woman’s spouse “yifu.” If his mother has several sisters, they are addressed in relation to their age, from “eldest yima” and “second yima” down to “youngest yima.” A mother’s brothers are called “jiujiu” (maternal uncle) and their spouses “jiuma,” also determined by the ages of the relatives in question.

    The situation is even more complicated on the father’s side of the family. A father’s elder brothers are called “bobo,” but the younger ones are “shushu,” which can be confusing even for adults.

    There is also a multitude of titles used to describe cousins, as well as elder brothers and sisters. And those are just for direct relations — the naming conventions become even more complicated when it comes to one’s parents’ cousins and their spouses.

    Some of these words are already being phased out, as the oldest members of the one-child generation born in the 1970s have now become parents themselves. Their children know nothing of aunts, uncles and cousins, since their parents come from single-child families themselves.

    A poll of 489 people conducted by the Xinhua News Agency from Saturday to Tuesday found that 72 percent of respondents could not address their relatives properly.

    While only less than 20 percent of the respondents said they could manage to address most people properly with their parents’ help, nearly 40 percent claimed that even their parents often argue about what to call a distant aunt or uncle.

    Wang Fenghui, a college student in Shanghai, said it is “perfectly normal” for him to be unaware of what he should call his mother’s cousin.

    “I grew up in the city and know very little of our relatives who still live in the countryside,” said Wang. “We meet twice a year at most.”

    When Mu Jin returned from Sydney to her hometown in Nanning, capital of South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, her first challenge was figuring out what to call her great-grandmother’s younger sister. “I was really frustrated by how poor my Chinese was.”

    Dr. Zeng Fanzhen, a Suzhou University sociologist specializing in Chinese genealogy, said Chinese family trees quite likely represent the most complicated and hierarchical familial system worldwide.

    “But the one-child policy and rapid urbanization have downsized families and blurred blood relations,” Zeng said.

    Larger families are hoping to restore their genealogy to enhance family cohesion among the younger generation, Zeng said. “This will hopefully help to sustain traditional Chinese family relations, which are an important part of Chinese folk culture,” Zeng said. (Xinhua)