Zhu Zheqin, also known as Dadawa, achieved international fame with
her Tibetan-inspired album
Sister Drum in 1995. Now after
more than 10 years she is back with her pan-Oriental
Seven
Days, but can she make a comeback?
This is an age in which the public is bombarded with images of
all sorts of celebrities who drop into oblivion if they don't make
a media appearance for a week, no matter now famous they may
be.
Guangdong Province native Zhu Zheqin, also known as Dadawa,
disappeared for 10 years before releasing her new album Seven
Days last year. On Saturday, she staged a small but
meticulously designed concert with a select audience at the
Shanghai Gallery of Art in Three on the Bund, as the second event
of "Live!@SGA Contemporary Classic" series.
In 1995, Zhu's collaboration with renowned music professor He
Xuntian's Tibetan-inspired album Sister Drum became the
first Chinese album released worldwide, in 56 countries and
regions.
The album has been reprinted and released over and over again
and the accumulated sales have reached between two and three
million copies, an amazing number for non-mainstream music.
Zhu hopes that people will "forget the voice from Sister
Drum and listen carefully to my new voices, based on a more
well-rounded perspective and understanding of Chinese culture after
a 10-year trip around the world." Disappearing from the public for
a decade, Zhu comes back in hopes of contributing to the "backward
Chinese music industry and creating something Oriental but
contemporary."
While Sister Drum brought Zhu global fame, it also made
people register her ambient, melodic and heavenly voice with the
Tibetan-based music. This left her with only two options 10 years
ago since she didn't want to repeat herself.
"Either, I had to just retire from the music industry and do
whatever for the rest of my life," says Zhu, in her mid-30s, "Or, I
needed to find a brand-new starting point for myself."
Zhu chose to leave the spotlight for a while, so she went on a
trip to discover the world, and especially, "to discover
sound."
In the past decade, she has traveled to North America, Africa
and Europe. She has even hosted a TV documentary about Africa.
Moreover, Zhu was a frequent visitor to other Asian countries, such
as India, Mongolia and Japan.
"Ten years ago, I only understood the Chinese culture from
within," notes Zhu. "Now, I have learned more about it from the
outside."
Seven Days, produced by Zhu's own company, is her
answer to the 10-year trip. Released last year in a few Asian
countries, Zhu is quite satisfied with the sales in such a
"shrinking music industry," though she won't say how many copies
have been sold.
"While the finance and art fields have developed rapidly in
China during the past 10 years, the music industry was moving
backward," says Zhu.
She believes the music industry has sacrificed too much of its
product for commercial purposes, which is why she decided to
produce her album herself, retaining control of the quality, though
at a much high cost.
Unlike
Sister Drum with its sound inspiration from Tibetan
culture,
Seven Days presents a pan-Asian Oriental value
system.
The seven tracks, comprised of percussion sound and traditional
melodies of South Asian countries, reflect the cycle of a week.
The simple lyrics tell fable-like stories. For example, the
first track tells of a girl picking strawberries in the woods.
When she has the basket, she cannot find the strawberries.
After she finds the strawberries, she has lost her basket.
"It is the simple Oriental way of looking at things. It is
always ambiguous about what really exists and what does not,"
explains Zhu, who sings to admire life, simple happiness, and to
love in Seven Days.
Some critics are suspicious about whether the pan-Asian album
will make it to the world stage again, because foreigners have seen
and understood much more about Oriental culture compared with 10
years ago.
But Zhu, who has always made something possible out of the
impossible, is confident.
"Many foreigners know about and are amazed by the traditional
opera in China, but they always ask, 'what are you doing now'?"
says Zhu, "Seven Days is my answer to them. It is
Oriental, but it is also contemporary. We need to show the world we
can also create, not just copy."
(Shanghai Daily July 17, 2007)
