Chinese-American singer mixes rap, Tibetan vocals at cutting edge of Mandarin pop world
By MIN LEE
AP Entertainment Writer
July 21, 2006, 12:50 PM EDT Newsday.com
HONG KONG -- Leehom Wang grew up in Rochester, New York, played in a youth philharmonic orchestra and performed in Western musicals. Now he’s mixing rap and Chinese opera and fusing pop tunes with indigenous Tibetan music.
The 30-year-old Chinese-American singer-songwriter, one of the rising stars of the Chinese pop industry, has dug deep into his Asian roots for creative inspiration.
First was the rock version of the famous folk song about Chinese ethnic pride, ”Lineage of the Dragon,” released in 2000 on his album, ”Forever First Day.” Four years later, he blended hip-hop with Tibetan-style female vocals and Chinese drums.
On ”Heroes of Earth,” issued last year, Wang combined rap and Peking Opera singing and traditional Chinese kunqu, a 500-year-old opera tradition that predates Peking Opera.
Rapping Chinese in the title song, Wang declares, ”With Peking Opera and kunqu injected/Hip-hop enters a new phase/Only new breakthroughs, new musical styles produce new heroes.”
Wang isn’t the first Chinese-American to explore his ancestry and he’s not the first Chinese-language musician who’s incorporated traditional Chinese elements into his work, but he’s arguably the most experimental.
It was a long journey from a small American city to the forefront of Chinese pop culture production.
Wang was born to a wealthy family, his father a doctor and medical professor, according to his biography ”The One and Only Leehom Wang.”
He took an interest in music and performance at a young age, starting violin lessons at age six and the piano two years later. Wang took part in musicals throughout his schooling.
Wang broke into the Chinese music industry following his secondary school graduation after he sent a video tape of his performances to an uncle, who then recommended him to a Taiwanese producer, his biography said.
He released his first album ”Rival Lover Beethoven” in 1995, when he was still attending the prestigious Williams College in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.
His clean-cut image, good looks and impeccable pedigree earned him the label, ”high-quality idol.” Wang started out with a musical genre befitting a Chinese pop idol, belting out cheesy, smooth sounding ballads that are the hallmark of the industry.
Meanwhile, his ethnic identity strengthened as he spent more time in the Chinese-speaking world.
Describing his first time visiting Taiwan, Wang was quoted as saying in his biography, ”Going to a place that was entirely populated by Chinese, I had a special feeling. It was very comfortable.”
In one of his first displays of ethnic pride, in 2000, Wang gave an up-tempo interpretation of the classic folk song of ”Lineage of the Dragon,” a solemn homage to the Chinese race.
Several years later, Wang went further, experimenting with Chinese-style hip-hop. He called the genre ”chinked-out,” saying in his biography that he wants to reclaim the racial epithet used to derogate Chinese just as blacks now use the term ”nigger.”
He researched Tibetan music in China. He rapped in Mandarin, and persuaded Chinese opera performers to sing on his albums.
While contemporaries have sang R&B and used hip-hop beats and Chinese instruments in songs, Wang’s music is unique in that he gives indigenous Chinese art forms a significant, raw presence in a montage of disparate musical elements.
The song ”Heroes of Earth” is the epitome of ”chinked-out” style. Wang starts out rapping in Chinese, then a Peking Opera excerpt is played, then Chinese-American rapper Jin breaks out in English verse.
There are mixed views about Wang’s musical innovations.
Taiwanese music critic Yeh Yun-ping said Wang hasn’t found his own distinct sound and may be stretching.
”He doesn’t focus on a particular musical style. There’s a bit of this, a bit of that,” Yeh said, adding that he doesn’t think Wang is that talented as a rapper.
”He has the ambition of mixing Chinese and Western musical elements, but sometimes his talents do not cover every aspect,” he said.
At a recent press conference in Hong Kong Wang wore a red T-shirt, blue jeans and a big dragon-patterned pendant on his slender frame. His hair slightly spiked, the singer has thick eyebrows, large eyes and perfectly groomed skin, making for a classic metrosexual look.
Asked by The Associated Press if he was afraid his new hybrid style wouldn’t gain wide acceptance after the press conference, Wang said, ”I wanted to do something different, to do something the audience hasn’t heard before and to challenge everyone’s ears.”
”I think this is a necessary process for the evolution of pop music,” he said.
”It’s a challenge. There’s definitely a certain difficulty to it ... but it’s interesting to me. It’s fresh,” Wang said.
So far Wang’s musical manipulations don’t appear to have hurt his popularity.
Being a commercially successful pop singer on a major label _ Sony BMG _ Wang can’t stray too far from Chinese pop’s mainstream. His albums still include ballads called ”Forever Love” and ”Kiss Goodbye.”
Wang, however, plans to stay the course in his experimentation _ his next album will be a ”chinked-out” musical.
”It will be the first time ’chinked-out’ style has been presented on stage,” he said.
While he breaks new ground in Chinese pop, Wang has also scored a major coup in his acting career. Oscar best director Ang Lee has cast him in his upcoming spy thriller, ”Lust, Caution.”
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On the Net:
Official Leehom Wang Web site (Chinese only):
http://www.sonymusic.com.tw/pop/leehom/
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