THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 26, 1995 TAG: 9511230291
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
Music stores in Tidewater have attracted a new customer, a slender Chinese professor who pores over the newest hits, carefully selecting which ones he will take back home with him to introduce to a Chinese audience numbering in the millions.
In Beijing, Yang Xias Lu, 39, is well known as a commentator, performer and composer of traditional and popular Chinese music. Since mid-October he has been lecturing and teaching on all four Tidewater Community College campuses as the first Chinese visiting professor in the academic exchange agreement between TCC and the Beijing Broadcasting Institute. Yang is an associate professor and dean of the literature and art department at the institute.
Yang previously participated in academic exchange programs with London and Oxford universities. Equally comfortable with traditional Chinese opera or the newest pop hit on Chinese MTV, Yang uses music to introduce TCC students to the cultures and customs of his native China.
Well-versed in the cultures of Chinese nationalities, Chinese art and music, Yang is equally familiar with the influence of American music and culture on his country. A frequent guest on Chinese radio and MTV, Yang also composes scores for dramas presented on the Chinese Central Television, the nation's largest television network.
Chinese MTV has a broader focus than its American counterpart.
``The two MTVs are very different,'' Yang said. ``American MTV shows rock and roll, but Chinese MTV often focuses on traditional and classical music as well as popular music.''
Before 1980, the American influence on Chinese music was limited to the sounds of the 1940s and 1950s, the era of the Hollywood musicals. When communication between the two countries opened up in 1980, the Chinese embraced American popular music, even though they could not always understand all of the lyrics.
Lionel Ritchie and Michael Jackson have large followings in China and according to Yang, ``Everyone likes Elvis Presley.''
Ask him what is the most popular American song in China today and, without hesitation, Yang smiles and breaks into ``Country roads, take me home ...'' The John Denver hit that has become a country music classic in China as well as here.
``Many composers of popular music in China are also influenced by jazz, the blues and black soul music,'' Yang added.
Since 1990, the trend in popular music has been to blend traditional themes and lyrics with a rock and roll sound to create a new and distinctive variety of Chinese music like ``Our Great China.''
In a clip from a Chinese MTV video, a handsome male singer wearing a bright red mandarin-collared jacket is backed by dozens of young musicians, playing traditional Chinese instruments, as a huge red Chinese national flag is unfurled.``Our Great China,'' the number one pop song in China, has been choreographed into a slick production number with a definite rock beat.
Yang's understanding of the many different nationalities of the Chinese people stems from practical experience as well as academic study.
When he was 16, Yang worked on the Chinese railroad, laying track across a large expanse of the countryside. He later became a factory worker and a carpenter until he was able to go back to school and become a teacher in 1979. Since then, he has become the first person to earn a Ph.D. in music in China since the cultural revolution.
Fortunately for Yang, even his misadventures in the U.S. have turned out happily - thanks, he says, to the kindness of strangers. After confusing which was the proper departure gate at the Norfolk airport, Yang was rescued by several Ohio University students who were passing by and got him to the right gate in time for his flight.
Another night found Yang stranded in downtown Norfolk, having missed the last bus to his South Norfolk lodgings. A kindly bus driver made a special run and delivered Yang safely home.
``When I go back to China, I will talk about Virginia, especially the common people and their habits, lifestyle and humor,'' Yang said.
The exchange agreement between TCC and BBI was developed after Dr. Barbara Hund, a TCC professor, spent the 1988/89 school year in Beijing as a foreign expert, or exchange professor, at BBI through a program sponsored by Princeton University. After several years of negotiations, a formal agreement between TCC and BBI was signed last year, enabling BBI to send one teacher to TCC each year and TCC to reciprocate with a visit every other year. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
In Beijing, Yang Xias Lu, 39, is well-known as a commentator,
performer and composer of traditional and popular Chinese music.
by CNB