Old China, New China and Sa Dingding's China
With the Beijing Olympics imminent, a chat with Sa Dingding -- a rising Chinese star on the global-music stage -- seemed a perfect opportunity to gain some insight into the vast and daunting world of her country's sounds. After all, her international debut album, 'Alive,' presents an artist with one foot in the music of her childhood on the Inner Mongolian grasslands and her other in a pan-Chinese approach embracing everything from Tibetan traditions to the most modern hi-tech rhythms and textures of Beijing and beyond. So who does she want to single out as a current influence?
"Jay-Z -- I like him very much," she says. "Jay-Z has a very good sense of rhythm."
Any Chinese artists?
"Dou Wei," she says, noting a prominent Beijing pop and rock artist of recent years, whose Web site calls him "moody and creative," lists his roles in various Chinese groups of recent years and makes references to such Western acts as the Cure, Bauhaus and dark-toned English "post-rock" act Bark Psychosis. "He mixes his music -- some rap, a little electronic and plays the flute."
Continue reading Old China, New China and Sa Dingding's China
Posted by Steve Hochman on Jul 22nd 2008 11:00AM
Filed under: Around the World





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