#mandarin music

[rhyperographer]

SUPER JUNIOR-D&E DIGITAL SINGLE 『约定 (with SIWON, ZHOUMI, RYEOWOOK, KYUHYUN)』

It's so good to see Zhoumi with other SuJu members again after many years.

[madamvoila]

i NEED NEED NEED more mandarin indie music recommendations!!!

[liu-anhuaming]

《下雨的夜晚》 苏打绿

受伤了 谁都会哭泣 哭完了 别否定过去

快乐的 美好的 都还在这里 等着你

[xinyuehui]

In my heart, I silently recite, and your voice will appear. You will find that I am saying to you, walk with me.

伍六七之记忆碎片 · SCISSOR SEVEN S5EP5

[linghxr]

My 2023 in Mandopop/Chinese music (update & recs)

It’s been too long since I last shared some music recommendations/updates on what I’m listening to! Admittedly, I haven’t been discovering as many new artists because I’m busy listening to 薛之谦 on repeat. But we'll focus on the new.

You can check out my Spotify playlist featuring these songs (plus bonus ones). In addition, I’ve included YouTube links below.

五月天 / Mayday 五月天 is a legendary band, so of course I knew of them and had heard a few of their songs over the years. But I never proactively sought out their music until recently. I still haven’t had time to dive into their back catalog, but I’ve already found some songs I really love.

《我又初恋了》 I actually really didn’t like this song the first time I heard it, but it wormed its way into my brain. It’s just a lot of fun! Non-serious songs can be good too.

《转眼》 My favorite 五月天 song <3. I’m probably too young to fully appreciate the lyrics, but they make me feel so nostalgic and bittersweet, like transitioning to a new chapter of life and leaving the old behind.

《因为你 所以我》 This song didn’t stand out to me at first, but it grew on me! I caught myself humming it a lot. It‘s kind of corny, but it sounds so full of hope.

陈奕迅 / Eason Chan I first started listening to 陈奕迅 a couple years ago after my Album a Day August challenge, but I’ve found that his music has grown on me over time. I believe I’ve only mentioned him once before, so I thought now was a good time to highlight my favorite of his songs.

《之外》 This is probably my favorite 陈奕迅 song. The lyrics convey a sense of hopelessness, but the overall song has a smooth, light sound.

《娱乐天空》 You know a song is good when it’s over 6 minutes long but feels like it flies by! It makes me want to get up, get moving, and be productive.

《烟味》 This song is dramatic, and I love it for that. Also has a hint of orchestral flavor.

《淘汰》 One of 陈奕迅’s most well-known songs—for a good reason. It has big Cpop ballad vibes but is definitely livelier.

白举纲 / Bai Jugang You’re going to notice several mentions of 披荆斩棘 in this post. That’s where I “met” 白举纲. I instantly liked his voice and loved seeing him with his “brother” 高瀚宇 and “dad” 张晋! You may also see his music under his English name, Pax Congo.

《被动失控》 This is the only song on the list you could headbang to.

《Shy Boy》 I love this song because it’s cute and includes a children’s rhyme that I learned as a kid: 找啊找啊找朋友 找到一个好朋友.

苏诗丁 / Su Shiding At some point last year I did a one-month free trial of Apple Music. It was an interesting experience because the recommendations were very different from what Spotify tends to show me. I’m glad Apple Music led me to 苏诗丁!

《LUCIFER（傲慢宗罪）》 All I can say is that this song exudes coolness and confidence. It also has a fair bit of English, but honestly I had to look up the lyrics to tell what some of it was.

《梦幻病》 This song is from the same album. It’s dreamlike but gets more frantic as it builds. Overall, it’s just a bit…unsettling.

队长 / Young Captain I learned about 队长 from a random post on Instagram about his concert in Malaysia. I think these songs might have gone viral on 抖音 or something. I was surprised I liked them so much because they both have some rap (I’m not a rap fan), but it was love at first listen.

《11》 I love how this song builds towards the end. I spend the whole song waiting for the crescendo, and it’s great payoff.

《楼顶上的小斑鸠》 This song is like the slightly mellower sibling of the one above. But I ended up liking this one even more.

金志文 / Jin Zhiwen 金志文 was another artist who Apple Music recommended to me. I definitely need to explore his discography more but haven’t had the chance to do so yet. But he has some good stuff so far!

《自娱自乐》 Smooth and relaxing but in a fun way. Simple and no-frills but will put a smile on your face!

《远走高飞》 This one feels like enjoying the breeze on a beautiful sunny day. I also enjoy the duet with 徐佳莹 version.

163braces 163braces started out as a YouTuber posting song covers. I have watched a couple of her covers, but they didn’t leave much of an impression on me. I was pleasantly surprised by her foray into original music. I look forward to hearing what she does next!

《控制》 The song I would want as my “soundtrack” if I were a video game character. It’s energetic and loud.

《murmur》 Honestly this song is pretty similar to the first one. Sometimes I have trouble distinguishing them. But hey, if ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

小鬼 / Lil Ghost 小鬼 did what I can best describe as “pulling an MGK” by going from more rap to kinda pop-punk? That MGK album was my guilty pleasure when in came out, so I’m all for 小鬼’s new direction.

《Last Day》 This song really gave me MGK vibes. It’s about half in English, but I often don't even notice when he switches between languages.

《不良少年》 I just know I would have loved this song so much in high school. It’s an angsty teen anthem. 

《为明天写封信》 I can totally imagine this song playing at the end of a 2000s teen movie! Maybe while showing a montage of the main characters graduating.

《无所求必满载而归》 by 陈粒 / Chen Li This is technically cheating because I have recommended 陈粒 songs before, but it was at least a couple years ago. I heard this song covered on 披荆斩棘的哥哥 and immediately looked up the original. Honestly I should have known it was a 陈粒 song because you can totally tell it’s her style.

《轻红》 by 曹杨 / Young I keep coming back to this song! It’s from a drama soundtrack. I was super surprised the first time I listened to it because I thought it was going to be a typical ballad based on the first ~45 seconds or so—it wasn’t. There is also another version by 陈雪燃 (the king of cdrama OSTs). But I actually prefer the 曹杨 version.

《时光机》 by 吴克群 / Kenji Wu I was introduced to 吴克群 via 披荆斩棘2. He was instantly one of my favorite contestants after his team’s amazing 《新地球》 performance (check it out). This song is bouncy and a little dreamy. I kinda want to hear a remix with Harry Styles’ As It Was. I just wish it were longer than 3 minutes!

My Spotify Wrapped

I have a tradition of sharing my Spotify Wrapped, and I wanted to continue the streak in some form. So here's a quick rundown.

Top genre: 华语流行音乐 Representative city: Taipei Minutes: 21,750

Top artists

薛之谦 / Xue Zhiqian

林宥嘉 / Yoga Lin

五月天 / Mayday

李荣浩 / Li Ronghao

陈奕迅 / Eason Chan 

Top songs

《木偶人》 - 薛之谦

《狐狸》 - 薛之谦

《骆驼》 - 薛之谦

《转眼》 - 五月天

《后来的我们》 - 五月天

Also, fellow Mandopop fans should check out the Mando Gap newsletter. I stumbled upon it this year, and I know it’s going to be a great resource for discovering new artists in 2024!

[graveltotempomp3]

Tony Stark 🤝 Odysseus

giving your enemy

your name and address

[faaun]

the way that diff languages sound r so fascinating they're all different and all so vivid

[5-cz]

an (incomplete) list of traditional chinese instruments

I recently had the chance to attend a few lectures by members of the National Chinese Orchestra - Taiwan, and I thought I'd share some of the information they gave (this is by no means a complete list and is based mostly on the notes I took during lecture）

Chinese instruments are divided into four families of instruments: woodwind, bow string, plucked string, and percussion. They are also divided into eight categories based on the material they are made of (or, in some cases, used to be made of). These categories are stone, earth, bamboo, metal, skin, silk, wood, and gourd.

笛子 (dízi)

There are five main types of 笛子: 曲笛 (qūdí)，梆笛 (bāngdí)，大笛 (dàdí)，小笛 (xiǎodí)，and 口笛 (kǒudí)。 They are traditionally made of bamboo and vary in length, resulting in different note ranges and timbres. 曲笛 and 梆笛 are the most common. 梆笛 is higher pitched and brighter due to its shorter length, and it is often used in music from northern China. 曲笛 has a much warmer, rounder sound due to its longer length and is often used in southern music. 口笛 is the shortest of them all and is very shrill; it is often used to imitate bird calls. 笛子 are similar to Western flutes in that the musician controls the pitch through covering or uncovering the finger holes, but the way the instruments produce sound is different. Western flutes create sound through the vibration of the air in the instrument, and while this is part of how the 笛子 produces sound, it also has a membrane that vibrates to produce sound. 笛子 are included in the woodwind family and the bamboo category.

笛子 （左边），笙 （右边）

笙 (shēng)

The 笙 is the oldest reed instrument in the world. It is a woodwind instrument consisting of many vertical pipes with reeds at the base that the musician controls through various keys in order to play specific notes. It produces sound through a reed at the mouthpiece of the instrument that the musician vibrates with their breath. It is the only reed instrument in the world that can be played both by blowing out and by breathing in. This is due to a door-like cut-out in the reed. The 笙 can play 38 notes across three octaves. Not only can it play single notes, but it can also play chords made of multiple notes played at the same time. It has been used in a wide range of music from traditional accompaniment (to 唢呐 or 笛子) to modern jazz pieces to solo pieces. In the modern day, it is often used in Chinese orchestras as melody and/or accompaniment. 笙 is included in the woodwind family and the gourd category.

二胡 (èrhú)

The 二胡 is one of the most well-known traditional Chinese instruments. It has only two strings that the musician plays with an animal-hair bow. At the base of the 二胡 there is a small drum that has a snake skin membrane on one side. This membrane vibrates in addition to the strings' vibration, creating a distinct sound. The 二胡 is often used to imitate animal noises, such as a galloping horse, in addition to its musical notes. The musician holds the 二胡 upright as they play it, keeping pressure on the strings with one hand and using the bow with the other. Unlike many Western string instruments, the 二胡 does not have a finger board. This allows the musician to play a wide range of notes and utilize many different techniques. 二胡 is included in the bowed string family and the silk category.

革胡 (géhú)

This is one of the newest Chinese instruments. The 革胡 was created in the 1950s. Many Chinese orchestras were using cello as a bass instrument, and the 革胡 was created in order to fill the gap in the bass register in Chinese orchestras. Even still, it is a very rare instrument, and the NCO - Taiwan is one of the only orchestras who uses it in its ensemble. It was made as a combination of the cello and the 二胡。This was done in order to get the full bass sound of cello while being able to blend more easily with the 二胡 and other Chinese instruments. The strings on the 革胡 correspond to the same notes as they do on the cello, but the 革胡 also has a drum at its base similar to the 二胡。This drum was originally covered with a snake skin membrane like the 二胡, but since it is a significantly larger area to cover, it is now covered with a man-made polymer. The 革胡 is included in the bowed string family and, though it was created after silk strings fell out of use, it is included in the silk category.

二胡 （左边），革胡 （中���），扬琴 （右边）

扬琴 (yángqín)

The 扬琴, also sometimes written 洋琴, is a percussion instrument. It was originally from Persia before it was brought to China through trade. Many countries have their own versions of this instrument, originally called the santūr, and like others' variations, the Chinese version has become unique to China. The 扬琴 has 144 strings that the musician hits with thin bamboo mallets. The strings vibrate, producing various musical notes. What is unique about the 扬琴 as compared to other variations is that it uses bamboo mallets. These are a lot more flexible than wooden mallets, and so the musician is able to play very quick notes using the vibrations of the mallet. This also allows the musician to use techniques that are unique to the 扬琴。扬琴 is included in percussion family and the silk category (the strings used to be made of silk, but they are now often made of steel).

https://web.northeastern.edu/music-chinese/

https://www.britannica.com/art/Chinese-music/Classification-of-instruments

https://www.britannica.com/art/yangqin

[hoyotunes]

Come Alive from Come Alive Philip Strand, Lei Sheng, Sān-Z, HOYO-MiX

[shiweimigi]

March 10, 2024 - "空街" (A Wide and Empty Alley) - Original song

Compose, arrange: Cuber虹

Lyrics, planning: 祈羽笙

Tuning: @shiweimigi

Mixing: 風权

Art: 林凡PENG

Video: 北有枝

Vocalist: Yuezheng Ling V5 Normal

Also available on SoundCloud and bilibili

[hollow-keys]

The Devil's Chord is basically:

"Let's go visit Mr Wifebeater and Co, who are obviously the most important musicians of all time, and act like they were all totally cool people even decades after Mr Wifebeater's wifebeating became public knowledge."

"Oh no, the world went into a nuclear winter without music we have to save it by finding the right chord to banish the evil demon music thief!"

"BTW the music demon is a nonbinary drag queen called Maestro (I'm gonna assume they don't know that's a gendered word lmao) who was safely prevented from destroying the world by the Catholic church banning the chord that summoned them. Please do not think about the subtext of that."

"Also this random washed up musician somehow found out about the summoning chord and played it. Don't ask how no one else tried playing it out of curiosity when it was apparently already public knowledge or how the church knew it was evil without playing it."

"Ruby is just saur important she managed to hold off the music demon with the power of the songs in her soul (???)"

"The Doctor pulled 6/7th of the banishing chord's notes out his own ass first try somehow and Mr Wifebeater and Paul McCartney got the last one first try also."

"Musical number everybody! The End!"

Literally what the fuck was that?

Honestly the original Toymaker serial was so haunting at times with him trapping people from the real world in his domain and turning them into literal toys he would then bring back to life to use against new people who got trapped in his domain. He pit them against each other in games, promising freedom to whoever wins, dooming them to either remain his puppets and let the newcomers go free or doom the newcomers to take their place so they can escape, and that's assuming he was telling the truth. The Doctor can't beat him, only escape and leave the domain with those people trapped inside. The TARDIS team tell themselves they're not real, just puppets pretending to be real people, but it's not clear. They're tricking themselves into thinking it's clearer cut than it is to make it easier to leave them behind.

Those were such good episodes and all RTD can write is pale imitations that are insultingly stupid even for children's television. "We defeated the Toymaker with a game of catch" "We defeated his child (did I mention the Maestro is related to him?) with a musical note password we got first try." What is this?

And they're still going with the pouring salt at the edge of the universe weakened the fabric of time and let supernatural beings in thing? "I invoked a suspicion at the end of the universe where the walls of reality are thin" doesn't sell the salt thing, sorry. I can't take it seriously. If Chibnall wrote this, more of you would be hating. This is like the fucking rat saving the universe in Endgame all over again.

[slavic-roots-western-mind]

Chinese songs that motivate me to study

Memorizing vocab and doing character drills repeatedly can sometimes be quite demotivating, so here's my top 10 songs that get me motivated.

心在跳情在燒 by 謝軍

永远的兄弟 by 刀郎

站在草原望北

愛江山更愛美人 by 李麗芬 Lily Lee

檀健次 JC-T《獵罪圖鑒 Under the Skin》

花桥流水 by 高安、纳兰珠儿

曾经的你 by 许巍

浪子���话 by 花僮

找一个字代替 by 邰正宵

Soldier by 陆虎

[mvvocaloidgifs]

【YUEZHENG LING】 Wrong + Right / CircusP × Marvin Valentin

[way2uchuu]

容祖兒-說真的 / Joey Yung- Honesty, CD booklet (2001)

[gotjacobian]

Finished the "HOT-TO-GO" translation, which I'll put under a cut. Original lyric is in italics at the top, then mandarin and (pinyin), and then [a more literal translation] and some notes on why we picked what we did.

I can be the one, I’m your new addiction 我可以成为你的，想成为你的瘾 (Wǒ kěyǐ chéngwéi nǐ de, xiǎng chéngwéi nǐ de yǐn) [I could be yours, want to be your new addiction]

It’s all in my head, but I want nonfiction 都是我的想象, 但我想要现实 (Dōu shì wǒ de xiǎngxiàng, dàn wǒ xiǎng yào xiànshí) [It's all imagination, but I want reality]

I don’t want the world but I'll take this city 我不要全球 但要拿下这城市。 (Wǒ bùyào quánqiú dàn yào ná xià zhè chéngshì. [I don't want the world, but I'll take this city]

Who can blame a girl, call me hot not pretty 不要叫我漂亮，你要叫我火辣。 (Bùyào jiào wǒ piàoliang, nǐ yào jiào wǒ huǒ là.) [Don't call me pretty, call me hot.]

Pretty direct translations. The last line is the biggest change. We dropped the first question and went for an exact translation of "You shouldn't call me pretty, you should call me hot." It keeps the beat better, and putting 火辣 (huǒ la, hot) at the end keeps the punchiness better than 漂亮 (piàoliang, pretty) would. And it comes a bit closer to actually rhyming (though I didn't really put much effort into preserving that - I think it would take a level of mastery I definitely don't have)

Baby, do you like this beat? 宝宝,你喜欢这歌吗? (Bǎobǎo, xǐhuān zhè gē ma) [Baby, do you like this song?]

I made it so you’d dance with me 我写了它好和你跳舞 (Wǒ xiěle tā hǎo hé nǐ tiàowǔ) [I wrote it to dance with you]

It's a hundred-ninety-nine degrees 是一百九十九度啊 (Shì yībǎi jiǔshíjiǔ dù a) [It's a hundred-ninety-nine degrees!]

When we’re doing it baby, doing it baby 等到我们做的时候， 我们做的时候 (Děngdào wǒmen zuò de shíhòu, wǒmen zuò de shíhòu) [By the time we do it, By the time we do it.] Numbers are one of the things I know well at this point, so I was very pleased at how closely the scansion matches across languages there. It matches too well - you fall one syllable short because of the 度(dù)/degrees swap, and really can't change anything without making the line significantly harder to sing. My gf and I went back and forth for a while about how to finish the phrase, and just ended up adding 啊which indicates an exclamation, and also works as an "ah!" for the singer to play with going into the next bit. For the last line, there's an impressively close equivalent to "doing it" as a euphemism in 做 (zuò, do or make, contextual sexual connotations fully included). Which I learned when it came up as one of the characters to memorize on a flashcard website I was using, and I got a very weird look when I asked what it meant.

Snap and crack and touch your toes 啪啪啪，触摸你脚趾 (Pā pā pā, chùmō nǐ jiǎozhǐ) [ Snap, snap, snap, touch your toes]

Raise your hands now body roll 举手现在屁股摇 (Jǔ shǒu xiànzài pìgu yáo) [Raise your hands and shake your ass now] 啪啪啪(Pā pā pā) is onomatopoeic for snapping, but ALSO has some convenient sexual connotations! And I had no idea how to get "body roll" , so went with the more vulgar, but also more easily translated, 现在屁股摇 ( xiànzài pìgu yáo, "now shake your ass". 屁股 is one of the words I already knew how to translate, because I went to middle school with a lot of kids who spoke chinese.)

Dance it out, we’re hot-to-go 通宵开门打包带走 (Tōngxiāo kāimén dǎbāo dài zǒu) [Open all night 'for takeaway']

H-O-T-T-O-G-O You can take me hot-to-go 可以把我打包带走 (Kěyǐ bǎ wǒ dǎbāo dài zǒu) [You can have me 'for takeaway']

We kept the spelling, and I think an "actual" translation/cover would too. I am very pleased with the swap of "dance it out" for something that's the equivalent of a shop window "open 24 hours" sign, also. And then, of course. "打包带走" (dǎbāo dài zǒu) literally means " wrapped up like a dumpling and taken away" and practically means "as takeout", and we put that in anywhere "hot-to-go" shows up in the original song.

I woke up alone staring at my ceiling 我独醒得早，仰屋兴叹 (Wǒ dú xǐng dé zǎo, yǎng wū xīngtàn) [I woke up early alone, looking up at the house and sighing]

I try not to care but it hurts my feelings 我努力不在意可我内心困扰 (Wǒ nǔlì bù zàiyì kě wǒ nèixīn kùnrǎo) [I try not to care but I'm troubled inside]

This translation of "staring at the ceiling" is very... literary? It is 'staring at the ceiling' in this context. The direct translation is something like "to stare at one's house in sadness" and comes with associations of truly unmitigated despair. This greatly entertains me, so I kept it. The translation of "hurts my feelings" here is also more directly "troubles my heart" which is pretty good. The first time I tried to translate it, the literal translation was "hurt my face" (fun fact - the 'saving face' idiom in english comes from this equivalency in chinese) and my gf laughed for like five minutes.

You don’t have to stare, come here get with it 不要只是盯着， 可以来得到我 (Bùyào zhǐshì dīngzhe, kěyǐ lái dédào wǒ) [Don't just stare, you can come and get me] No one’s touched me there in a damn hot minute 很久没有人操过我了 (Hěnjiǔ méiyǒu rén cāoguò wǒle) [It's been a long time since anyone has fucked me.]

Apparently the "it = me" implication "get it/with it" here doesn't translate well? Which I find interesting because mandarin usually seems very ready to leave stuff like that up to context in other situations. I was also proud of the next one - mandarin is left-branching, not right-branching, so communicating the sentiment "no one has touched me in a long time" goes in the order "in a long time, no one has touched me." Which breaks my brain a little when I have to say things, but that's not the point - the humor of this line comes from having a euphemistic first half and more intense/explicit back half. So I flipped which clause was the explicit/non-explicit one to keep that.

What's it take to get your number? 你可以留下电话号码 (Nǐ kěyǐ liú xià diànhuà hàomǎ) [You could leave your phone number]

What's it take to bring you home? 我真的很想带你回家 (Wǒ zhēn de hěn xiǎng dài nǐ huí jiā) [I really want to take you home] Gf and I also talked a lot about these. Apparently this kind of rhetorical structure is really hard to do concisely in mandarin. Like it exists, but the primary way you communicate stuff like what would be communicated the weird verb tense sandwich of "what does it take to get" is by sticking a bunch more words in a sentence. I'm still not totally satisfied with what we came up with, but it was tough to try and hit the right tone. The "leave your phone number" thing is also apparently just how you say that, though most of the suggestions i saw for a "get your number" translation on i.e. reddit were actually "add me on WeChat" lol.

Hurry up, it's time for supper 快点，晚饭时间到了 (Kuài diǎn, wǎnfàn shíjiān dàole) [Come on, it’s dinner time]

Order up, I'm hot to go 下单了, 打包带走 (Xià dānle, dǎbāo dài zǒu) [Order up, for takeaway]

Hurry up, it's getting cold 快点吧，天要冷了 (Kuài diǎn ba, tiān yào lěngle) [Come on, it’s getting cold]

Last few lines! The first thing I came up with for the "it's time for supper" I was told sounded too much like "your mom calling you in for dinner" and there was much discourse about what fixing that would even entail. I was pleased that there's also a pretty nice translation for "Order up" that fits the beat.