Sa Dingding (, born Zhou Peng () on 27 December 1979) is a Chinese folk singer and songwriter. She is of mixed

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive va ...

and

Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member of ...

ancestry, and sings in languages including

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...

, English,

Standard Tibetan Lhasa Tibetan (), or Standard Tibetan, is the Tibetan dialect spoken by educated people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the traditional "three-branch ...

, as well as an imaginary self-created language to evoke emotions in her songs. She also plays traditional instruments such as the

guzheng The zheng () or gu zheng (), is a Chinese plucked zither. The modern guzheng commonly has 21, 25, or 26 strings, is long, and is tuned in a major pentatonic scale. It has a large, resonant soundboard made from ''Paulownia'' wood. Other co ...

and

morin khuur The ''morin khuur'' ( mn, морин хуур, morin khuur), also known as the horsehead fiddle, is a traditional Mongolian bowed stringed instrument. It is one of the most important musical instruments of the Mongol people, and is considered a ...

Early life and education

Sa was born in

Pingdingshan Pingdingshan (), also known as Eagle City ( zh, s=鹰城, p=Yīngchéng, t=鷹城), is a prefecture-level city in central Henan province, China. It had 4,904,701 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 1,756,333 lived in the built-up (or metro) are ...

, Henan. She became interested in

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

and taught herself Tibetan and Sanskrit. Later, at 17, she moved to Beijing, to study music at the

People's Liberation Army Academy of Art The Military and Cultural Institute of National Defense University, People's Liberation Army (), previously the People's Liberation Army Academy of Art (, colloquially known as Junyi 军艺), is an academic institute of the PLA National Defense U ...

Career

At age 18, she released her first album entitled ''Dong Ba La'' under her birth name Zhou Peng, gaining her the title of China's Best Dance Music Singer In 2006, "Holy Incense" was used as the theme song for the movie ''Prince of the Himalayas'', directed by

Sherwood Hu Sherwood Xuehua Hu (; born 1967), is a Chinese American theatre director and film director. Early life and education Hu was born in Shanghai in 1967, to Hu Weimin (; 1932-1989), a theatre director, and Gu Menghua (). His sister Hu Xuelian () i ...

. In mid-2007, she released ''Alive'', available physically and as a download in many countries. The Hong Kong release of the album featured a DVD containing music videos, a remix of "Alive", making of footage and a Chinese version of "Mama Tian Na", not featured on the album. In 2008, she won the

BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music The BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music was an award given to world music artists between 2002 and 2008, sponsored by BBC Radio 3. The award was thought up by ''fRoots'' magazine's editor Ian Anderson, inspired by the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Un ...

for the Asia-Pacific region, earning herself the chance to perform at the Royal Albert Hall to a Western audience. In the same year, she also released a two track single called "

Qin Shang Qin may refer to: Dynasties and states * Qin (state) (秦), a major state during the Zhou Dynasty of ancient China * Qin dynasty (秦), founded by the Qin state in 221 BC and ended in 206 BC * Daqin (大秦), ancient Chinese name for the Roman Emp ...

". Dingding composed a song with

Éric Mouquet Éric Mouquet (born 19 March 1960 in Valenciennes, France), is the co-founder of the band Deep Forest. He won a Grammy Award in 1995, and a World Award for best world music album. The other half of Deep Forest is Michel Sanchez.Yoga Journal No. ...

Deep Forest Deep Forest is a French musical group originally consisting of two French musicians, Michel Sanchez and Éric Mouquet. They compose a style of world music, sometimes called ethnic electronica, mixing ethnic with electronic sounds and dance ...

called "Won't Be Long" to raise funds for disaster relief after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. The song was made available on Mouquet's Deep-Projects website. Mouquet and Dingding have collaborated on an album ''Deep China''. Dingding has appeared at

World of Music, Arts and Dance WOMAD ( ; World of Music, Arts and Dance) is an international arts festival. The central aim of WOMAD is to celebrate the world's many forms of music, arts and dance. History WOMAD was founded in 1980 by English rock musician Peter Gabriel, w ...

and the

Harrogate International Festivals Harrogate International Festivals (HIF) is a registered charity and one of the UK's longest running arts festivals, having been established in 1966. Based in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. Festivals include the Harrogate Music Festival, Theakston Ol ...

in the UK. On 6 October 2008, her official English website was updated with information about a European tour, going from 7 to 17 November, making stops in Germany, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Las Palmas, Australia and New Zealand. For Chinese composer

He Xuntian He Xuntian (; born in 1952 in Suining, Sichuan) is a composer and professor of music composition at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Biography In 1982, he graduated from the Composition Department of the Sichuan Conservatory of Music. In 1 ...

's 2008 album, ''

Tathāgata Tathāgata () is a Pali word; Gautama Buddha uses it when referring to himself or other Buddhas in the Pāli Canon. The term is often thought to mean either "one who has thus gone" (''tathā-gata''), "one who has thus come" (''tathā-āgata''), o ...

,'' Dingding contributed the vocals for the second track, entitled "Dátǎjiādá" (). Her January 2010 album was ''Harmony'' (), with nine songs in Chinese. The album also contains three remixes of the title track, one by

Paul Oakenfold Paul Mark Oakenfold (born 30 August 1963), formerly known mononymously as Oakenfold, is an English record producer, remixer and trance DJ. He has provided over 100 remixes for over 100 artists including U2, Moby, Madonna, Britney Spears, Mass ...

. In 2018, Dingding starred in the hit fantasy romance drama '' Ashes of Love'', portraying the Immortal Yuanji.

Discography

;Albums *''Dong Ba La'' () (2001) * ''Alive'' () – Universal Music,

Wrasse Records Wrasse Records is a British record label based in Ashtead, Surrey. It was started in 1998 by Ian and Jo Ashbridge. Both had been involved in the music industry prior to them starting up their own company. Its offices are based in the UK, but it d ...

(2007) * ''Harmony'' () (2010) * ''The Coming Ones'' () (2012) *''Wonderland'' () (Remix Album) (2014) *''The Butterfly Dream'' () (2015) ;Singles *"Qin Shang" () –

(2008) *"Tiandi Ji"/"Ha Ha Li Li" () –

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

(2009) ;Soundtracks *Theme song of ''

14 Blades ''14 Blades'' (Chinese: 錦衣衛) is a 2010 ''wuxia'' film directed by Daniel Lee and starring Donnie Yen, Zhao Wei, Sammo Hung, Wu Chun, Kate Tsui, Qi Yuwu and Damian Lau. The film was released on 4 February 2010 in China and on 11 February 2 ...

'' () *"Upwards to the Moon" (左手指月) (2018) – '' Ashes of Love'' *"Unsullied" (不染) (2018) – '' Ashes of Love'' *"When Meeting You" (当遇见你) (2020) - '' Skate into Love'' *"If You Come Back" (如若归来) (2021) - ''

The Long Ballad ''The Long Ballad'' (Chinese: 长歌行), also known as ''Chang Ge Xing'', is a 2021 Chinese historical series based on the 2011 manhua of the same name by Xia Da. It is directed by Zhu Ruibin and stars Dilraba Dilmurat, Leo Wu, Zhao Lusi and Liu ...

'' *"As You Wish" (2022) - '' The Blue Whisper''

Filmography

Television series

References

Interviews

"Freedom is the first thing I learnt from Music"
Laptoprockers, December 2008
Sa Dingding interview
from ''Global Rhythm'' magazine, August 2008

News articles

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

''
"Made in China: the singer poised to sweep the globe"
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''
Sa Ding Ding, the Asian Bjork.
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

''
''The Guardian'', Friday March 28, 2008

Biography at Livedoor.com
(Japanese)
"Why Sa Dingding has China in her hand"
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', 18 July 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sa, Dingding Living people Chinese folk singers Chinese women singer-songwriters Mandarin-language singers Sanskrit-language singers Tibetan-language singers People's Liberation Army Arts College alumni Performers of Buddhist music Singers from Henan Wrasse Records artists Chinese people of Mongolian descent 21st-century Chinese women singers Year of birth missing (living people)