Wang Luobin ( zh, c=王洛宾; 28 December 1913 – 14 March 1996) was a Chinese songwriter. He specialized in publishing
Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
-language songs based on the music of various ethnic minorities in western
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
.
Wang was born in
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
on 28 December 1913. As a child, he and his father were jailed by the
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
-led North Route Army for "disturbing the peace" after they had sung an aria outside following an opera performance. This would turn out to be one of several times that he would be detained, and was quoted in his later life as stating "I have been fated to meet with two things in my life: one is music and the other is prison". He graduated from the Music Department of
Beijing Normal University
Beijing Normal University (BNU, ), colloquially known as Beishida (), is a public research university located in Beijing, China, with a strong emphasis on humanities and sciences. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China ...
in 1934 and actively participated in the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
on China's behalf beginning in 1937 in
Shanxi
Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...
Province. In 1938, in
Lanzhou
Lanzhou (, ; ) is the capital and largest city of Gansu Province in Northwest China. Located on the banks of the Yellow River, it is a key regional transportation hub, connecting areas further west by rail to the eastern half of the country. H ...
in
Gansu
Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province.
The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...
Province, Wang published his first
Xinjiang
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
-inspired song, "
The Girl from Dabancheng". He took up residence in northwestern China for more than 50 years since then, and devoted his time there to transcribing, adapting, collecting and revising western Chinese
folk song
Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...
s. In all, Wang wrote seven operas and edited six songbooks, and published some 700 Xinjiang-style songs, the most famous of which include "Alamuhan" (阿拉木汗, inspired by a
Uyghur song), "Awariguli" (also supposedly a Uyghur song), "Flowers and Youth" (
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...
: Hua'er Yu Shaonian, a
Hui
The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
folk song), "
In that place wholly faraway" (a song from
Qinghai
Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...
Province), "
Lift Your Veil" (掀起你的盖头来), "Duldal and Maria" (a
Kazakh folk song), "Mayila", and "The Crescent Moon Rises" (半个月亮爬上来;
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...
: Ban Ge Yueliang Pa Shang Lai). A common theme in Wang's work was the portrayal of local women as "beauties" for a male Han narrator to fall in love with, which corresponded with broader stereotypes of feminized ethnic minorities among the Han majority in China.
Wang began to win accolades for his work towards the end of his life. In 1993, "At a Faraway Place" and "The Crescent Moon Rises" were selected as the Chinese music classics of the 20th century. A year later, in July 1994, Wang received the Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Exchange of Western and Eastern Cultures from
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
. Wang was made the honorary town head of
Dabancheng
Dabancheng District ( zh, s=达坂城区, t=達坂城區, p=Dábǎnchéng Qū) or Dawan Cheng ( ug, داۋانچىڭ رايونى, translit=Dawanching Rayoni, ), is one of 7 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Ürümqi, the capital of ...
in the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
by the local government in December of that year. He became known as the "Song King of the West" ( zh, c=西部歌王, p=Xībù gē wáng, labels=no).
When Wang tried to copyright “Xinjiang-style” songs he had published, a controversy evolved about whether he had stolen these folk songs from minority peoples’ traditions, i.e. whether he had actually “composed” (''chuàngzuò'' 创作) them, or just “transcribed” (''jìlù'' 记录) and “added
hineselyrics” (''yìpèi'' 译配) to traditional songs. In 1994, activist Sidiⱪ Haji Rozi, who since had to flee and seek asylum the United States, published an article in the newspaper ''Ürümqi keqilik geziti'' (''Wūlǔmùqí wǎnbào'' 《乌鲁木齐晚报》) in China titled “Song Thief Wang Luobin, Stop Stealing!”. This was an example of criticism in the 1990s by Uyghur artists, as well as some prominent Han musicologists, about Wang's use of folk songs and his portrayal of minority groups, with his translations being considered a misrepresentation and "degradation" of Turkic culture.
Wang married Huang Yulan in Lanzhou in 1945 and had three sons, Wang Haiyan, Wang Haixing and Wang Haicheng. Huang died in 1951 as a result of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
. Wang had lived in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
for a period of time with his son Haiyan who immigrated in 1981, and stated that some of his later work was inspired by the Australian landscape and natural flora and fauna.
Wang died of
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
on 14 March 1996 at the age of 82. His songs continue to be popular today, and modern adaptations of them have been recorded by the
Beijing Angelic Choir The Beijing Angelic Choir () is a children's choir based in Beijing, China. It has toured extensively internationally.
It gained wider exposure when it won a National Association of Independent Record Distributors Award in the U.S. in 1995.
See a ...
, a Chinese children's choir that has earned recognition both at home and abroad; by China's popular
Twelve Girls Band
12 Girls Band (, sometimes abbreviated to 女樂 or 女乐) are an all female Chinese musical group that initially consisted of twelve members before the addition of a thirteenth. Twelve Girls Band use traditional Chinese instruments to play both ...
; and by the famous Chinese rock singer
Dao Lang, who is known for his western China-themed pop music and has been deemed "the Wang Luobin of the 21st century".
References
Sources
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External links
Wang Luobin's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Luobin
1913 births
1996 deaths
Republic of China musicians
People's Republic of China musicians
Musicians from Beijing
Chinese songwriters
20th-century Chinese musicians