Shidaiqu

{{Short description|1920s musical genre fusing Chinese folk and American jazz}}{{Multiple issues|

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Shidaiqu ({{zh|t=時代曲|p=shídàiqǔ|j=si4 doi6 kuk1|w=shih2 tai4 chʻü3}}) is a type of Chinese popular music that is a fusion of Chinese folk, American jazz and Hollywood film music that originated in Shanghai in the 1920s.Shoesmith, Brian. Rossiter, Ned. [2004] (2004). Refashioning Pop Music in Asia: Cosmopolitan flows, political tempos and aesthetic Industries. Routeledge Publishing. {{ISBN|0-7007-1401-4}}{{cite book|first=Siyuan|last=Liu|title=Transforming Tradition|edition=2nd Revised|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mXAyEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA225|date=2013|isbn=9780472132478|page=225|via=Google Books|access-date=2021-10-10|archive-date=2023-08-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813210929/https://books.google.com/books?id=mXAyEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA225|url-status=live}}

Terminology

The term {{zh|p=shídàiqǔ|t=時代曲|out=p|labels=no}} literally translates to 'songs of the era' in Mandarin Chinese. When sung in Cantonese, it is commonly referred to as {{zh|t=粵語時代曲|j=jyut6 jyu5 si4 doi6 kuk1|out=j|labels=no}}; in Amoy Hokkien, it is known as {{zh|t=廈語時代曲|poj=Hā-gú sî-tāi-khiok|out=poj|labels=no}}. These terms incorporate the native names for the dialects. The term {{zh|p=shídàiqǔ|labels=no}} is believed to have originated in Hong Kong to describe a genre of popular Chinese music that gained prominence in Shanghai during the early to mid-20th century. This genre emerged as a fusion of traditional Chinese melodies, Western musical elements, and influences from jazz and popular music of the time.

Musicality

Shidaiqu is a kind of fusion music that makes use of jazz musical instruments (castanets, maracas). Songs were sung in a high-pitched childlike style.{{cite web |date=31 December 2001 |title=From Shanghai with love |url=http://www.scmp.com/article/367361/shanghai-love |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029210506/http://www.scmp.com/article/367361/shanghai-love |archive-date=29 October 2013 |access-date=30 October 2013 |work=South China Morning Post}}{{cite book |title=鲁迅散文精选 (Selected Writings of Lu Xun) |author= 鲁迅 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ZiFCSdl3cQC&pg=PA215 |chapter=阿金|date= January 2013 |page=215 |isbn= 9787539183763 |quote= 但我却也叨光听到了男嗓子的上低音（barytone）的歌声，觉得很自然，比绞死猫儿似的《毛毛雨》要好得天差地远。 translation: "But I was blessed with a performance of male baritone voice, and it sounded very natural; compared to the strangling cat sound of "Drizzle", the difference is like heaven and earth. }}

History

Shidaiqu music is rooted in both traditional Chinese folk music and the introduction of Western jazz during the years when Shanghai was under the Shanghai International Settlement. In the 1920s the intellectual elite in Shanghai and Beijing embraced the influx of Western music and movies that entered through trade.{{cite journal |last1=Hsieh |first1=Terrence |title=Jazz meets East |url=https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=oberlin1338392142&disposition=inline |access-date=2018-11-19 |archive-date=2018-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119214436/https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=oberlin1338392142&disposition=inline |url-status=live }} The first jazz clubs in Shanghai initially served as dance halls for the Western elite. Beginning in the 1920s, Shidaiqu entered into the mainstream of popular music. The Chinese pop song "Drizzle" was composed by Li Jinhui around 1927 and sung by his daughter Li Minghui.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LTr9AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA60 |title=Hong Kong Mobile: Making a Global Population |editor1=Helen F. SIU |editor2=Agnes S. KU |first=May Bo |last=Ching |page=60 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-9622099180 |access-date=2016-05-04 |archive-date=2023-08-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813210928/https://books.google.com/books?id=LTr9AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA60 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title="SHANGHAI IN THE 1930S"- Legendary Women |url=http://www.vantage-magazine.com/vantage-point-articles/shanghai-in-the-1930s-legendary-women.html |work=Vantage Shanghai |date=11 July 2013 |access-date=4 May 2016 |archive-date=6 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150206160212/http://www.vantage-magazine.com/vantage-point-articles/shanghai-in-the-1930s-legendary-women.html |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.225968&catNum=225968&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English |title=FROM SHANGHAI WITH LOVE |work=Naxos |access-date=2016-05-04 |archive-date=2017-07-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708190923/https://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs_reviews.asp?item_code=8.225968&catNum=225968&filetype=About%20this%20Recording&language=English |url-status=dead }} The song exemplifies the early shidaiqu in its fusion of jazz and Chinese folk music – the tune is in the style of a traditional pentatonic folk melody, but the instrumentation is similar to that of an American jazz orchestra.{{cite web |url=http://orias.berkeley.edu/2006/Jones.pdf |first=Andrew F. |last=Jones |title=ORIAS: Sonic Histories: Chinese Popular Music in the Twentieth Century |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029211312/http://orias.berkeley.edu/2006/Jones.pdf |archive-date=2013-10-29 }}

The advent of recording methods for songs on 78 rpm gramophone shellac records marked a significant development in Chinese musical history. Steel stylus records (鋼針唱片), once an important recording medium, have been largely replaced by digital recording technologies.

=Mainstream=

Shidaiqu reached peak popularity during 1940s. Famous jazz musicians from both the US and China played to packed dance halls.{{cite news |last1=Cornish |first1=Audie |title=Remaking All That Jazz From Shanghai's Lost Era |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=265468566 |publisher=National Public Radio |access-date=2018-11-19 |archive-date=2018-11-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120055149/https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=265468566 |url-status=live }} Chinese female singers grew in popularity. Additionally, nightclubs such as the Paramount Dance Hall became a meeting point for businessmen from Western countries and China. The western jazz influences were shaped predominately by American jazz musician Buck Clayton. Shidaiqu has inspired Gary Lucas for his album The Edge of Heaven and DJs such as Ian Widgery and his Shanghai Lounge Divas project. On the other hand, if cinema was the origin of many songs, Wong Kar-wai used them again for illustrating his movie In the Mood for Love; Rebecca Pan, one of the actresses in this film, was also one of those famous shidaiqu singers.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

= Political connotations =

Shanghai was divided into the International Concession and the French Concession in the 1930s and early 1940s. Owing to the protection of foreign nations (e.g., Britain and France), Shanghai was a prosperous and a rather politically stable city. Some shidaiqu songs are related to particular historical events (e.g., the Second Sino-Japanese War). The euphemism of presenting love, which was always found in old Chinese novels, is kept in shidaiqu.

=Decline=

Throughout the decades leading up to the Great Leap Forward, the reputation of Shidaiqu outside of its target audience was degrading. Despite some of the songs intended to nation build, the government deemed Shidaiqu as "yellow music"{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Dale |title=Andrew F. Jones. Yellow Music: Media Culture and Colonial Modernity in the Chinese Jazz Age. |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham, N.C. |url=https://journals.cdrs.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/03/current.musicology.71-73.wilson.524-532.pdf}} and described it as "pornographic and commercial". In 1952 the Chinese Communist Party banned nightclubs and pop music production. During this time period, western-style instruments were sought out and destroyed. Chinese jazz musicians were not rehabilitated until decades later.{{cite news |last1=Lim |first1=Louisa |title=Survivors of Shanghai's Jazz Age Play Anew |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14655091 |publisher=National Public Radio |access-date=2018-11-19 |archive-date=2018-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119214443/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14655091 |url-status=live }} The tradition then moved to Hong Kong and reached its height from the 1950s to the late 1960s, when it was replaced by Taiwanese pop (sung in Mandarin) and later Cantopop (Cantonese popular music). While it is considered a prototype, music enthusiasts may see it as an early version of Mandopop (Mandarin popular music).{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

=Revival=

While the tradition continued to thrive in Taiwan and Hong Kong, Shidaiqu gained popularity in mainland China once more during the 1980s. Shanghai opened up for the first time after WWII and interest in what used to be forbidden music peaked. Surviving musicians were invited to play once more in hotel lobbies and pop musicians began writing covers of famous songs such as Teresa Teng's 1978 cover of Li Xianglan's The Evening Primrose.{{cite news |last1=Wang |first1=Hansi Lo |title=Remaking All That Jazz From Shanghai's Lost Era |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/01/28/265468566/remaking-all-that-jazz-from-shanghais-lost-era |publisher=National Public Radio |access-date=2018-11-19 |archive-date=2018-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119214510/https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/01/28/265468566/remaking-all-that-jazz-from-shanghais-lost-era |url-status=live }} In more recent years, a group called the Shanghai Restoration Project uses both the 1980s and 1940s pop songs to create electronic music.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}