Chinese Music of Time

China underwent tremendous changes in the 20th century, including the culture of the whole society, social value orientation, and people's way of thinking. This is also a phase of East-West cultural collision and fusion. Under the impact and influence of western culture, Chinese musicians have written a new chapter in modern music culture in China through learning from and referring to western music and adhering to music creation with a strong will.

The emergence of New Music Culture

Speaking of Chinese music in the 20th century, we must first mention the "School Songs." At the beginning of the 20th century, with the introduction of western culture, the capitalist culture in the near-modern history of China developed. School music education also evolved gradually with the development of new types of schools. Some foreign missionaries opened music classes in their church-run schools. They open a music course with rich content, called "Qin Ke," not only learning about the piano, but also vocal music, stringed music, music history, and music composition theory, and so forth. Some public intellectuals, such as Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Cai Yuanpei, and Yang Du also had a new understanding of the meaning of music education. This not only led to the beginning of music and singing courses in schools but also composing lyrics and tunes for dissemination. Some Chinese students returning from studying abroad in Japan, such as Shen Gongxin and Zeng Zhizhai, promoted singing activities in schools through opening singing classes, composing and teaching campus songs in common primary and middle schools, publishing magazines, contributing and spreading their works to some well-known domestic and international magazines, and advocating the development of new school music education. With the efforts of these pioneers, the School Songs were gradually promoted across China.

With the implementation of "rescinding Keju (old education and talent-selection system of ancient China) and promoting schools" and other "new political measures" and the "Suggestions on School Music," the new education system was gradually rolled out across China. After 1912, the education administration of the Republic of China was concerned with the development of new school music education, and its main purpose was to inspire patriotism in the people to realize "enriching the country and enhancing military force." Therefore, the main contents of the School Songs praised the victory of overthrowing the monarchy; calling for women's liberation, equality between men and women; military songs about "military and public education"; loving life and nature; advocating learning new culture and establishing a new trend. In terms of professional music creation in China in the 20lh century, the School Songs were the budding of modern song creation, also the embryo of modern professional music creation.

In 1919 with the emergence of the tide of the "May 4th" New Culture Movement, some music societies appeared in some large coastal cities, and the influential new folk music communities were: the China Music Society established in Shanghai in 1919 and the Datong Music Society established in Shanghai in 1929. These societies mainly studied and performed Chinese Xiqu and Chinese folk music, and at the same time also learn some western musical instruments and theories.

The Datong Music Society proposed the idea of organizing a new type of folk band in their performance of ancient music and the experiment of folk music concerts and created Chun Jiang Hua Yue Ye, Jiang Junling, and other folk music concert pieces according to traditional folk music albums. In 1919 Peking University established a music institute and hired Liu Tianhua, Xiao Youmei, Chen Zhongzi, Wu Zhuosheng, Niu Lun (from the UK), and other famous musicians to guide members of the society, and the president Cai Yuanpei acted directly as the head. They compiled and published 15 issues of Music Magazine, which was the earliest music magazine formally published and issued in China. As a result, the creation of new types of music in China began, and various kinds of songs developed quickly.

A group of intellectuals who received western music education came back to China, disseminated music knowledge through music education, published books, and conducted theoretical research on a new variety of music. Among them, Xiao Youmei, Wang Guangqi, and Zhao Yuanren made significant contributions to music creation and music theory research.

Xiao Youmei came back to Peking from San Francisco in March 1920, teaching and leading at the Music Practice and Teaching Institute of Peking University and the Music Department of the Peking Art Professional School. In 1927, he and Cai Yuanpei and others established the first formal higher professional music institute at Shanghai—the Shanghai National Music Academy. Xiao Youmei made not only important contributions to professional music education of China in the near-modern period but also significant achievements in music creation and music science, and his main compositions were String Quartet, Serenade (written in 1916 as China's first ensemble work), piano piece Mourning March, an orchestral piece New Nishang Yuyi Dance (the first piece of orchestral music written according to a western format in China), a cello piece thoughts in Autumn, Questions, and Patriotic Songs to Memorize May 4th, altogether more than 100 musical works. His main musicological works include Schedule of Harmonics, Ordinary Music School, A Comparative Study of Chinese and Western Music, and so on.

During his life, Wang Guangqi wrote a lot of introductory and research works about Chinese and foreign music. His representative works are Music Life of the Germans, Western Music, and Opera, Music of Oriental Nations, On Classical Chinese Opera, and so forth. Many of his books have an initiative and creative nature, expressing his musical thoughts to give way to the social function of music, educate human minds, and carry forward a patriotic spirit.

Zhao Yuanren was a world-renowned linguist and composer, creating a new epoch of China's near-modern music. During his career, he composed more than 100 pieces of music compiled in the Collection of New Poetry, Collection of Songs for Children's Day, and Collection of Public Education Songs, among others. He combined traditional western harmonics with the Chinese national style very well, and utilized them into piano accompaniment, and paid attention to the depiction of music images and moods as well as tones, and tunes of lyrics. His representative works are: Scaling- cloth Song, Song of Labor, Weaving, How Can I Not Miss Him, Going up the Mountain, Listening to the Raw, Punting on the River Song, and the choral work, Tunes of Sea, which became a lasting popular music repertoire in concerts.

Improvement of Chinese Instrumental Music  

Since the 20th century, the development of instrumental music in China has undergone a process from blind self-content to total negation to rediscovery and utilization, gradually moving from immaturity to maturity.

In terms of erhu music creation, in the first half of the 20th century, a group of musicians with Liu Tianhua and Hua Yanjun as the leading musicians appeared, from collecting, recording, and collating folk music to beginning music creation. A Bing was an excellent folk artist in China. Absorbing and using the folk tunes in China, he created such erhu tunes as The Moon Reflected on the Er-Quan Spring (Er Quan Ying Yue), Listening to Pines, Cold Spring Wind Tunes, and Pipa tunes Great Tide Washes Sand Away, Zhaojun Going out of the Gate, and Dragon Boat. These works are very touching, expressing the boundless feelings in his heart. Er, Quan Ying Yue is the most famous as a Bing wrote it after his eyes were blinded. The tunes sound melancholic, but also reveal the strong will of the Chinese. It has become an immortal work of Chinese music.

Liu Tianhua was a national instrumental music composer, erhu and pipa performer, also a music educator. He never studied western musical instruments and learned how to perform various folk musical instruments from monks in temples. He studied and drew on the strengths of violin performance and upgraded the erhu from an accompaniment instrument to a solo instrument, and adopted it into professional teaching in higher artistic colleges, laying the foundation for modern and contemporary erhu performance of China. He was committed to the improvement of Chinese music and established the Chinese music improvement society, and became the editor-in-chief of Music Magazine. Such erhu works as Singing in Disease and Pursuing Toward a Bright Future are said to be the most representative works of all his creations, and at the same time, it reflects his understanding of the social life at that time and his vision, insight, and aspirations for improving national music.  

Having gone through years of suffering and development, the Erhu has had a very significant position in Chinese music. Through tireless exploration by several generations of performers and composers, the numbers of people who perform on the erhu are significantly enriched, and their performance skills improved. From A Bing's Er Quart Ying Yue, Pursuing Toward a Bright Future by Liu Tianhua, to the later created or adapted River Water, Lan Hua Hua Ballads, Shaanxi Opera Theme Capriccio, Newlyweds Saying Goodbye, and Great Wall Capriccio, the numbers improved and transplanted in recent years, such as Sun Shining Taxkorgan, Song of the Wanderer, and Carmen, the erhu, this ancient musical instrument has experienced new developments in the 20th century.

Not only the Erhu but also other national musical instruments such as the pipa and flute were also developed in the 20th century. Liu Tianhua helped make significant reforms for the Pipa in the 1930s and created the Six-phase 13-grade Pipa, which can perform traditional musical notes and 12 average notes. The Shanghai Datong Music Society also made a Pipa in the shape of a gourd, the earliest six-phase 18-grade Pipa of China. After the People's Republic of China was established, the Pipa made even more progress. In the beginning, the Pipa was only an accompaniment instrument, but now its performance skills and numbers have become increasingly richer. Today it has become a solo instrument. With an extensive repertoire, from the pieces handed down from ancient times such as Haiqing Hunting the Swan, Shi Mian Mai Fu, High Moon to those created in modern times such as Dance Music of the Yi People, Five Warriors on Mountain Wolfteeth, Little Heroic Sisters on the Grassland, Weishui Qing, Spring Rain, Spring Silkworm and other classical works form an impressive repertoire of pipa art. Now, in addition to being used as a solo instrument and part of the national orchestra, the Pipa is the main instrument for Jiangnan Sizhu, Canton music, Chaozhou Xianshi, and Fujian Nanyin; In some southern Xiqu and Suzhou Pingtan, Sichuan Qingyin, and other narrative-singing music, the Pipa is also a necessary and indispensable accompaniment instrument.

At the beginning of the 20th century, western music pushed open China's gates, and the Chinese gradually accepted western music instruments and learned the performance and composition of instrumental music. One group of national composers after another with national consciousness and creativity gradually gave up imitating western styles in the beginning through their creative practices and explored a new road of "absorbing ancient elements to be used now, and foreign elements to be used in Chinese music." Brave in absorption and reference and mutual fusion, they created many instrumental music pieces loved by the people. As early as 1934, Russian composer Alexander Tcherepnin or Qi Erpin held a contest in "collecting Chinese style piano works." Corydon Piccolo by He Luting won the competition. It is a piano piece with typical Chinese tastes, and until now the charm of this number has not diminished, and it has become a song that every Chinese child learning piano must play.

In 1959, He Zhanhao and Chen Gang, two students at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music composed the violin concerto Butterfly Lovers (Liang Zhu). For half a century, Butterfly Lovers has become a classic musical work with the most prestigious international reputation in the music history of China and has become a symbol of the music culture of China.

Butterfly Lovers describes the steadfast love story of a young couple named Liang Shangbo and Zhu Yingtai. The piece uses the tunes of Yue Opera (or Shaoxing Opera) as the material and is written in the form of a concerto. Although it combines Chinese and western styles, it is full of national style. In terms of music structure, the composers use the style of the west sonata to reflect the dramatic conflicts; in terms of the artistic process, it gives full play to the characteristics of folk music and absorbs a rich variety of expressions in Chinese opera. For example, in the presentation part it absorbs the form of singing "dialogue" in opera to express the theme of the love between Liang and Zhu; in the roll-out section, "wailing soul jumping into the tomb," it uses the Daoban in Beijing Opera and Xiaoban in Shaoxing Opera. It made a bold and successful attempt to explore the way of nationalizing symphonies in China. Once it came out, people loved this work. In the international community, this piece called Butterfly Lovers is widely spread and loved by people around the world.

The Chinese folk music instrument has been reformed with the development of the society and technology, professionally referring to the reform of tone and expansion of Diapason, as well as the application of the national musical instruments in the national symphony. This reform plays an important role in the development of the Chinese national symphony. To win the greater popularity of folk music, musicians have done a lot. The spread and development of electronic music encourage the musicians to create a piece of new kind of music named "new folk music," which is integrated with folk music, electronic music, and pop music. This new folk music enables better performance of the Chinese instrument and adds more popular and fashion elements to folk music, which is now more popular. Twelve Girls Band, a band, established in 2001, should be an example for combining the traditional Chinese cultural elements with modern audio-visual effect. Twelve beautiful and well-educated girls use the Chinese music instrument like guzheng, yangqin, erhu, pipa, xiao, and bamboo flute to perform music integrated with strong folk music features and pop music elements. High-tech is used for playing music, which brings new audio-visual enjoyment for the people. Although there is still a dispute in the artistic value of such kind of music, the new folk music indeed creates a way for the popularization and internationalization of Chinese folk music.

The Birth of New Opera

After "May 4th” New Culture Movement, opera, a large integrated art form from Europe came to China with the incoming western culture, which also caught the concern and was used by Chinese composers. The children's singing and dancing opera created by Li Jinhui called Sparrow and Children, and Small Artists enabled music education in schools in China in the early period to span from a single form of mainly singing, to a phase of co-existence of multiple art forms. He transplanted the form of western children singing and dancing opera by nationalizing and popularizing it, serving as an important reference to later music creation for singing and dancing and opera in China.

After the 1930s opera art in China drew on the Xiqu forms of China since the Song and Yuan dynasties and the strength of western opera, gradually forming the "new opera" with Chinese styles. A number of excellent works appeared, such as Tide Tunes (composed by Ren Guang), Rural Tunes (by Xiang Yu), Zheng Chenggong (composed by Zheng Zhisheng), Jingke (by Chen Tianhe), Song of Shanghai (composed by Zhang Hao), Song of the Earth (by Qian Renkang), Meng-Jiang Nu, The White-haired Girl (composed by Mark and Zhang Lu), and so on. The music of these operas attempts to integrate the features of western opera and national folk music of China, exploring the characteristics of opera music are belonging to China and then expressing the thoughts and feelings of the Chinese people through this art form of opera to reflect the life and struggle of the Chinese people.

After the 1940s, composers created operas such as The White-haired Girl, Chiye River, and Liu Hulan, based on the experience in Yangge Opera at Yan An, laying a good foundation for forming Chinese opera art.

Yangge is a kind of folk singing and dancing with a long history popular in the vast countryside of northern China. In 1943 the spectacular "New Yangge" performance activities held in Yan An with the Luxun Art College as the main organizer, added a concrete character image based on Yangge, making the form of new Yangge richer than old Yangge, and able to reflect the new life in the frontier area vividly. Therefore it was welcomed by the masses and was regarded by the central leaders. With the staging of the first New Yangge Opera Pioneering Brother and Sister to several Yangge Opera such as A Red Flower and Couple Improving Literacy, the whole nation set off a wave of composing and performing New Yangge Opera.

Most Yangge Opera integrated small-sized singing and dancing opera based on the "Small Stage Opera" of old Yangge, widely absorbing the elements of local folk songs, Xiqu, and folk dancing, mainly reflecting the productions and struggles in the liberated areas and the actual life of the army and the people at that time.

In 1945 the first opera titled The White-haired Girl composed based on New Yangge Movement opened up a new road for the development of Chinese opera and became a classic work of the new opera of China. The Yan An Luxun Art Institute composed the White-haired Girl, and its music adopted the tunes of folk songs and Xiqu in Hebei, Shanxi, and Shaanxi, plus adaptation and creation. The play not only creates the impressive characters of Xi'er and Yang Bailao, but the song passages such as North Wind Blowing and Binding Red Hair Band also became popular among the people. Because The White-haired Girl made great achievements in terms of ideology and art, it became the most famous opera with the greatest influence in the liberated area. It was performed in Yan An more than 30 times, and each time the venue was packed. The newspaper from the liberated era kept reporting the grand performance: "At each wonderful point, the applause is thunderous and lasting; at each sorrowful point, the audience sobbed, some people's eyes have tears from screen one to six...after the show, no person didn't praise it."

The new drama created a new pattern of Chinese opera, which not only made a meaningful exploration in drawing on the strength of western opera and inheriting the traditional Xiqu formula of China, but also accumulated experience in creating the characters in opera, and explored the fields music used in drama.

The new drama provided a successful experience in the development of Chinese opera. After the People's Republic of China was founded, with the establishment of professional troupes and performances staged in theaters, a series of revolutionary operas appeared, which are still performed today, such as The Marriage of Xiao Erhei, Liu Hulan, Song of the Prairie, Honghu Lake Brigade, Liu San Jie, and Sister Jiangjie.

The 10 years of the "Cultural Revolution" put opera creation at a standstill. After the 1980s, with the reform and open-up going strong, opera composition in China also absorbed new thoughts, ideas, and composing skills. The classic works of the 1980s are Sad about the Past and Prairie, and after the 1990s, Marco Polo, King Chu Bawang, and Vast Prairie.

In recent years, due to an increasing introduction of Western musicals, Chinese audiences have learned more about this kind of arts. Many Chinese artists also try to make musicals with Chinese characteristics to show the charm of Chinese music. Golden Sand (Jinsha) and Snow Wolf Lake (Xue Lang Hu), two Chinese musicals, are two of the most impressive ones.

From Mass Songs to Pop Songs Creation  

"Writing is for carrying the way, and poems are for expressing your vision, music for voicing your thoughts," it was said in the 1930s, with the beginning of the anti-Japanese war, many musicians in China redirected the purpose of composition to inspire the national spirit. The most outstanding representatives among them are Xian Xinghai and Nie Er.

After coming back to China from France in 1935, Xian Xinghai saw the sufferings of the Chinese under the oppression of Japanese imperialism, so he actively participated in the anti-Japanese movement and composed a lot of mass songs, and music for progressive films like Zhi Zhi Ling Yun (Vision and Ambition), March of the Youth, and the drama Resurrection, and Great Storm. In 1938 suffering extreme difficulty and hardship in Yan An, he still created the immortal masterpieces such as Yellow River Cantata and Chorus of Production, and other fine works.

“Yellow River Cantata” inspired by the Yellow River, describes the dramatic change of the people living along the Yellow River before and after the Anti-Japanese War, criticizing the cruelty of the enemy and the oppression that the people suffered. In the end, it depicts a magnificent picture of the masses is protecting their home country and fighting against the enemy. In this work, the composer integrated folk music into the piece and created many melodies with national characteristics to create the fighting image of the anti-Japanese army and people, making the work become one of the most popular choruses works in the modern music history of China.

Nie Er was a contemporary of Xian Xinghai, and although born in a poor family, his enthusiasm for music enabled him to include daily hardships in such popular songs such as Wide Road Song, Song of the Dockers, Pioneers, New Female, Graduation Song, Song of Newspaper Selling, and Female Singer under the Iron Heel. Nie Er advocated that "Music is like other arts such as poems, novels, and dramas; it cries out for the public, and the public surely will require new musical content and performance, and require new outlooks from composers." In a long period, this view significantly influenced the establishment of a group of progressive musicians.

In 1949 after the People's Republic of China was founded, the country made significant achievements in terms of mu¬sic education and building professional music societies, and songs for the masses became popular. Therefore in this scope, a powerful creative team came into being. Mean¬while, the music dancing historic poetry The East Is Red, The Long March, songs created in the 1950s and 1960s and operas like Red Guards on Honghu Lake, Sister Jiangjie, and Hongxia, the selected tunes in these works also made a significant impact among the masses. In this period, the compositions were mainly "revolutionary" marches and new folk songs, but the marches gradually evolved to become more lyrical. The creation of new folk songs had two tendencies of development, by adapting folk material and recreating based on folk music. All kinds of forms such as chorus, singing in unison, solo, ensemble, and performance singing, and various styles of songs made significant achievements in nationalization.

With economic reform and opening up, some pop songs from Hong Kong and Taiwan began to enter the Chinese mainland. The songs of Teresa Teng, including Story of Little Town (Xiao Cheng Gu Shi), Sweetness (Tian Mi Mi) and I only Care about You (Wo Zhi Zai Hu Ni) were widely spread on the mainland. The incoming songs from Hong Kong and Taiwan infused new vitality to the songs of China. A large group of singers with Li Guyi as the representative began to use pop singing. This was the first step in the development of pop music in the Chinese mainland. During this time, a lot of lyric songs with national styles were made, which featured optimism and high spirits and expressed the love of people towards their country and lives. These songs led to the trend of music creation at that time. Songs like On The Hopeful Field (Zai Xi Wang de Tian Ye Shang), There the Peach Blossom are in Full Bloom (Zai Na Tao Hua Sheng Kai de Di Fang), I love you —China (Wo Ai Ni, Zhong Guo), Unforgettable Tonight (Nan Wang Jin Xiao) and Full Moon (Shi Wu de Yue Liang) won great popularity among people.

There is a sign marking the boom of pop music in the Chinese mainland. In 1986, more than one hundred of singing stars participated in the big concert under the theme of "Let the World Filled with Love," which was organized for commemorating the "International Year of Peace." The concert won a great success. The same year, Cui Jian, a Chinese rock singer, sang the song called I Have Nothing, announcing the birth of Chinese rock music. Later, "Xi Bei Feng" music (a kind of pop music sourced from folk songs with characteristics of northwest China region) became popular and Chinese pop music was gradually accepted by the whole society. It was turned into a trend that more pop songs were generated based on native resources.

After 1990, the boom of the market economy leads to the fast development of Chinese music and meanwhile provides a good opportunity for the commercialization of Chinese pop music. Pop songs, represented by those sung by the most famous Hong Kong pop singers at that time, namely Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Leon, and Aaron Kwok, become very popular across the country. "Packaging singers" and "parade" become a new fashion in the pop music world. By absorbing the best elements of foreign music and Hong Kong and Taiwan music, the music of the Chinese mainland witnessed an initial development. A large scales of songs, such as Dedication to Love {Ai de Feng Xian), My deskmate (Tong Zhuo de Ni), So Big Tree (Hao Da Yi Ke Shu), and A good Person will be Peaceful all His Life (Hao Ren Yi Sheng Ping An), were created. Meanwhile, pop songs integrated with characteristics of Chinese nationalities, such as Enter the New Age (Zou Jin Xin Shi Dai), Story Of Spring (Chun Tian de Gushi), Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (Qing Zang Gao Yuan), and a way to the Paradise (Tian Lu), step forwards the world.

Chinese pop music gets a heterogeneous development in the 21st century. It keeps advancing with the times. Hip-Hop, R&B, Jazz, Rock, and Chinese folks, no matter where they are introduced from, get their fans. With the development of the Internet and the adoption of new techniques for collecting songs, network-popular songs, army songs, bel cantos, folk songs, and original and natural songs become important parts of the pop music of the times. Pop music is now created not only by integrating with the national characteristics but also by absorbing different elements from world music. It's a process of probing and discovering and finally forming unique styles. Young singers and composers, represented by Jay Chou, had a profound influence on contemporary Chinese music. Now, Chinese pop music has won a recognization all over the world.

New Music in New Age

Since the 1980s, thanks to more and more exchanges between China and other countries, many concert performers, composers, cantors, and bands come to China to give lectures, exchange opinions and perform. In the 20th century, representative works and theories of Western music were introduced to China via different channels. Tan Dun, Guo Wenjing, Ye Xiaogang, and some other students major in composition in the Central Conservatory of Music, influenced by Western modern music works, composition technics, and western music concepts, made an innovation in their music creation and adopted modern techniques for music composition. Lots of their songs, such as Li Sao and String Quartet No.1 - Feng, Ya and Song, The Poem of China (Zhong Guo Zhi Shi) of Ye Xiaogang, Mountain Songs (Shan Ge) of Qu Xiaosong, and Violin Concerto No. 1 (Di Yi Xiao Ti Qin Xie Zou Qu) of Xu Yashu won various prizes. People thus named this kind of music as "new music."

In 1984, the first "New Music Concert" was held in Beijing. The songs played included the Chui Da and Xian Shi of Chen Yi, Sweet Dream in the Garden (You Yuan Jing Meng) and Fu, Fu and Fu of Tan Dun, The Light of the Cosmos (Yu Zhou Zhi Guang) and Guang Ling San of Zhou Long, the Long Dong of Qu Xiaosong, Chuan Ya Xuan Zang of Guo Wenjing and The Moon over the West River (Xi Jiang Yue) of Ye Xiaogang. These songs show a music style featuring vitality, creativity, and novelty. In 1985, a concert under the theme of "Exploration and Pursuit" was held, with a collection of traditional-music- instrument-played new works of young Chinese composers. The "Tan Dun Traditional Music Concert" attracted the eyes of many people. Mr. Tan Dun made an innovation in a deal with music sources and performance. His music had a significant influence on the development of Chinese professional music in the middle and later 1980s and exploited a new way for the performance of traditional music.

In December 1985, the "Exchanging Meeting for New Works of Young Composers" was held in Wuhan Conservatory of Music. More than 130 musicians from 16 provinces and cities of China attended the meeting and performed the works of the representative and influential young musicians at that time. During this period, many composers held their concerts. Many of their works had a significant social influence to a certain extent. The new works that emerged prominently promoted the formation of the development pattern of the new music, centering Beijing and Shanghai and radiating toward other places of China, and even overseas.

Not only the young composers but also the middle and senior age composers achieved something through the innovation. Zhu Jian'er, with Na Xi Yi Qi, The 6th Symphony and the 8th Symphony, Luo Zhongrong, with Picking Lotus in the River (She Jiang Cai Fu Rong) and Hidden Fragrance {An Xiang), Wang Xiling, with the 3rd Symphony and the 4th Symphony, Jin Xiang, with Jinling Sacrifice (Jinling Ji) and opera Weald (Yuan Ye), and Gao Weijie, with Dream (Meng) series and Shao series, deepened the exploitation for innovation of music-making.

From the later 1980s to the present, with the further transformation of the Chinese sociocultural environment, more and more singers and composers have got the chance to go abroad and see the world. Composers have laid the focus of their music-making on the international stage and opened up new space for the new music of China. The modern music of China is increasingly internationalized, and the features of Chinese composers become more and more obvious. Meanwhile, a new way back to traditional music is being explored for developing the "new music," meaning to track down the Chinese history and culture by using modern techniques. The creation of "New music" features 1) application of techniques for composing Western modern music in the 20th century; 2) integration of modern music and traditional music, absorbing elements from folk songs, folk instruments, folk dance, operas, musical telling, and composing music with both traditional and modern music by using Western modern music-making techniques; 3) development of "modem folk music" and greatly improved performance skills of folk music, represented by Tan Dun's Northwest Suites (Xi Bei Zu Qu) and Nan Xiang Zi, Guo Wenjing's Melodies of Western Yunnan Suite for Chinese Traditional Orchestra (Dian Xi Tu Feng £r Shou) and Chou Kong Shan, Chen Qigang's San Xiao, Zhu Jian'er's Hidden Fragrance and Zhou Long's Flozving Water from Still Valley (Kong Gu Liu Shui).

These times witness more excellent composers, such as Liang Lei, Zhang Dalong, Yang Liqing, He Xuntian, and Chen Yonghua, and Huang Anlun. All these famous composers, no matter how old they are, have been insisting on using modern techniques to create Chinese "new music." In the 20th century, China experienced and conquered many difficulties and then found a way to reform and open up. In the 21st century, China's "new music" will also strive for international recognition and mature through conflict and integration.