Chinese New Age singer Sa Ding Ding does not mind being caught between East and West.
In fact, she relishes it.
Thanks to her music, the singer – known as the Bjork of the East thanks to her unconventional performances and her penchant for singing in Tibetan, Sanskrit, Mandarin, the nearly extinct Lagu language and her own made-up language – has sometimes been asked about China-Tibet relations.
‘My music represents myself,’ she tells my paper firmly in a recent interview at St James Power Station, where she spoke in determined but halting English.
She performed two shows here last month in support of her latest album, Harmony.
But, she adds, ‘because I’m one of the only Chinese performers in the West, people tend to ask me about such issues’.
Sa is aware that as her second album – her first, Alive, was released in 2007 – begins to attract attention, the questions about China and its politics may get harder.
The fearless, ebullient singer is prepared. ‘I’m a musician, not a politician,’ she declares.
‘If people don’t understand China, I tell them to learn the history, to study it. Then after they’ve learnt all that, they will appreciate my country.’
But how does she deal personally with the tough questions?
‘I am Buddhist,’ she says. ‘I see the good in situations. I (make sure that I) have a good manner and a good attitude when facing others.’
Perhaps it’s an attitude that’s been cultivated by performing live. The half-Mongolian singer, raised mostly in Beijing, literally throws herself into her music, especially when she’s onstage.
In an enthralling show for the press at St James, she plonked herself face-down on the floor at one point, surprising some journalists.
Strange? Perhaps to some.
But the 26-year-old doesn’t consider herself to be odd.
‘I’m unpredictable because my dancing comes from (what I feel in) my music,’ she says.
And her music isn’t purely one thing or the other, but an amalgamation of sounds and inspirations which have captured the attention of those in the West.
She has appeared at the Sydney Opera House, Royal Albert Hall and Womad festival in Britain.
In 2008, she won the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio 3 World Music Award for the Asia-Pacific region.
This year, she will perform in Europe, America and her native China.
‘In my music, I sense this East-West feeling,’ she says, adding that ‘if your heart is not limited’, then these inspirations can come together.
But it is the live shows she thrives on.
‘My music is full of feeling, full of imagination. If you listen only to my CD, you cannot understand me completely. But when I tour, I communicate immediately (with my audience).’
Asked if she would ever consider having a Western boyfriend, Sa doesn’t demur.
‘I wouldn’t mind, as long as his heart is good,’ she reveals with a smile.
Author : Tay Yek Keak
Source : http://news.asiaone.com
