Tapping to an ancient beat

Her long hair flowing down to her skinny shoulders instead of resting in a topknot as in her portraits, Sa Dingding exudes the assured air of a star who takes her role very seriously.

She is not quite as exquisitely dressed in person as her promotion pictures show, although she turns up for the interview in an explosion of new-age style: earrings the size of tennis balls dangling down to her shoulders, green bellyband, white silk gown, bright pink pants and a catchy pair of hand-made silk shoes.

But the fact that she is good looking and dresses in exotic clothes is not the reason she is under the spotlight nowadays - it is her music and dancing on stage that explains this.

Of the newest crop of Chinese stars, Sa stands out. The 25-year-old young Chinese singer/songwriter, whose real name is Zhou Peng, made the world sit up and pay attention in London recently when she won the prestigious BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music in the Asia Pacific category, the first time the award went to a Chinese singer.

With her enigmatic soprano voice, this young artist has brought the ethnic tunes of ancient Tibet to the notice of the world. With lyrics in Mandarin, Tibetan, Sanskrit, and a unique language all her own, Sa highly values vocals and natural sounds.

"I didn't even expect to be nominated, let alone winning the award," she says at her record company in Beijing. "But when my name was called, I felt I deserved it." Such confidence came in handy when she gave 97 interviews to media from around the world on her tour of Europe.

Sa says it has always been her ambition to share her music with a wider audience. "I am happy to have this award. As a Chinese, I am deeply in love with my country and its culture. There are many treasures in China's long history and rich culture, which I am very proud of. And I want to present this heritage through modern eyes and inject new life into it," she said in her award acceptance speech in London. "I am glad to have the opportunity to fulfil my dream, for people far from China to listen to my music and see me perform. I hope I can be a cultural bridge between the West and China."

Asked how she feels about being promoted as a world music star, her response is surprisingly corporate: "My music is marketed as Sa Dingding music, not some special musical style. To me, the music is only Sa Dingding."

Born into a cross-cultural family with Han and Mongolian influences (Her father is from Shandong province and her mother from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region), Sa developed an early interest in the ethnic culture and music of the region where she lived as a child. For the first six years of her life, Sa spent the summer traveling across the pasturelands of Inner Mongolia as a nomad with her grandmother, where she says "we first learned to sing and then to speak".

"I heard people singing every day, and it told me that music means freedom." Along the way she learnt Sanskrit, Tibetan and Lahu, a language that is disappearing rapidly from the remotest villages of southwestern China. Her curiosity in Buddhism, Dhyana Yoga and Sanskrit unleashed her creative spirit and pushed her musical boundaries, as is evident in her album.

Later, she moved to eastern and then central China with her parents, before settling in Beijing, where she attended university. She became fascinated with electronic music, and by 18 was hailed as the best dance singer in China. "But at that time I was singing songs by other people, not expressing my own feelings," she says. So she started using electronica to "help me explore my imagination and my thoughts about music", while also studying folk instruments, learning to play the ancient Chinese zheng and making use of the Mongolian horse-head fiddle. Meanwhile, she developed her own language, one she says she created based on memories of her grandmother, as in Oldster by Xinlin River in her debut album Alive.

"I wrote a song to remember my grandma, who died some years ago. I wrote down some lyrics I believed were touching. However, after my recording, the director told me he couldn't sense the feeling of loss or love in the song. So I changed the way I expressed my feelings. I searched deep in my memory and recollected the language my grandma used to talk to me when I was still a baby. I babbled this along with the music, and my director was in tears."

There were more surprises with her use of Sanskrit and Buddhist texts. Buddhism is important to the inspiration for the music. "It has enlightened my soul and helped me express myself."

She doesn't intend to create music tailored specifically to Western tastes. "Music is a kind of cultural envoy."

She is determined to take Chinese music and culture further into the world. "It is easy to lose oneself in a highly commercial society where people seek quick success and instant benefits," she says. "Like my costumes and accessories, I like spending lots of time working on them (Chinese music and culture) because they are worth it."

The young singer has a packed schedule of performances. A major appearance in North America is coming up on May 30 for the launch of new album. On July 30, she will take the stage at the televised Award Winners' Concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London. All her performances will exceed one hour.

"All I am doing is trying to enlighten people who are curious to explore China," she says.

(China Daily 05/09/2008 page20)