The hybridization of Western and Chinese music has an interesting history in China. The trend towards adopting Western styles in music started early in Chinese history with the first traders and colonization. The cultural imperialism brought by colonization created a trend towards Westernization which has continued throughout Chinese history. The history of Western music in China is interesting in how the Chinese assimilated it to be their own music; it has also been interesting to see the influences Westernization has had on their culture.

To fully understand the hybridization of Western and Chinese music, the history of traditional Chinese music must first be understood. Contact with China was made by traders from Europe in 1784. Information about Chinese music has since been gathered through historical accounts from the traders and Chinese documents, as well as through studying Chinese traditions.

The Chinese learned and performed music through an oral tradition without any known notation system to record those early songs. The earliest known notation system for Chinese music is from the Sung Dynasty.1 This notation, however, is indecipherable. This lack of a decipherable notation system leaves much unknown about early Chinese music and most of what is known is from oral tradition. The earliest notation system that can be interpreted is from the Yuan Dynasty.2 After this period music has been found that has been written down and preserved.3 So although not much can be known for sure about ancient Chinese music, after the Yuan Dynasty more and more is known about early Chinese music.

To the Chinese mind, there are two main components to music, tone and joy. These two aspects are represented in the Chinese characters for the word music, Yin and Yueh. Yin is the tone, which the Chinese consider the essential quality of music, much like rhythm is to Western music. Yueh is joy; the Chinese believe that in order for something to be music that it must have a meaning behind it and it also must be something that gives joy or pleasure to the listener.4

In addition to these qualities, Chinese music is often highly symbolic, conveying deep cultural insights and meanings.5 Traditional Chinese music was often based upon poems, which easily lent themselves to creating the musical qualities that the Chinese desired. As can be seen so far, the Chinese conception of music in its traditional sense is rather different than the Western view.

The nature of the Chinese language also influenced the development of music in China. The monosyllabic nature of the Chinese language led to the development of monophonic music. Because of the simplicity of grammar in the Chinese language, they also expected that the music of better quality should also be simplistic in nature.

The melodies of traditional Chinese music are similar in nature to Gregorian chant in that they have no notated rhythmical value and generally consist of an unaccompanied melodic line. The focus of the traditional song is on tone, which could also be related to the tonality of the Chinese language itself.6 This style is especially represented in court music and temple music.7 This type of melody is called Ya Yueh, which is considered to be the refined music in ancient China. There is also a more melismatic melody type called Su Yueh. This type of melody is considered to be crude and to show a lack of education.

Although the Su Yueh were often more popular, the melodies were considered inferior by the elite and considered to be songs for the peasants.8 Interestingly, the Su Yueh are more similar in style to European folk songs than the Ya Yueh. The Ya Yueh melodies were considered to be intellectually and spiritually enlightening whereas the Su Yueh were considered to be base and only provided pleasure to the ears without stimulating the mind or spirit.9

However, the Su Yueh are so complex that they cannot be easily notated because they are so melismatic in nature.10 So although there are two major types of traditional Chinese music, the Ya Yueh were preserved in writing rather than the Su Yueh because the Ya Yueh were the songs of the elite and the elite had money to pay for writing materials. The example at the bottom of the page shows a Ya Yueh song in Chinese notation.

The Ya Yueh melodies consist of several important stylistic characteristics that had a large influence on all Chinese music that came after. Ya Yueh had a meter that most closely conformed to a duple meter. It is commonly believed that the Chinese write only in the pentatonic scales; this is untrue. Although pentatonic scales were the most common scale-type used, a diatonic scale was also used, and occasionally a septatonic scale was used when a melody was in a descending motion. The Chinese melodies do not use a tempered scale, and the pitches are more improvisational in nature.11 The melody lines are free form and rarely have harmonic
Example 1
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structures added to the melody. The instruments would play in parallel octaves in an ensemble rather than creating chord structures.13 Although the Ya Yueh are more simplistic in nature than the Su Yueh, there is an involvement of technique and performance that is not found in the Su Yueh.
Vocal and instrumental music have been important in Chinese history. Music has served for social functions, to determine social hierarchy, establishing a folk tradition, and to serve as everyday enjoyment and enlightenment. Example 2 shows a traditional instrumental ensemble group. Vocal and instrumental music are similar in style and they most significantly differ in range. The standard Chinese ensemble plays the same melody in unison or occasionally in octaves, and only differing in sound because of the different timbres of the instruments.14 There are some exceptions to the unison playing. These exceptions are a string instrument playing a
Example 2
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drone, the sheng16 may play in fourths and fifths, and the hu ch’in17 will play an improvised accompaniment in opera performances.18 These characteristics show one of the differences between traditional Chinese music and Western music. Chinese involve music as a part of life, whereas the Western approach is to use music to accentuate life. This is best summed up in this statement:
The function of music in Europe for the last thousand years had been
mostly artistic and religious, embellishing life rather than being
essential to it. In contrast to this, Chinese music has a function
which is pervasive and which permeates into every experience of
human living, which is fundamental to life itself, and expresses itself
in all kinds of activity. 19
The traditional views of the Chinese about music can be seen as quite different from those of Western cultures. The Chinese see music as permeating life, where in the Western mind, music is an accessory to life. The Chinese also value the quality of tone and timbre over other qualities, where Westerners value rhythm as the most important basis of music. The Chinese peoples’ views of music can be seen changing with the growing influence of Western civilization on the Chinese culture.
Now that the history and aspects of traditional Chinese music have been reviewed to some extent, the influence of Western music on Chinese music throughout China’s history can be examined. There have been many different sources of Western influence throughout Chinese history. Each source has had a different effect on Chinese society. Some aspects of exposure to Western culture have helped Chinese culture and some have harmed it. Although Western cultural imperialism has been prevalent in Chinese society, the influnce has not been all negative.
One of the earliest influences of Western culture on China came from early Christian missionaries in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The missionaries taught the Chinese traditional Christian hymn songs, which began the Western musical influence in China.20 Later in Chinese history the influence of those hymns that were taught to the Chinese would be incorporated into popular songs and other song-styles as well. The Christian missions would often be the most influential economic force in small towns and so the Western manners and traditions would also be assumed by the Chinese denizens of those towns. The influences of the Christian missions
The Chinese were eventually colonized by European countries. With this influence, the Chinese lost confidence in their traditional culture after having a demoralizing defeat in the Opium Wars and the failed Taiping Rebellion, which led the Chinese people to feel that they could no longer sympathize with ancient Chinese ideals. The Chinese viewed Western culture as the superior form of culture because of the domination of the West through colonization. To fill their disillusionment with their traditional culture, the Chinese turned to Western culture for inspiration, especially in the area of music. The Chinese adopted Western ideals on harmony, vocal timbre and quality, homophony, and orchestration. During this time period the Chinese began to adopt Western music as their own.21 The influences of colonization on the Chinese and their eventual adoption of Western ideals was initially a demoralization and a loss of its own cultural identity. The Western repesentatives in China so thoroughly dominated the Chinese that Western culture even became part of the domination of the Chinese. Although Western culture became the high form of culture, traditional Chinese culture did not simply disappear. Instead, the early forms of hybridization began to occur with the blend of Western popular music and Chinese folk music.
During this period in Chinese history the extremely important popular music of Shanghai began to develop. The popular music of Shanghai influenced the rest of the development of popular music in China. One of the most common types of popular music developed in nightclubs. This type of popular music is called “yellow music.” The melodies of these popular songs used Western harmony, instruments,22 and orchestration. There were also some Chinese instruments that were used, usually the er-hu23 and the ti and hsiao flutes.24 Shanghai popular music developed from the different cultural influences in the city. Shanghai was a large trade center in the 1930s; classically trained Russian musicians fled to Shanghai to escape the October Revolution, Filipino instrumentalists, and Chinese composers all influenced each other in development of popular music.25 Since Western music was already highly valued, the ideas of Russian musicians were also highly valued. The Shanghai popular music in general was largely influenced by jazz, and particularly in combining it with the other cultural styles present in Shanghai. The popular songs also combined non-Chinese melodies, the Western scale combined with the pentatonic scale, Chinese folk tunes, and Western band instruments. Shanghai popular music also included elements of big band and the styles of the studio orchestras of hollywood.26 The first American musical influences can be seen in this period. Ballroom dance music and orchestral music were also popular in Shanghai, which lent their styles to the eclectic musical atmosphere of the city in addition to the establishment of the first symphony orchestra in East Asia.
The development of Shanghai popular songs began with the composer Li Jinhui. He originally composed children’s musicals and had touring groups that performed the musicals. The touring groups eventually lost their appeal, and when that happened Li Jinhui turned to writing love songs instead. Li Jinhui’s songs became very popular and influenced the direction of the development of Shanghai popular music. He combined jazz and Hollywood film music influences with pentatonic scales and lyrics based upon Chinese love poems.27 Although these songs were vastly popular, they were considered detrimental to the Chinese mind. However, Li’s contributions to music were later considered to be of more value. Li Jinhui did manage to create a new musical idiom, combining the music of two very different cultures.28 Li Jinhui was important in the development of Chinese popular music because of his contributions to the Shanghai popular music. He was a very influential man in the development of modern Chinese music.
Another type of song that developed during this era was the leftist mass song. The leftist mass song is similar in intention to a protest song. The leftist mass songs had a basis in the Protestant hymns that were taught to the Chinese earlier in the century. The leftist mass songs hybridized jazz, Chinese and European folk songs, hymn tunes, and dance songs. Another important composer during this time, Mie Er, wrote some of the most influential mass songs. Mie Er wrote many of his songs using the Russian style for mass music and military marches. His lyrics dealt with social issues, especially in regards to the conflict with Japan. The leftist mass songs later became anthems for the communist revolution.29 The leftist mass songs served as an important political influence in China even though the songs were largely Western in style.
Another large influence in Chinese music was the Chinese cinema which was developing in Shanghai in the 1920s. The cinema also effected the musical atmosphere of Shanghai with its incorporation of music into many of the movies. There were over a hundred film companies that were producing movies in Shanghai, which had a considerable influence on the economic structure and musical aspects of the Shanghai culture. Many of the film producers also began to produce songs to promote the movies being produced, in a similar style to that of Hollywood. The movie songs soon became lumped in with popular songs.30 This development of using the style of popular songs for movie promotion models the similar American movie practice. This development also influenced the future developments in Chinese cinema and music.
The entertainment industry in Shanghai began to decline when the communist regime assumed power. Foreign organizations were forced to leave soon after the Communist regime took over. This took away the large record companies in Shanghai, causing the gradual decline of Shanghai popular songs. The entertainment industry moved to Hong Kong after the foreign record companies were forced to leave. The Shanghai popular songs endured into the 1960s, but changed considerably during that time.31 The influence that Shanghai popular music had on Chinese popular music in general was vastly important. Shanghai popular music set the standard of using Western influenced music for popular music. Because of the power that the Western world, and especially America, had gained during this period, the Chinese music market decided that it would be more in their favor to copy the music of the powerful Western countries in an attempt to become more like them.32
Also, during the early 1900s was a general adoption of Western music in China. The cultural imperialism of the West had already been firmly employed in China, so it was readily accepted into the realm of popular music as well. In 1911 Western teaching styles were adopted in schools throughout China, including music. Chinese melodies became Westernized themselves.33 The Westernization of Chinese melodies began with traditional music being rewritten in Western notation and then the Western notation began to replace Chinese notation altogether. Chinese musicians began to use Western notation more frequently and even began to prefer it to the traditional Chinese notation.34
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By the 1930s the Chinese had adopted compositional and orchestral styles similar to the Western Romantic period’s musical style. The Chinese still kept musical themes that were Chinese in nature and they also kept some of the traditional Chinese instruments, but these were aspects that were synthesized with Western orchestration. The Chinese especially enjoyed the programmatic aspects of nineteenth-century harmony; Chinese composers often combined programmatic pieces with themes emphasizing revolutionary ideas.36 Also in the 1930s, the National Conservatory of Music was established. This was China’s first music conservatory of Western music. The curriculum at the National Conservatory of Music was modeled after the curriculum of the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany.37 Chinese traditional music lost its appeal and was put aside for studies in Western music, especially the music of Western Europe, Russia, and America.38 During the early 1900s in Chinese history the push towards Westernization was so great that Western ideals were quickly assimilated, especially the Western ideals of music. Orchestras for Chinese opera created an overall sound like that of a Western orchestra, even when traditional instruments and the pentatonic scale were used. Many composers wrote songs for opera singers that were stylistically the same as German lieder.39 The increased interest in Western music during this period in Chinese history caused Chinese musicians to explore new styles of composition and performance. However, the rather overzealous embrace of Western music caused the Chinese to discard their traditional music and with that, part of their national identity. Western music lost its foreign quality to the Chinese and was assimilated and became the new national music of China.40
The establishment of the Communist regime caused the continuity of assimilation of Western music into Chinese society. The Marxist ideology of Communism greatly affected how and what kind of music was allowed to develop. It is best summed up in this statement:
Marxist ideology has played a crucial role in shaping the course of
Chinese music evolution in the twentieth century. Since the early
stages of the Communist Revolution, explicit formulations of
cultural policy have directly influenced music development,
encouraging certain kinds of music at the expense of others and
attempting to regulate the role of music and art in daily life.41
When the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, reforms were made to music and its production. Some reforms were beneficial while others could be considered too restrictive. The state took ownership where patronage used to support musicians, composers, etc. A minister of culture was established that monitored the media. In the negative sense, the Ministry of Culture could censor and restrict what was produced in the media and it often did in a rather zealous manner. However, the Ministry of Culture also made all forms of media more accessible to everyone, including films, records, sheet music, and radio and television broadcasts. The Ministry of Culture also increased the number of productions that were being created.42 Music permeated every aspect of Chinese life, much as it had in ancient times. Music was performed in all forms of media and in various stage performances and amateur performances; music was also highly involved in festivals and other occasions. Conservatories were also established throughout China that taught Western and Chinese music including exchange programs allowing students to train in the former USSR and Eastern Europe.43 So although the Communist regime enforced restrictions on music, there were also a good many things that the government did to promote and encourage music and musicianship that were beneficial. Because of the increased amount of media production, the continued popularity of Western music was maintained and possibly even increased.
The Communist regime was focused upon modernizing Chinese music. The Western influences that were already dominant in Chinese society gave cause to the government to believe that Western music was superior and should be used as the model for the “modernized” Chinese national music. The music of Russia was used as the basis for the new “national music.” The Chinese government replaced traditional Chinese instruments with Western instruments and they assumed the twelve-tone, equal-tempered tuning of Western music. Many of the pentatonic melodies were kept, but instead of remaining heterophonic in nature it was harmonized with Western chord progressions.44 These changes caused a near loss of all uniquely Chinese aspects of music. Chinese music was traditionally written anonymously and many songs were variations or rearrangements of other previously written pieces. These aspects of Chinese music all changed when Western music was adopted as the national style. One aspect of the original Chinese style that was somewhat maintained was the voicing for some songs. For some of the songs the traditional shrill, nasal singing with indefinite rhythm was still used. But more frequently, the Western singing style was used.45 The Chinese people’s reliance on Western music caused them to look to Russia especially for guidance. This caused them to adopt Russia’s musical style, especially those of Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov.46 The desire to assimilate Western music caused China to forsake many of their traditional music practices and repertoire.
The Cultural Revolution in 1966 caused intensive damage to Chinese culture and especially to the musical culture. Both Western and Chinese music were banned and conservatories, record companies, and music publishers were shut down. The music that was allowed to be performed consisted of five operas and three modern ballets. The idea behind the Cultural Revolution was to wipe out all previous cultural influences and to form a new, unique culture. The results were catastrophic, however. “Most foreign observers and Chinese themselves seem to agree that the Cultural Revolution left China a cultural wasteland.”47 In the efforts to erase the impacts of Western cultural imperialism, the government also destroyed any traditional Chinese music that might have been able to help in developing a recreation of a national music. Without a basis to build new music upon, what could be developed was too severley limited to be able to meet the cultural needs of Chinese society. Instead, the Chinese were left with a barren, cultureless world dominated by military conventions. Mao failed to realize that music does not develop from a void, there must be some previous influences to rely upon, even if those influences are simply to be broken.
After Mao Zedong’s death, the Chinese culture regained much of its vitality. Deng Xiaoping was reinstated and he began to make social reforms that greatly helped the Chinese culture to flourish once again. Traditional and Western music were no longer banned, foreign trade restarted, tourism was promoted, and relations were started with foreign countries, especially America. Other changes were made to the atmosphere of Chinese society. Radio stations began to broadcast popular music again and mood music was played in public instead of military marches. The music industry once again began to flourish.48 The reforms that Deng Xiaoping made helped Chinese culture and once again began the cultural and musical hybridization of Chinese and Western music.49 With the invigoration of the music industry, the Chinese began to sample more music and new kinds of music including imported rock, art music, and orchestral music.50 However, with this interst in imported music, not only Western music was sampled, but also the music of Japan, India, Taiwan and other Eastern cultures. It is easy to assume that the West forces its culture upon other society’s through globalization and cultural imperialism. However, as China has shown, cultures will take the parts of other cultures that suit them and they also sample from cultures that are non-Western.51
The Chinese popular music industry began to grow after Deng Xiaoping’s reforms. The industry hired and produced songs from their own artists, now being able to compete with the music industries in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The new Chinese popular music still drew its inspiration from jazz and Western classical music like Shanghai popular music had. However, the new popular music also drew inspiration from blues, country, and rock. Several new genres of popular music developed: ingge52, disike,53 xibeifeng,54 and qiuge55 . There was also an underground rock movement that formed in the 1980s, with the first band to perform being Wan Li Ma Wang.56 The underground Chinese rock movement was not government sanctioned and was marginalized by the government. Despite the government’s disapproval, rock music thrived. Chinese rock is practically the same as American and British rock in melodic and rhythmic structures, but differing in lyrical subjects. The revived Chinese music industry has been a large influence in the hybridization of Western and Chinese music.
Western art music has also been important in China since the early 1980s. Art music had been gradually growing in popularity since the early 1900s, but with the opening of China’s borders to other countries, it’s popularity grew greatly since the 1980s. Western orchestras and virtuosi commonly visited Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou for performances. The availability of performances and access to music and professional performers inspired Chinese musicians and composers. Many of the recent Chinese composers combine parts of traditional music and fuse it with Western styles, creating a new contemporary genre. One such composer, Zhou Long, synthesizes classical Western music, modern Western music, and traditional Chinese music. He writes unique compositions with the goal of connecting China and the West and yet he also tries to keep the compositions truly Chinese.57 The future of Chinese music at this point seems to be in the direction that Zhou Long is taking, a synthesis of Chinese and Western music, or as Zhou Long states it: “Well, I think composers will increasingly try to be universal- get a wide perspective on music, and learn from many cultures. I hope they will find a way to remain true to their own culture at the same time, that it not just be a superficial mixture of things- but a true combination.”58
China has a long, tumultuous music history with times of prosperity and times where music was greatly restricted. The music of China has gradually adopted many of the characteristics, styles, and ideals of Western music while still making it their own unique music. The trends of modern Chinese society show an increasing interest in Western music and a continued hybridization of the two. Although China has been greatly influenced by imperialism overall and especially culturally, their recent history has shown that despite this they have used what has been imposed upon them and what has been sampled to create a music form that is their own.

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