In the Chinese-language weekly Beijing Entertainment Post, Zhang Xuejun wrote: "In Chinese music circles, Guo Feng is arguably the first (pop) singer to give concerts totally on his own, singing to his own piano accompaniment."

There will be neither noisy backing bands nor flashy dance accompaniment. Guo was quoted as saying: "I've experienced too many pop concerts that open and end in raucous commotion. This time, I hope I will be able to give my audiences a true sense of what (pop) music is."

During the concerts, Guo will attempt to review, through his own songs, the twists and turns that Chinese mainland pop musicians have experienced since the early 1980s, when original pop music began to grow on the Chinese mainland.

Guo Feng, now 40 and one of the leading musicians of the early Chinese mainland pop scene, achieved fame almost overnight in 1986 with his song, "Let the World be Filled with Love."

The song was performed, conducted by Guo, by a chorus of 100 singers during a concert for world peace in Beijing in 1986.

Over the years, however, Guo claims that he has also been fighting a battle for equal footing on the pop music scene between Chinese mainland pop musicians and their Hong Kong and Taiwan counterparts.

The battle is going on, he told a seminar in Beijing last week, because pop singers from Hong Kong and Taiwan are still getting more funding and media exposure than local performers.

Pop singers from Hong Kong and Taiwan seem to be more popular with people under the age of 25, whether the fans are from the relatively developed eastern coastal regions or in the more backward central and western areas, whether they are from big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai or from the countryside.

"I seldom listen to songs by mainland singers," said Liu Fang, a 25-year-old school teacher in Shanghai. She said Taiwan singer Qi Qin was her favourite singer.

Wang Xiaolu, a teenager at Beijing No 4 High School, named a dozen singer as her favourites but Na Ying was the only one from the Chinese mainland.

Guo said: "There is a prevailing concept that mainland pop music is cheap and not worth respecting."

The singer is still nostalgic about the 1986 concert for which he wrote the theme song, "Let the World be Filled with Love."

He said he regarded the concert as a milestone in bringing public attention to original pop music from the mainland.

However, Guo said he feels that mainland pop music still has a limited presence in the Chinese-speaking world.

Hong Kong and Taiwan performers have picked up most of the prizes at the Chinese Music Awards since the 1994 debut of the annual event, jointly held by China Central Television and Channel V China and aimed at promoting putonghua (standard Chinese) pop music throughout the world.

Multiple causes

During the seminar, Guo and other participants tried to pinpoint the causes of the current plight of original Chinese mainland pop music.

"Sometimes, the singers and record companies on the Chinese mainland are so eager to get an instant economic return that they seldom spend time writing and singing good songs," Guo admitted.

A frequent phenomenon would involve a mainland singer winning popular acclaim with one or two songs and then travelling across the country to perform that one song or two songs at various shows, without writing any more.

As a result, many talented singers dropped out of the pop scene after releasing only one successful album.

Many musicians have chosen to write music and perform within a small circle of clubs and bars. But they are also contributing to the creation of a more spirited and complex blend of contemporary Chinese music, from "clubby dance grooves, moody electronica, and garage-band thrash to melodious mando-pop or old-style punk" as the Chinese sound, noted the English-language website www.sinomania.com.

The Shanghai teacher Liu Fang said that the few mainland singers she heard on TV by chance "don't know what we think at all."

Worse, according to Guo Feng, some mainland singers might be good karaoke performers but they have not acquired enough skill to perform on a proper stage. That is why their shows and albums do not appeal to pop fans.

Renowned composer Gu Jianfen complained that many performers simply lip-sync to backing tapes. These unqualified singers have disappointed many pop fans, who have lost confidence in Chinese mainland singers, Guo said.

Copyright piracy is another big headache haunting the development of mainland pop music.

Recording companies have lost out a great deal due to rampant piracy.

According to Xu Xiaofeng at Warner, it costs his company about 500,000 yuan (US$60,400) to release a new album.

The cost cannot be recouped in many cases.

Guo Feng released a new album in August and at least 25 pirated versions of the album have been found in Beijing alone, he said.

There are now dozens of small-scale recording companies in Beijing, some of which might have deal with only one or two singers.

Piracy has made it impossible for these small companies to expand.

(China Daily December 10, 2002)