Transcript of interview with Evan Tay (conducted by Amanda Lee), 8 August 2016, 10 am, Gourmet East Kitchen.
Evan is a 44-year old female Chinese Singaporean and is a director at a dim sum company. She enjoys Cantonese songs and does not like rap or heavy metal. She enjoys listening to English pop artistes like Mariah Carey and Michael Bolton as their songs are usually meaningful slow ballads that are easy to sing. She listens to English music on the radio, switching between 90.5 FM, 95 FM, and 92 FM. She does not listen to classical music as she thinks that it is difficult for her to settle into and appreciate the music. She believes that it should be preserved for those who still enjoy it. As she grew up in a Chinese-speaking family, she grew up listening to Chinese music. She believes that one’s parents and family are the biggest musical influence. She likes Chinese artistes like Alan Tam, Hacken Lee, and she especially enjoys Cantonese music from the 80s. She also grew up watching Chinese opera whenever she accompanied her parents. She believes that traditional Chinese music should be preserved as it is linked to Chinese culture and identity, and that we should also not be too Western-influenced. Evan thinks that contemporary intercultural experimental Chinese music was created to capture younger audiences but she is not a fan of such music. She thinks xinyao best represents Singaporean music because it is simple, touching and meaningful, and it helps young Singaporeans bond through singing.
“[Michael Bolton and Mariah Carey] are very powerful and influential singers. And they usually sing, er, slow ballads and not those rapping songs. Easy to catch, and easy to understand, I think. The lyrics are very meaningful. It goes on and on, even for 10, 20 years, you still remember the song they sing.”
“Ya, I think it’s too slow. Ya. Firstly, my husband don’t enjoy [Western] classical music. Though I try to – sometimes when there’s a concert coming, I try to encourage him and he say “No, no, no, no, no, you go ahead.” But I can’t be going alone.”
“Maybe because to us, we are from a Chinese-speaking family. Ya, from young we listen to Chinese music, we grown up with xinyao [a genre of Chinese pop songs composed and listened to by Singaporeans from the late 1970s], and we grown up with, er, Wu Qixian and those people. So Chinese [pop] songs is more appealing to us.”
“Ya, it’s always linked to culture, so as a Chinese, we hope to preserve as much [traditional Chinese music] as we can. Um ... not being too Western-influenced. We – I – I should seriously think that, er, we should keep and preserve our identity as a Chinese.”
“Maybe to the young generation [contemporary intercultural cxperimental Chinese music] will work. Bring some awareness – create some awareness in, er, the young generation. But definitely to the, um, seniors and to the older generation, I don’t think they will like it.”
“Whenever you sit into a – another person’s car, okay another person’s car, you can tell from the music that she listens on the radio, her personality, her likes and dislikes.”
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