Transcript of interview with Dr Samuel Wong Shengmiao (conducted by Gavin Lee), 7 April 2017, 2 pm, The TENG Company office
Dr Samuel Wong is the Artistic Director of The Teng Company and is also a pipa player. The Teng Company was set up in 2005 and its aim is to develop awareness of Chinese music through combining Eastern and Western influences. The core ensemble of the company, The Teng Ensemble, is built around the foundation of friendships between several award-winning instrumentalists. According to Samuel, what distinguishes The Teng Company from other traditional Chinese music organizations in Singapore lies in its ability to attract younger audiences, instead of just appealing to traditional Chinese music aficianados. As a young pipa player, Samuel likes playing new and adventurous works. This is unlike most pipa players, who tend to stick to playing traditional pieces. While studying at the Central Conservatory of Music in China, Samuel was exposed to the traditionalist mindset of Chinese instrumental masters towards contemporary Chinese music. He views the pipa as an international instrument, and is constantly on the hunt for new works to perform. Additionally, Samuel also feels that the pipa should assume a neutral identity and not be confined to Chinese repertoire, in order to take on any musical piece. However, Samuel acknowledges the common conception that the pipa is a traditional Chinese instrument. Samuel feels that with globalization and the rise of popular culture, younger audiences may not appreciate traditional Chinese repertoire, and this might lead to dwindling audiences in future. As a Singaporean exposed to traditional and contemporary music from the East and West in a globalized world today, and having gone to China to study the pipa, Samuel feels that he has benefitted from bimusicality (East and West music converging in Singapore). This allows him to create music that combines all elements of traditional instruments, with the aim of creating contemporary music pieces. Therefore, he believes that a Singaporean sound should be a fusion between the East and the West. Samuel thinks that globalization has made it harder for musicians and music groups to practice traditional art forms strictly, and that those who do not adapt to the fast-changing society, will be irrelevant in the near future. However, Samuel believes that there are several ways to preserve traditional music that goes beyond merely performing it, simply because the fast-paced way of life today leaves people with little time and energy to appreciate live concerts and traditional music.
“At that time, The TENG Ensemble was meant to be a company of Chinese music consultants. It was never meant to be an ensemble, or even a performance outfit.”
“All of this started while we were still students. We have graduated fully yet. A lot of the TENG Ensemble members were actually on scholarships, so we had to travel back and forth from Singapore to our respective country of studies.”
“The initial idea for the ensemble, was to actually grab a few close friends to perform together. So, I grabbed a few friends, and we had a guitarist, a singer, and even a sheng player. While they were all award-winning musicians, I roped them in largely because they were friends.”
“I thought, “Just do a performance, get some money and get out of there.” However, we needed a company to get the money. They couldn’t give it to one person.”
“That performance at the Singapore Night Festival in 2009, was a groundbreaking one. It was the first edition of the festival, and we didn’t expect so many people to turn up!”
“To be honest, we did not have a planned repertoire. We just took some Chinese folk songs like feng yang hua gu (“Flower Drum Song”), tian ya ge nu (“The Wandering Songstress,” 1937) by Zhou Xuan, and a few jazz tunes. We thought, maybe the public would like this, and that’s it.”
“One performance led to another, and for the next one and a half years or so, we were playing the same two to three songs, and repeating them from corporation to corporation.”
“All of them [the audiences] thought we were very novel, and many of them actually felt that we were very good. Not because the pieces chosen were very good, but because intrinsically, they were actually very skilled musicians.”
“This collaboration was supposed to be part time. It was never meant to be full time.”
“We suddenly realized that there is actually a demand for this. This group was never meant to be an ensemble in the first place, so the creation of The TENG Ensemble was incredibly organic.”
“We never realized that because of all these private engagements that we were doing over the years, we had actually gained a fan following.”
“We never wanted a concert to happen. Performance opportunities were just for us to earn some extra pocket money, and then have a nice meal.”
“Our ensemble is a mix of the East and the West. Quite the hodge-podge, to be honest. We didn’t intend for such instrumentation. It’s definitely unlike a string quartet, where established works are already readily available.”
“Essentially, The TENG Ensemble was all about friends. We all came from the same school, Anglo-Chinese School (Barker Road). So, we’ve known each other since we were twelve.”
“The thing about the TENG Ensemble, is that we break the stereotype of Chinese music.”
“It’s not like we can’t play. Many of the upcoming groups in China are just pretty faces. They really can’t play.”
“The tuan zhang of the Twelve Girls Band, who is Shi Juan, is actually a brilliant musician, and an incredibly good pipa player. The number of pieces that they envision themselves playing and the ideas that they can create, are very limited in that sense.”
“Many traditional Chinese music companies actually have a lot of problems attracting young people to like their music. We don’t have that problem.”
“It’s been a huge headache for a lot of traditional arts companies, ranging from the Singapore Chinese Orchestra [SCO] to smaller ones like Ding Yi Music Company. They’re not attracting young audiences. They’re attracting classical music aficionados instead.”
“We like things to be packaged in a very beautiful way, so the art is not really in the music, but in the packaging.”
“It was called Stories from an Island City. In 2016, it was No. 1 on the Hong Kong iTunes music charts. Surprisingly, it was Hong Kong, and not Singapore. Of course – amongst all the album releases in Hong Kong, I think it was ranked number 51, which I thought, “Not bad, you know!””
“To think that Malaysia would actually invite a Singaporean group to actually give a TED talk? That was quite big for us. And we were very surprised that the reception we got in Malaysia was very positive.”
“When I was younger and studying with my teachers, I already had an affinity for playing new or adventurous work. This was simply because the traditional pieces I played when I was younger was getting boring for me.”
“I felt that those pieces were a part in my life, when I was growing up, and getting to know my instrument. So, it made me realize that my instrument was not only a Chinese instrument, but it could also be an international instrument as well.”
“After I learned from the masters there, I realized that they were not very open to a lot of new work. The pipa was just a traditional instrument to them, and it needed to encompass the Chinese traditional identity.”
“I don’t see myself as a traditional Chinese person, simply because I am not a Chinese national. I’m Singaporean.”
“I had a lot of influences when I was younger. My folk songs were not their folk songs. The music that I listened to was pop, hip-hop, and rap. It wasn’t exactly mo li hua [茉莉花, “Jasmine Flower”].”
“It became a natural progression for me. I slowly understood that the pipa could be an international instrument, like that of the piano. The piano can play Chinese pieces, Western pieces, Argentinean pieces, as well as African pieces. The pipa needed to adopt a neutral identity, so that it could take on any piece.”
“What I’m looking for is basically music that does not borrow from any of these influences. You just treat the pipa as a sound device.”
“There was a phase in my life, where I thought, that the pipa should not just be a Chinese instrument. Just treat the pipa as an instrument, period.”
“In China, there was a camp of teachers who felt that we shouldn’t be playing modern music or new music. They felt that we should actually be traditionalists and continue delving into the schools of pipa playing.”
“They’re very conventional, but sooner or later, because of globalization, people have to be exposed to new pieces. If not, the audiences for traditional Chinese pieces would dwindle as well.”
“Having studied in both places, and being almost effectively bilingual in both places, I almost had “bimusicality” in that sense! It’s not only in Eastern and Western music, but it was also in contemporary and traditional music as well. This was simply because while I was growing up, it was popular music for me.”
“I would not use, for example, the erhu to play Ave Maria. The tonal texture just doesn’t work. However in China, they would do that.”
“Small decisions are made over time, therefore our compositions work. So when I play the music to the East, they think it is very refreshing. When I play it to the West, they think it is very exotic.”
“The Chinese market is a very insular market in that sense. It’s not free, where they can get influences from everywhere. They can only hear a little bit here, or a bit there. What succeeds in China is basically what the government approves, and thinks would be good for the audiences.”
“Basically, guan xi [“relationship”] and seniority is very important. So guan xi and bei fen [“seniority”] – these are the two things that run whole Chinese societies.”
“Regardless of social media, guan xi is the thing that will push you forward, which are basically the strength of your connections and the strength of the people who are in power. Usually, the strength of the people with power is strongly tied to the people in the government.”
“To go viral, all you would need is a celebrity to share your video. It works in places like China.”
“However, popularity in Singapore doesn’t function this way. You get attention from the government if you get critical mass.”
“When I created TENG’s pieces, I didn’t think of it as Chinese music. I just thought of it as sound. The instruments used does not matter, since I approached it not as Chinese music, but as a sound texture.”
“No doubt that there are a lot of stereotypes on Chinese music, and this is why TENG exists to break these stereotypes. By playing the kind of music that we do now, we are already naturally breaking stereotypes.”
“It is always those few Chinese New Year songs that repeat themselves over and over again. Any normal person would feel very bothered by it, because there are no new takes on it and it’s always the same thing!”
“It is a question of identity. Because even though we are ethnically Chinese, we are not Mainland Chinese.”
“One of the main reasons why I created the TENG Ensemble, was so that we could create music that the mainland Chinese nationals would never be able to create. They can try to imitate us, but they will never be able to authentically create the type of music that we produce.”
“I borrow musical influences of the East, West and the contemporary. So even though I play a traditional instrument, I’m aiming for a contemporary sound. This is the type of experience that I try to give the audience. And so far, it has been working and the audiences like it!”
“A lot of arts groups who are doing purely traditional music are suffering greatly right now. Western, Chinese, anything purely classical. Audience numbers have been dwindling due to globalization.”
“The history of Western music has also told us that certain things fade out and new things come in.”
“We are the new phase that is slowly coming in. Traditional composers will start questioning their beliefs and ideas of Chinese music.”
“Yeah, I think that it is important to increase the standing of Chinese music today. There are multiple ways to do it, and it is not limited to just being able to perform it. Today, people just want to be able to watch a film of it. A film or a preserved documentary. People would pay once to see it live, but they won’t pay all the time to see it live.”
“You cannot preserve the art for the sake of preserving it, because you think it is worth it. Rather, the preservation needs to work in tandem with society.”
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