100 Songs of Chinese Music
33. Heavenly Road (天路) – Han Hong (韩红)
Han Hong, not to be confused with ex-Kpop idol Han Geng.
She is also one of China’s most beautiful voices, and she can also be quite patriotic. She’s got Tibetan roots, and her most popular song is called Heavenly Road or Road to Heaven, in reference to the road to Tibet. Though it sounds fairly classical, it’s apparently an original composition that was included in her 2005 album Moved (感动).
She was recently a participant in the third season of China’s version of I Am a Singer (我是歌手), where she took the top spot when she brought the house down with a brand new arrangement of the song. She hit those high notes, and probably said “enough of this show, it’s over.” xD
34. Song for Heaven (對天歌) – Silver Ko (高少華) [clip]
The ending credits song of Johnnie To’s Election.
35. Pulchritude (玩美) – Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) [MV]
And they call her the Dancing Queen.
36. The Future Is Now (未来就是现在) – Bibi Zhou (周笔畅) [MV]
Always my bias.
37. Daylight Allure (日光倾城) – Carrchy (卡奇社)
Beijing-based indietronica Carrchy had been inactive since they pretty much released their 2007 album Daylight Allure. But they’ve been releasing singles this year :)
38. Zhongnanhai (中南海) – Carsick Cars
Though Mainland band Carsick Cars released an album last year, they haven’t been able to replicate the spark that Zhongnanhai from their 2007 self-titled album had.
39. Hutong Ties (胡同结儿) – Crazypark
I discovered this track in 2008-2009 when I saw a compilation titled Chinese Hip Hop Underground Vol. 5. The thing is, it’s so underground, you can’t find anything about it online after all these years except for these two posts on the different compilations [1][2]. I also found this other song titled On Hand Business ( 身边事儿) [1].
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40. Elf (小鬼儿) – Hedgehog (刺猬)
41. Incomparable Beauty (無與倫比的美麗) – Sodagreen (蘇打綠) [MV]
42. Youth of China (少年中国) – Chris Lee (李宇春) [MV]
43. Time for Dreams – Lang Lang & Schiller
The Chinese piano rock star! [1]
Time for Dreams is an extract of his 2008 album Dreams of China.
Such a great feature! “Mama Get Me a Guitar” is cute. The Chin Tsai song is so good- what is the title? Either characters or pinyin romanization. Wow at Ding Wei. Laure Shang has such a cool voice. And I’ve probably said before that I really like the clarity of the voices of the Tibetan/-influenced? singers.
The Chin Tsai song is The Forgotten Times (被遺忘的時光) :) – and yes, they all have such quality to their voice. I love it.
/correction I was looking up DaiQing Tana & Haya Band and apparently they’re Mongolian. -headdesks-
Mongolian-Tibetan. Daiqing Tana’s song is called Migration (迁徙), same as the album. The 30min show on YouTube has different songs, including a version of Faye Wong’s Red Bean… if not mistaken.
and I forgot that the song was in Infernal Affairs!
My favorite new one is #4, Chinese Cabbage. Every time it comes on, I have to sing lol and my mom was listening to it, and translated saying it’s a super sad song! Something about not having your mom and your dad re-marrying, and being poor with your brother having something to wear and something to eat, while you are left with just broth and asking for something to wear.
You have to be grateful of the excess many live in now, the biggest complain has to be that iPhones and Galaxy phones are getting bigger. Seriously. Grateful for the food that I enjoy every single day.