Chinese Language Blog

Do you like listening to music? (你喜欢听音乐吗？- nǐ xǐ huan tīng yīn yuè ma)

I don’t know about you, but I really like listening to music (我非常喜欢听音乐 – wǒ fēi cháng xǐ huan tīng yīn yuè)

Well, what kind of music do you like? (你喜欢什么音乐 – nǐ xǐ huan shén me yīn yuè)

To help you build your music related vocabulary, here are a few ways you could answer that question:

I like (我喜欢 – wǒ xǐ huan)…

• rock music (摇滚音乐 – yáo gǔn yīn yuè)
• pop music (流行音乐 – liú xíng yīn yuè)
• jazz (爵士 -  jué shì)
• rap (说唱 – shuō chàng)
• country music (乡村音乐 – xiāng cūn yīn yuè)
• blues (蓝调 – lán diào)
• electronic music (电子音乐 – diàn zǐ yīn yuè)
• heave metal (重金属音乐 – zhòng jīn shǔ yīn yuè)
• classical music (古典音乐 – gǔ diǎn yīn yuè)
• reggae (雷鬼 – léi guǐ)

While we’re at it, here’s some more useful music related vocabulary:

• singer (歌手 – gē shǒu)
• band (乐队 – yuè duì)
• song (歌曲 – gē qǔ)
• album (专辑 – zhuān jí)
• instrument (乐器 – yuè qì)
• concert (音乐会 – yīn yuè huì)
• music festival (音乐节 – yīn yuè jié)

I know you like listening to music, but can you make music?

Can you sing? (你会唱歌吗 – nǐ huì chàng gē ma)

Can you play guitar? (你会弹吉他吗 – nǐ huì tán jí tā ma?)

To answer affirmatively, simply say “(I) can” (会 – huì), and to answer negatively, just add the character 不 – “(I) cannot” (不会 - bú huì).

In addition to learning basic vocabulary, you should familiarize yourself with Chinese instruments. Thankfully, we’ve got you covered here. Check out some of these past posts about traditional Chinese instruments:

• Chinese Instruments Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Pipa (Chinese Lute)
• Chinese Bells
• Bamboo Flute
• Traditional Drumming
• Guqin (7-string plucked instrument)
• Erhu (2-string Chinese violin)

If you’re into music festivals and concerts as much as I am, and you enjoy hilarious stories, you might as well go ahead and read some of my more entertaining posts about some Chinese music festival experiences:

• Yi Xian Music Festival Part One: Read about our ridiculous journey out into the middle of nowhere for a music festival, which found us sleeping in a KTV bar.
• Yi Xian Part Two: Finally in Yi Xian, we set up camp in a dirty parking lot, and convinced people to buy beer for us in exchange for photos.
• Zhang Bei In Music Festival Part One: A 6-hour bus ride finds us out in the countryside of Hebei province for a summer time music festival.
• Zhang Bei Part Two: Cultural differences, late night dance parties, and people eating french fries with chopsticks.

If videos are more your thing, here’s a little highlight reel I made from the In Music Festival:

Whether you are into traditional Chinese music, or the more modern sensation of C-Pop, listening to music can help you understand a lot about Chinese culture and can also improve your language skills. So what are you waiting for? Listen to, play, sing along, and dance to some Chinese music!

As I mentioned in my last post, the music festival season is upon us here in the Middle Kingdom. This weekend, which will be a long one thanks to the May Day holiday, will see not one, not two, but THREE separate music festivals going on in Beijing alone. In addition to the trifecta of festivals going on in the capital, there are also musical extravaganzas in Shanghai and Suzhou over this holiday weekend. Here is a run-down of the events:

This fruit will be rocking Beijing and Suzhou!

Strawberry Music Festival (草莓音乐节 – cǎo méi yīn yuè jié) – Brought to you by the Modern Sky record label, this festival is celebrating its 4th year in China with multiple cities in 2011. From April 30-May 2, Strawberry will rock both Suzhou and Beijing with hundreds of bands spread out over multiple stages. In the capital, this event takes place outside of the city center in the Tongzhou Canal Park (通州运河公园 – tōng zhōu yùn hé gōng yuán), about an hour or so by subway/bus from downtown areas of Beijing. This year, the festival boasts an impressive six stages, and the lineup primarily features local indie rockers, such as Queen Sea Big Shark (后海大鲨鱼) and Second Hand Rose (二手玫瑰). This year, there will also be a stage called School of Rock (校园舞台
 – xiào yuán wǔ tái) which will host bands from local universities. Full schedule and ticket information can be found HERE.

Even bears know how to rock.

Midi Music Festival (迷笛音乐节 – mí dí yīn yuè jié) – This is the original Beijing music festival and it showcases mostly rock and heavy metal acts. For 2011, the party is moving from Haidian Park out to Jinglang Island, in Mentougou District (北京市门头沟京浪岛公园), and the headlining act will be Mr. Big. Yes, that Mr. Big, the American group famous for singing, “I’m the one who wants to be with you…” In addition to the rockin’ and thrashin’ stages, there will also be a YEN stage with local DJs spinning electronic music. While Midi has been around in Beijing since 2000, it will be making its first apperance down in Shanghai, in Pudong Century Park (上海浦东世纪公园). You can check out the full line-up and get the details for both versions of Midi HERE.

CMV - the new kid on the block.

China Music Valley (中国乐谷音乐节 – zhōng guó yuè gǔ yīn yuè jié) – In its rookie year, this festival hopes to take the capital by storm with a line-up packed full of international acts, including: Avril Lavigne, Ladytron, Hot Hot Heat, and Juliette Lewis (yes, the actress). Happening a fair distance away from the heart of Beijing at the Yugang Ski Resort, this event has enjoyed quite a bit of support from the government. This will be the shortest festival of the weekend, as it is only taking place on Saturday and Sunday. The festival has been named after a bigger project going on in China, which is to transform Beijing’s Pinggu district into a “valley of music” where a community of creative industries related to music can thrive. While it will certainly be interesting to see how this project turns out, for the meantime most Beijingers are more concerned with how this festival plays out in its first year. For more information, check out the official festival website HERE.

Now that you have the skinny on all three major festivals this weekend, you might as well check out some funny stories I have from last summer’s music festivals:

Music Festivals in China – This post is all about how the music festival scene has grown over the past few years in China, thanks in big part to generous support from, of all people, the Chinese government!

Yi Xian Music Festival – Part One – Travel Troubles – Part One of this hilarious tale chronicles our experience last year attempting to get ourselves out of the city into the remote countryside for a camping music festival. As is usually the case here in China, some travel trouble was included.

Yi Xian Music Festival – Part Two – We are Rockstars – For Part Two of the journey, we enjoy the celebrity status that comes with being a few of only a handful of foreigners at a multi-day outdoor concert. After all of the headaches that came with finding the festival, we actually ended up having a pretty good time!

Zhang Bei Grasslands Music Festival – Part One – If you liked the video that I posted a few days ago, you’ll like this post about our trip to that same music festival out in the grasslands of Hebei province. Featuring big open fields and a clear blue sky, this was the perfect place for a festival and a great way to escape the smog and crowds of Beijing for a weekend.

Zhang Bei Grasslands Music Festival – Part Two – In Part Two, read about how we made friends with our neighbors, met an Australian heavy metal band, and some funny cultural differences we noticed while enjoying our weekend at the festival.

Ever wondered what it’s like to go to a camping music festival in the grasslands of China? Well, wonder no more! These days, weekend long music festivals are becoming more and more common in China. In Beijing alone, over the May Day (五一) holiday, there are three festivals. Each summer, more and more festivals pop up, oftentimes in remote locations. Take for example the In Music Festival (as it is called in English), or 张北草原音乐节 (Zhāng běi cǎo yuán yīn yuè jié – Zhang Bei Grasslands Music Festival) in Chinese. Located out in the middle of nowhere Hebei province (河北省), this festival managed to attract both Chinese and international bands, and it had quite an impressive turn out considering its location and lack of advertising. 2010 was the second year of the Zhang Bei Festival, and we had so much fun there that we are waiting the announcement of year number three. Next week, I’ll preview the big May Day festivals in Beijing, but to hold you over, here’s a highlight video of our trip out to the In Festival last summer.