Published by: World Tibet Network News,Tuesday - December 18, 1995

By Andrew Sun for Toronto's Now

Forwarded by Woeser Jongdong

Dadawa, already a major star in China, is poised to become the first pop charmer within the People's Republic to threaten a worldwide breakout.

The album Dadawa is counting on to turn the crossover trick, Sister Drum, is a progressively adventurous disc by Asian pop standards. Along with composer/producer He Xuntian, Dadawa travelled to Tibet and then used the folk melodies and spiritualism they discovered there as the basis of a collaborative song writing project. Back in Shanghai, the duo employed the many splendour of MIDI digital technology to work up an appealingly ethereal sound that made Sister Drum China's first-ever million seller.

But the idea of a Chinese singer doing Tibet-inspired songs is a bit like Saddam Hussein sponsoring a festival of Kurdish dance in downtown Baghdad. As much as Dadawa would like to avoid the issue, Sister Drum can't help being political.

Since the Chinese invasion in 1959, Tibetans have lived in a state of seige - politically, religiously and culturally oppressed by the heavy hand of Chinese Communism. To this day, the Chinese government is still putting it to the Tibetans. Last spring they kidnapped the six-year old successor to Tibet's second-highest spiritual leader and his family, and last week China appointed its own government-sponsored child in his place.

"This is not a political record", pleads Dadawa on a recent promotional stop with He Xuntian in Toronto. "We feel a project like this shouldn't be judged or looked at as a political thing."

Certainly, the Sister Drum album is even less overtly concerned with Tibet than Paul Simon's Graceland is with South Africa. Instead, Sister Drum is a dramatic and occasionally stirring impression of Tibet's unique geographic presence and philosophical aura.

To get better understanding of Dadawa's position, you need a sense of the way Communists China operates. Essentially, it's a bureaucratic hell of Orwellian proportions. Chinese citizens, even those of popstar status, can't simply roam the country at will, and Tibetan road trips are particularly frowned upon. One needs to gain permission to from myriad levels of party officials, fill in endless forms or have the ready cash to pay the hefty bribes.

Chinese red-tape: In turn, someone doesn't become a major star unless the content of his or her recordings meets approved government standards. The sad state of artists in China is that they're either pawns or living in fears. It is clearly an uncomfortable existential circumstance for any creative, independent-thinking individual. Even if Dadawa and He Xuntian have stories and thoughts to share about the current Tibet situation, they probably won't voice them publicly as long as they hope to have a music career on the mainland.

"People are amazed at how much honesty is in the music," says Xuntian through a translator. "Some articles have criticized us for putting burden in music. Sometimes commercial value and artistic value do not go together.

"There was actually no interference on us in making this record. This is what we feel. We didn't put political influence into the music, we are just doing interpretation of their songs.

"Tibet is very different place from any other part of the world. We went there and just lived with the people. I didn't feel isolated, I just felt like one of them. Tibet is still a mystery of culture and spiritualism not just for China but for the rest of the world.

"But this record is not just about Tibet. When I compose, I listen to all different types of music. Actually, I came into researching Tibetan music quite a few years ago, but it wasn't the right time then to start doing Tibetan music."

The fact that Warner is marketing Sister Drum as "world music" rather than focusing exclusively on the Asian demographic bodes well for Dadawa's hopes of global outreach. Considering Dadawa's soaring melodic wails and Xuntian's lush aural soundscape, Sister Drum wouldn't be out of place alongside any Brian Eno or Enya album. Too bad it can't help but come off like more propaganda for the cultural revolution.

Cultural propaganda: " There is so much music from other countries that is sold in China", Dadawa argues. "Why can't Chinese music as well make it into the western world. When He was producing the record, he wanted it to be heard throughout the world. But people said that was ridiculous, it would never happen."

Xuntian adds, "Peking opera music represents ancient China. There is no music in China that represents our generation, so that's why we're creating this music."