Creating a storm of emotions with nanguan music
Print Edition
NANGUAN南管, also called nanyue, nanyin or nanqu, is an elegant classical music that flourished in Quanzhou, Fujian Province. The 800-year-old art is known for its gentle melodies and sentimental lyrics.
Born in 1965, Wang Xinxin is a Quanzhou native who began studying nanguan at the age of four. In 1984, she entered the nanguan course of the Quanzhou branch of Fujian Provincial Art School.
Wang settled down in Taiwan in 1992 and founded the Xinxin Nanguan Ensemble in 2003. She is recognized as a rare talent who masters all the skills of nanguan, from singing to playing all musical instruments related to the art, including the dongxiao (vertical bamboo flute), the erxian (two-stringed vertical instrument), the sanxian (three-stringed plucked instrument) and the pipa (Chinese lute).
As one of today’s foremost nanguan music practitioners, she believes the essence of the ancient art form is its purity and simplicity.
“The less, the better. If we add too much in nanguan, it would dilute the fundamentals of the art and take it on a different path,” Wang said ahead of two concerts with guqin player Huang Chin-hsin last month.
The duo performed Wang’s composition “Song of Burying Flowers”, and Wang explained their taking on the challenge of restoring the traditions, starting with replacing the modern stage lighting with candles and performing without projected subtitles to translate the Quanzhou dialect.
“When we perform nanguan music in Europe, we don’t do subtitles. There’s only the description of the piece, and every time I hear the audiences crying, because you don’t need the subtitles to understand and feel the music. We haven’t done this in China before but we thought the Shanghai audience would appreciate it,” Wang said.
The electric candlelight allowed the audience to immerse itself in the nanguan music.
Both nanguan and guqin are narrative art forms that blend very well together, in that guqin can express some of the emotions and charm that nanguan lacks.
Nanguan is widely performed in the Minnan dialect regions of Fujian. Wang called it the music of the people.
“I think even though young people feel some distance with nanguan, they are growing to accept it as well, because when life is so stressful, people will search for something that can relax the mind,” Wang said.
In the past two decades, Wang frequently performed in Europe.
“The more open we are, the better we can preserve the traditions. We didn’t know how good our heritage was until we showed the world. When I performed in Europe, I performed in concert halls and the audiences enjoyed it, even though it’s a very rural art,” she said.
Nanguan music guides the audience to experience happiness, anger, sadness and joy.
After composing “Song of Burying Flowers,” Wang is working on a series based on the poems of Li Qingzhao. She is also thinking about Buddhist music.
“I think the core value of nanguan music is that it’s a spiritual practice. If you can’t strive for the virtues, people cannot stand to hear the music you play, the artist must be able to calm down and concentrate,” she said.
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