Trained as a classical pianist at an early age (similar to Jay Chou), Wang Leehom studied at Berklee College of Music and has actively incorporated Chinese music instruments in pop songs and created a style which he called ‘Chinked-out’ in 2005. While Wang Leehom was born and raised in New York, his parents grew up and were educated in Taiwan and later immigrated to the USA.
‘Heroes of the Earth’ opens with synthesised Peking opera high-pitched singing and
accompanied by the sound of bang gu (板鼓), a type of percussion instrument that is usually played by the leader of the orchestra in Peking opera. This is a drum with bamboo sticks and the drummer usually controls the tempo, at times accelerating or slowing down the rhythm. Then the heavy distorted bass plays a syncopated pattern which is repeated in each rap section in the song, which is then joined by the sound of sheng (笙), which is a common instrument in Peking opera. Later on, a catchy chorus featuring sheng, a set of percussions including electronic drum beats, gongs (鑼) and cymbals (鈸). As is the case in Walser’s (1995) analysis on hip-hop music, the ‘Heroes of the Earth’s introduction also has an established groove, layered with instruments, which provided a stable platform for rapping, and as the vocal drops out, the rapping comes in. The bassline maintains the rhythm, while Wang Leehom makes a vivid statement about this new genre of music that he’s
experimenting with and presenting:
Picking up four bros on the way, on my 24-inch tyres
Tonight my destination is clear, bringing Chinked-out to all around the world Adding in Peking opera and Kun opera, bringing hip-hop to a new level New attempts, new genres, yet new heroes of the earth
Turing up the radio, you will hear the sound of Wu Sheng8
The resonating spoken dialogue is trending, it’s hard to imitate him His vocal music is the one and only, this art form is extraordinary Hope to let all the Huaren around the world, sing our hearts out Sing our hearts out
我出門了載四個哥兒們 鍍鉻輪框 24 吋 今晚我的目的明確 帶 Chinked-out 到全世 界加入了京劇崑曲 hip-hop 進入新的格局 新的突破 新的曲風 才有新的蓋世英雄 把收音機開最大聲 聽見的聲音又是武生 道白的共鳴又最流行 要模仿他 真的不容易
他的唱法獨一無二 這種藝術屬一屬二
希望幫助全世界的華人 唱出大家的心聲 我們大家的心聲
While mentioning the spoken dialogue in Peking opera in his rapping, a sampled verse recorded by a Peking opera actor, Lee Yen (李岩), resembles Peking opera’s spoken dialogue, which follows as an interlude connected to the chorus; the verse consists of four lines and each line has five characters. The first character of each line put in sequence will compose a new phrase: ‘King Leehom’. As in Chinese, Wang’s last name (王) also means ‘a king’. This is a common word play strategy in Chinese poetry.
While the combination of guest verses in hip-hop songs is a common strategy to introduce surprises, a guest rapper, MC Jin, USA-born and who also developed his music career in New York, contributes a 12-bar verse based on the same rhythmic pattern. MC Jin composed lyrics for this verse in English and Cantonese. The following lines also resonate with the sentiment behind the term ‘Chinked-out’, which honours Chinese culture as revolutionary, subversive, time-honoured, and precious:
This is something special, my culture is so contagious They wanna know about us, we’ve been around for ages
Table 5. outlines how the layers of Peking opera (PO) percussions and the repetition of PO dialogue as well as patterns have created a hip-hop sound with a Chinese flavour:
Table 5. The Orchestration for ‘Heroes of the Earth’
Wang’s voice comes in with the line ‘Here come the heroes of the earth’ in the intro; throughout the song, the two rap lines ‘Here come the heroes of the earth’ and ‘the world is the stage’ functions as ‘turnarounds’, a common strategy in various genres characterised as black music – such as blues, jazz, hip-hop – at the end of the section/verse, which introduces the new one (Carlin, 2006). The same elements commonly associated with Hip-hop culture can also be seen visually in the music video, where Wang wears a hoodie, baggy trousers and a hip-hop chain. The street dancing scene features a short glimpse of a dragon dance, which also highlights this ‘street style’ fashion.
His outsider status – namely as an Asian American who ‘comes back to Chinese culture’ yet with a diasporic mentality – has been both a challenge and resource for Wang. The reason why his ‘Chinked-out’ term did not resonate with most of his audience – despite being mentioned repeatedly in his lyrics and interviews; Grace Wang (2012) argues, that this is due to its specific resonance in US racial discourses, which many of his audiences will not have experienced. As a result, whether in online forums or academic commentaries, many still refer to Wang Leehom’s style as China Wind (zhongguofeng) rather than ‘Chinked-out’.
In 2008, Wang Leehom wrote the English language theme song ‘One World One Dream’ for the Beijing Olympics and performed at the closing ceremony. In Taiwan, he was not only selected by the Ministry of Education to help launch a ‘character-building plan’ in 2009 (Wang, 2012), he was also the Taipei pavilion goodwill ambassador at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 (Focus Taiwan, 2009). While he was able to gain exposure as a cultural
ambassador for both Taiwan and China, he has also avoided any backlash given the
complexity of cross-strait politics. His transnational status created a space for his participation in both Chinese nationalism and Asian-American cultural politics. (Wang, 2012) At the same time, his resistance of racism (Wang, 2012) is embodied in his Asian American experience. This in turn has shaped his market strategies, public image, and musical performances. Another case in which Wang featured a version of Chineseness into his song, is his adaptation and rearrangement of a song titled ‘Descendants of the Dragon’ (2000). It
was originally written by Hou Dejian (侯德建), sung by Li Jianfu (李建復), and released in 1978. The original version of this song was released just after the USA cut its diplomatic ties to the ROC, and the lyrics reflected a longing for the homeland, the mainland China that the ROC lost, with the latter as a self-proclaimed descendant of the dragon. Wang’s additional lyrics change the meaning of the song – ‘Grew up in the land of others, growing up I am a descendant of the dragon’ – communicating a sense of long-distance nationalism on the part of a diasporic subject longing to identify with his origins.