Xinyao
Xinyao is a genre of songs that is unique to Singapore. It is a contemporary Mandarin vocal genre that emerged and rise to fame in Singapore between late 1970s to 1980s. Xinyao songs are composed and sung by Singaporeans and it is an outlet for them to express their thoughts and feelings around themes like friendships or love stories. Xinyao is a Chinese noun comprising two words: Xīn which is an abbreviation for Singapore, and yáo for song. The extended form is Xīnjiāpō gēyáo, which simply means "Singapore songs".
Xinyao can be clearly identified by its distinctive style of Mandarin genre, that are being conveyed through poetic lyrics with clean acoustics accompaniments. With a group of people singing and harmonizing together, usually accompanied solely by the guitar. As the movement grew and became semi-commercialized in the early 1990s, more sophisticated accompaniments with drums, castanets etc. were adopted.
Early pioneers of this style of music include Wong Hong Mok, Liang Wern Fook, who has since become a prolific local songwriter, Billy Koh who discovered and groomed many successful Singapore artistes into the Asia Chinese-Pop music scene, A-Do , Lee Wei-Song, Lee Shih Shiong, and Eric Moo.
History
Birth of Xinyao
In the Chinese music scene, the local xinyao movement started in mid-1980s and was the source of a number of success stories in today's regional Chinese pop music industry. This genre was started by a group of students, who were influenced by minyao, a Taiwanese folk songs movement in the 1970s, school campus songs from Taiwan. The Taiwanese folk genre sought an authentic native Taiwan identity exemplified by songs such as "Grandma's Penghu Bay". The rise in popularity of the school campus song movement especially among the Chinese students and schools came at a time of major education reforms led by then Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Mr Goh Keng Swee which sought to streamline and align Chinese education into the national syllabus, which can be interpreted as an spontaneous reaction to assert identity against these change.In September 1982, Nanyang Technological University's Chinese-language newspaper Nanyang Shangbao organised a seminar titled "Wo men chang zhe ge". The seminar revolved around discussing the emerging trend of xinyao, which was representative of Singaporean composed schoolyard songs at that time. Furthermore, it was also during the 1980s that the term xinyao was coined and popularised in Singapore.
1980s: Peak of Xinyao
Xinyao was considered to be at its peak in the 1980s as the songs propelled many Singaporean singers and songwriters to stardom. It was during this period where many students who loved xinyao gathered and staged their own performances. Some of the earliest xinyao groups includes Shui cao san chong chang, Yu wei shi xiao zhu, and Di Xia Tie Xiao Zhu. This movement soon spread across Singapore, beyond schools and into the public arena such as community centres. Led by The Merlion, which was formed at Clementi Community Centre in 1983, there were more than 20 xinyao groups registered with a neighbourhood community centre by mid-1987..Songs such as "A Step at a Time" written and sung by xinyao artists were popular with those born in the mid-1960s to 1970s. In 1983, the song "Encounter", a duet by Eric Moo and Huang Hui-zhen, became the first xinyao song to make it to the Mandarin pop song ranking chart "Pick of Pops" on Singapore's radio station, Y.E.S. 93.3FM. The song was part of a xinyao album released in 1983-84 and were created by Billy Koh, Koh Nam Seng, Huang Yuan Cheng, Zhang Jia Qiang and Colin Goh, was considered by some fans as the landmark album that brought xinyao to the mainstream media. The creation of this album led to the birth of what would become Ocean Butterflies International, a major Singaporean/Pan-Asian music publishing house.
1990s: Decline of Xinyao
The decline of xinyao began in the early 1990s. Despite constant efforts to promote the xinyao genre such as xinyao concerts and inter-school songwriting competitions, the popularity of xinyao continue to wane. Following the stop of the Xinyao Festival in 1990 due to the lack of funding, the Sing Music Awards was consequently scrapped due to limited album releases. Other factors contributing the decline of xinyao including the rise of Taiwanese and Hong Kong songs in Singapore's music industry, as the declining of new xinyao talents in Singapore.2000s: Resurgence of Xinyao
Xinyao was revived in the early 2000s when a series of xinyao concerts caught the eye of the public once again. One of the legendary moments was a reunion concert in March 2002 where xinyao pioneers such as Eric Moo, Liang Wern Fook and Pan Ying, were featured. Beginning in 2002, an annual xinyao concert featuring xinyao veterans were organised, with Taiwanese singers participating to promote the concert.The revival of xinyao has been attributed to nostalgia for the era among the generations who grew up listening to that music genre. In recent times, Xinyao stirred the interest of the younger generations as well. Reality competitions such as Project SuperStar and Campus SuperStar were also organised in television to promote the xinyao culture.
Today, xinyao is regarded as a key highlight of Singapore's music scene in the 1980s. Although some argue that any current local compositions by young musicians are considered part of xinyao, the term generally refers to the folk genre of songs by Singaporeans that emerged in the 1980s.
Significance
The xinyao movement was largely home-grown and enriched the local arts scene in post-war Singapore. It was one of the more notable youth music subcultures in Singapore which outgrew its origins and gained public acceptance as well as support.As a young nation, Singapore was still in the process of nation building in the 1980s, and different campaigns were constantly launched in search of constructing a national identity and “characteristics” that are unique to Singapore. Using lyrics that relates closely to the daily lives of Singaporean youth, xinyao brought out a music culture that aptly represented Singapore in a unique way.
Social Influences
Media
One of the very crucial and deciding factors that pushed xinyao towards its level of popularity was the increased exposure in radio stations as well as on television. In 1983, there was a weekly half-hour radio programme that was specially dedicated for xinyao and its musicians. The programme was titled Geyun xinsheng and started by the then Singapore Broadcasting Corporation. In the same year, SBC broadened its annual Chinese Talentime event Dou ge jing yi, to include a vocal group section. Following its success, it then further expanded to include a local-composition category in 1985. As an effort to promote xinyao, the SBC also used xinyao songs as theme songs for Chinese television drama serials.The xinyao movement was further strengthened with the release of the first xinyao album in 1984 titled Mingtian 21.
Following its revival, xinyao starts to reappear in the eyes of the public. In 2007, xinyao was showcased in The Chinese-language musical Tian leng jiu huilai, the musical featured 30 of Liang Wern Fook ’s compositions, of which many were his signature xinyao pieces. That Girl in Pinafore, a Singapore film released in 2013, featured many xinyao tunes. In 2015, a xinyao documentary The Songs We Sang was released in Golden Village.
In 2018, a Singaporean reality-competition series organised by Mediacorp, titled SPOP Sing!, targets local students from Singapore in search of finding a homegrown musical talent as well as promoting local music culture of both mandopop and xinyao, as well as paying tribute to modern singers that rose to fame, such as Sing! China finalists Nathan Hartono and Joanna Dong. A competition with a similar format aired in 2013, the fourth season of Campus Superstar, also use only mandopop and xinyao music only during the competition.
National Day Parade
Xinyao songs such as Xiao Ren Wu De Xin Sheng were also staged and performance during the 2014 and 2017's National Day Parade in Singapore.During his Chinese National Day Rally speech in 2014, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong started off by singing to a popular xinyao tune by Liang Wern Fook, "Xi Shui Chang Liu".