Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A9

February 13, 2012

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Heap finds inspiration in Hangzhou

By Xu Wenwen | February 13, 2012, Monday | Print Edition

Program Code: 0909346130605011

BRITISH singer Imogen Heap has written a song and filmed a video about Hangzhou after living in the city for six weeks late last year. Xu Wenwen speaks to her about how she focused on regular people and everyday things to create the video.

Some oars rip into West Lake, an old man practices qigong by the waterside, morning fog veils the city and the sun rises.

A day in Hangzhou begins and then the magnetic voice of Grammy-winner Imogen Heap is heard.

These are the beginning shots in Heap's latest music video, "Xizi She Knows."

The video records a day of activity in Hangzhou.

Heap is a Grammy Award-winning English singer, composer and songwriter, known for her solo albums, which she writes, produces, and mixes.

Heap lived in Hangzhou for six weeks last year before producing "Xizi She Knows" in England.

In the song, Xizi refers to West Lake, which is compared to a woman.

The song is not just about the beauty of the lake, but "the peace, serenity and diversity of the lake and the city," Heap tells Shanghai Daily.

"Hangzhou has changed my view of the world," she says.

The change started taking place after Heap toured Hangzhou last October in association with the British Council and PRS for Music Foundation's Chinese music residency program. PRS for Music Foundation is UK's leading funder of new music across all genres.

The program provides funding for four English musicians to stay in four cities - Hangzhou, Xi'an, Xiamen and Chengdu - in China so they can immerse themselves in an unfamiliar environment, meet local people and make new music.

Heap chose Hangzhou because of the city's abundant greenery. She was alone, and only had her team come for a week to film the video.

She was hosted by Dushi Kuaibao, a prevalent local newspaper, which helped recruit almost 300 volunteers to take part in the project.

"When I first visited West Lake, a man who takes waste bottles from the lake gave me a nice smile, and I noticed that I need to make a song connecting to people who work for the lake and the city, not only tourists," she recalls.

This helped shape the final plan - to shoot shots at 24 locations in 24 hours. "Xizi She Knows" was filmed on December 9, Heap's 34th birthday.

"In the city, millions of people are doing different things, and I want to find a common ground to celebrate the city and its diversity by showing the things locals do everyday and things that happen everyday," she says.

"So I had the city speak to me, and I fit things into place." The video features lots of shots that are backlit, giving it a warm and enchanting look.

Twenty-four kinds of daily activities were involved in, with ordinary citizens, none professional actors, performing.

The video also captures locals eating breakfast in a restaurant, people catching a morning bus, students doing eye exercise during a class break, people dancing outdoors at a square and ends with a man who hooked a "treasure map" from West Lake.

Heap only appears in the video for two seconds, when she was having breakfast in a restaurant by the drum tower.

"I wanted Hangzhou to inspire me in a different way," she explains. "I want the video to exist without me. Even though I was guiding the scene, it's important to show that it's really Hangzhou speaking out."

Also, the team was lucky enough to capture some shots of an unknown woman doing a shouting exercise at the top of her lungs on Baoshi Hill as the sun rose. Her shouting was used in the song.

Heap hopes to locate the woman with the help of local media as she is featured on the cover of the single.

The song features many background sounds recorded around the city, including a printing machine printing a newspaper at 3am, the sound of skateboarding at 1am and cars driving at midnight.

Stories behind

"Who impress me most, among the 300 volunteers is the older generation," Heap adds.

Middle-aged and senior people appear frequently in Heap's video, including a man doing tai chi, another man doing a flag dance, a bunch of amateurs dancing at a square, a group of women giving a fashion show in qipao (cheongsams), and the shouting woman.

"I've never been in another country where the older generation is allowed to do so without being mocked," she says.

"I respect and celebrate it. They've earned their right to do exactly what they want."

Zhang Chenguang, a retired coal miner who did the flag dance in the video, says: "It's touching that the artist tried to understand Hangzhou via common people and things."

The 60-year-old dances at a square during the evening rush hour so drivers can appreciate his performance during the stressful time. Also, they have the same birthday, so Heap and Zhang shared birthday cake with drivers who were stuck in traffic.

Heap's trip means more than celebrating a birthday to herself, and to the city.

"Outside of China, I hear national news from the press but few individual stories that can personalize a city," she says. "Through my music, I hope I can make audiences feel like they want to go to Hangzhou to have a look."

Maybe a piece of music is not enough. Heap's next thought is a much longer term project involving photographers and documenting the change in the city and its rapid development.

In addition, Hangzhou poet Pan Wei is writing the Mandarin lyrics for "Xizi She Knows." This version of the song will be released soon.

(You can watch the musical video of Imogen Heap by linking to dly.sh/xizi)

Hangzhou


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend