音乐流淌 岁月留痕--纪念改革开放三十年

Memories of the Past Years in Music:In Observing the 30 Years' Reforms and Opening Up

翻阅三十年来的《人民日报》，似乎也是在翻阅中国音乐发展的历史，尤其是那一段艰难跋涉、步履蹒跚的历史。从三十年来每个历史阶段的音乐与《人民日报》的关系，我们既可以触摸到中国音乐的历史脉搏，也可以感受到中国社会的历史脚步。

By reading the People's Daily over the past thirty years,one may witness the history of Chinese music development,especially that particular period full of hardship and difficulty.When looking at the connection between the People's Daily and each of the historical periods of Chinese music,we may feel the pulse of our music history and experience the foot-steps of the growing Chinese society.Teng Li Chun,pop music,'New Fashion School',rock'n'roll,and the 'Northwestern School',these key words from the thirty years' music development since the reforms and opening up became vivid symbols of the social changes for the past thirty years.They differ from each other in differ-ent periods,which created vivid images remaining as memo-ries of each particular historical period.Teng Li Chun,pop music,'New Fashion School',rock'n'roll,and the 'North-western School',once so popular in the 1980's,reflect the situation in which the right to speak was relatively weak while the communication of these music genres was so broad.It was then widely recognized that without the right to speak,there would be no possibility to survive.And this may apply to any other new art forms,new genres and new techniques in that age.During that time when politics was dominating over every-thing,the People's Daily as the organ of the CPC Central Committee occupied a vital position in the nation.It became of utmost importance to decide whether the newspaper would publish an article on any of the above art forms,or in other words,whether these embarrassing art forms would be legal-ly recognized.The newspaper once published an article enti-tled 'Why Did Cui Jian's Songs Enjoy So Much Popularity?' and even the lyrics and music of his song 'Nothing in My Possession',which made the nearly dying rock music of Cui Jian suddenly forceful and justified almost over night.Later,the newspaper published successively articles by Ju Qihong,Qiao Jianzhong,Miao Ye,We Tingge,Wang Anguo,Liaog Maochun,Jin Zhaojun,Li Xi'an,Wang Cizhao,Wang Ningyi and Dai Jiafang etc.,which,by engaging in such actions as theoretical debates or composition analy-ses,featured the positive significance of pop music and other music schools or trends in music devel-opment and social life.Such justification work done by a political party newspaper,which seems so strange today,was at that time extremely striking and great.It was almost unimaginable to use half of the page to justify for Cui Jian and another half page to cover discussion on pop music.This was later widely reported by foreign mass media.Many years later,when I was traveling in the United States,an American who had studied and worked in China before told me emotionally that these arti-cles turned out to be the symbol of opening up in the field of Chinese literature and arts.Three months after the publication of the article about Cui Jiant,I was in a taxi,and when the driver knew that I was a journalist from the People's Daily,he turned to me excitingly and told me that he had kept the newspaper of that date,which he surpris-ingly took out from under his seat.Another event took place when during a political transition period,pop music and new music schools were facing deep stress.Two gentlemen Chen Geng and Zhang Fei,both from the Chinese Musicians' Association,suggested that the newspaper should publish an article by the Association's President Li Huanzhi.And in the process of political turmoil later,Mr.Dai Penghai from Shanghai sent to the newspaper his interview with Maestro He Luting.These articles managed to help pop music and new music schools prevent from harms and repression.In 1988,the People's Daily and China International Cultural Exchange Centre co-organized the 'Golden Songs and Golden Stars in the Ten Years of the New Era',with awarding ceremonies for the entry singers and works selected by a few hundred thousand ballots from all over the country,including the genres of pop music and rock'n'roll as well as singers of such genres.Present at the opening and closing gala concerts were top Chinese leaders from CPC Central Committee Political Bureau,Na-tional People's Congress Standing Committee,CPC Publicity Department,Ministry of Culture,Ministry of Radio,Television and Film,PLA General Political Department and the Provincial Government of Shan-dong.The concerts,with its last show done by Cui Jian,were live broadcasted by China National Ra-dio.This unprecedented cultural event marks the fact that from then on,pop music and rock'n'roll officially became part of the Chinese cultural and art cause.From our memories of these important historical moments,we can now understand that it was really an age of exploration,struggles,en-counters,disputes and progress.