Artist Profiles at NTDTV’s International Chinese Vocal Competition
Xufeng Lin from Singapore traveled to New York to participate in New Tang Dynasty Television’s Chinese International competition in the folk-singing category. She started singing at the age of seven, and always knew that she wanted to become a professional singer.
Originally born in the city Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, grew up in a very musical environment. “I grew up in a village where everybody could sing. It is a small place surrounded by many mountains and trees, and singing was traditionally developed as a way to communicate over long distances in this region. When you saw somebody in the mountains that was too far away to hear you talk, then you just “talked” to him by singing.”
These circumstances led to the emergence of a special style of opera, the Yue-opera, was developed in Wenzhou.
Xufeng studied Chinese songs and especially the folklore songs in China and after she came to Singapore she started her study of western classical music and singing technique to improve her folk singing style. “Therefore I sometimes sound a little bit like mix of both...”she laughs.
On why she entered the competition and traveled to New York, she said that she wants to come to the US and to study further.
“If you have been living out of your home country for so many years, you run the risk to lose your roots. Therefore I want to use this competition to build connections among the Chinese community.”
Qian Long from Hunan who has been living in the U.S. for 16 years and has studied music at the San Jose State University. Today he is a soloist at the San Jose opera house.
In the past he has performed on stage as Rudolph in Puccini’s “La Boheme.” Drawing on that experience, he sang the ever popular aria “Che Gelida Manina” in the preliminaries of the competition, and his confident performance was full of love for the Italian opera.
He joined the NTDTV vocal competition because he was curious to meet with other Chinese singers. For him it is not only a competition. “It’s after all a big meeting of people who love to sing.” Nicknamed “Chinese Pavarotti” by his fans in his little home town, he dreams of a career on the big stages of the world to share his joy of singing with even more people.
“I think my voice is a gift god gave me, therefore I want to share it with others” said Qian Long.
