Jewel in the Palace

No new tongue-sticking out pix so this will have to do but he IS cute. So like a little boy with his naive expressions & rushing to save discarded kitties. As far as I am concerned, candid expressive faces even ugly much better than deliberately deadpan expression to look cool heehee. I have thought abt it as always surrounded by ppl hating me for criticising Jay in a David blog, but I have to stand up for what I believe. Not that I think David is better than Jay, but I believe what Jay is doing is totally wrong for chinese music & therefore I must speak up. You can disagree with me but you cannot prevent me from expressing my opinions.
I came to this conclusion after watching a marvellous Korean series called Jewel in the Palace. There was a scene where the heroine Jang-Geum & her sifu risked their necks to cook healthy fare for a visiting chinese official rather than follow orders to present rich extravagant dishes to impress him. They did it because as chefs they believed they must not deliver food that is harmful to a person's health & the official was suffering from a illness that required him to change his diet. Also they tried to cook healthy food in creative ways so as to be acceptable to the official who was used to rich dishes.
This is so like David's philosophy to making music. He wants to give us music for the soul but he also tried to make it sound like popular music without compromising too much. I really don't think there is another like him in chinese entertainment. There are many out there who is making good music but so uncompromising that they failed to reach the audience. Not that I am saying that is bad cos it is extremely difficult to write good music and educate your audience with so much formulaic music on the airway. Hard to compete when listeners are swayed by music written like commercial jingles to get their bodies moving & deafened their minds.
Why is Jay so popular? Because he is so ordinary and accessible. He made chinese ppl esp in the west feel good abt themselves & alleviate their always present feelings of inferiority against the west. Here is an average chinese guy who is able to write 'cool' music sounding like formulaic western music but with chinese elements so it sound 'unique'. He has this cool personality which he seemed to have lifted from Prince but still retained the chinese modesty & shyness that chinese fans required from their idols.
I tried to be fair & if his music is really great I will say so but its not. It doesn't have the creativity & freshness of Prince who has already done everything Jay has done in his music. One chinese critic said that if you take away the western influences in Jay music, its just chinese pop music. The reverse can also be true- if you take away the chinese elements, its just western pop music. He is clever in blending the two but I think he has a great deal of help in this department cos he is unable to arrange & mix his music in the studio all by himself. Recently was forced to watch his 'fantastic' performance in GMA this year when instead of singing, he played the piano. All I can say is as in everything else, he is an average piano player. Yes, he has the virtuosity but he played without the fervor & passion of a real musician.
Music is not just abt talent, skill or technical ability. That is why there are so few great chinese pianist in the world. Again this is all my opinion, you can disagree & I am not bashing Jay cos he is vry talented to have come so far. He really is a phenom in chinese entertainment & outshining his contemporaries. But he is nothing special in terms of musical ability and can be a bit nauseating to find fans & critics lauding him like a chinese hero out there laying the foundation of modern chinese music.
While I love David to bits, I will not call him a 'chinese hero' or said he is 'laying the foundation to modern chinese music'. I will only said that he is trying to bring some positive changes to chinese music. Cos I honestly believe there need to be some changes in the way the chinese view music. Just read this article & feel sad but its just so true. Of cos ppl can said there is a diff between pop & classical music but they are all music rite? They r just diff categories of music but share one similiarity in that music should come from the heart. And its ok if you use music to propel yourself to superstardom, but just plse dun call yourself a geunine musican who is saving chinese music.
The food philosophy in Jewel in the Palace is just so eastern in its concept. Its something that the chinese ppl can easily accept as its already part of our culture to achieve the best without comprising too much, to bend with the wind yet be as resolute as bamboo. So I really hope this philosophy will one day be extended to chinese music and the way it is presented to the audience. If you read so far, thank you for I really need to get this out of my system ^__^
All David pixs credit & with thanks to davidcn.com