Photo by Wang Zhiming/Wu Zhiyong
Wang Zhiming, a native of Ruichang, Jiangxi, a young songwriter, a deputy research librarian, a member of the Chinese Musicians Association, a member of the Chinese Dramatists Association, a member of the Music Professional Committee of the China Mass Culture Society, a member of the Chinese Music and Literature Society, a member of the Guangdong Folk Writers Association, a deputy secretary-general of the Dongguan Musicians Association, is currently an art teacher and researcher at the Education Management Center of Dalang Town, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, and the person in charge of the Dongguan (Dalang) Music and Literature Creation Base, and was selected for the "Dongguan Young Literary and Artistic Talents Cultivation and Promotion" project in 2021.
Wang Zhiming has more than 400 original music, drama and music works, including more than 50 drama music works, 47 original music works (finished products), and more than 300 lyric works, and has published more than 200 works in national and provincial mainstream journals such as "Songs", "Lyrics", "Children's Music", "Chinese Music Scene", "Music World", "Lingnan Music", etc., and has won more than 10 national awards, more than 80 provincial awards, and more than 100 municipal awards.
Group photo of Wang Zhiming Zhang Mei's solo concert in 2007
A song "Three Generations of Cars" sings the great changes of the era of reform and opening up, showing the historical process of three generations running to a well-off; a song "Motherland, My Mother" depicts the splendid mountains and rivers of the motherland and expresses the patriotic feelings of the people; a song "Waiting for You to Go Home" expresses the daughter's longing for her mother, portraying the selfless image of medical workers giving up their small homes for everyone in the frontline of the fight against the epidemic... These songs, created by Wang Zhiming, a young lyricist in Dongguan, always arouse the deep emotional resonance of the audience, and the stories behind them are equally empathetic.
After coming to Dongguan for more than ten years, Wang Zhiming has set foot in many cultural and artistic fields, composing music, writing lyrics, writing sketch scripts, and protecting intangible cultural heritage. He has won the Silver Award of the China Art Song Singing Competition, the Excellent Work Award of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism "Singing Mountain Songs to the Party", the Excellent Work Award of the Chinese Musicians Association "Singing for a Hundred Years", the "Singing Beijing" 2018 Global Song Collection Outstanding Lyrics Award, etc., and has been awarded the "Excellent Musician of Guangdong Province" for four consecutive years, was hired by the Guangdong Provincial Culture Center as the "Special Creator of the Guangdong Provincial Cultural Center", and in 2021 was selected into the "Dongguan Young Literary and Artistic Talents Cultivation and Promotion" project implemented by the Dongguan Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports. His representative works include "The Stove of Time", "Dream Back to Lingnan", "There Is Hope if There Is Love", "Hakka Love Song", "Waiting for You to Go Home", etc. What kind of touching story is behind these songs? What kind of life experience does Wang Zhiming have in the city of Dongguan? Let's get closer to this young songwriter and listen to his musical stories and dream pursuits.
Tang Yongbao, chairman of the Guangdong Musicians Association, presented the award to Wang Zhiming (right).
Zero/One takes root in life and gives spirituality to the lyrics
Looking at Wang Zhiming's song representative works "The Stove of Time", "Dream Back to Lingnan", "Rain Lane", "Hakka Love Song", "My Old Place", "Hometown in the Countryside", "Motherland, My Mother", "Three Generations of Cars", "There is Love and Hope", "Waiting for You to Go Home", etc., it can be found that his creative inspiration comes mostly from Lingnan's humanistic customs, personal life experience and social hotspots, with a strong breath of life and obvious characteristics of the times, and the emotion is sincere and delicate; the artistic techniques use metaphors, anthropomorphisms, contrasts and other techniques to highlight the sense of picture and image In the narrative, it pays attention to seeing the big with the small, and cuts into the big theme through a small perspective, so that the work is more grounded, close to the life of the masses, and can trigger the emotional resonance and thinking of the audience.
"Grandpa drove a ox cart, potholes and bumps... Dad was riding a bicycle, winding and bumpy... We drive a car, flat and flat, wide and wide..." "Three Generations of Cars" was created to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China, through depicting the changes in the means of transportation of grandparents, fathers and their own three generations, showing the development of the times, progress and the continuous improvement of people's living standards, presenting the big theme of the times' changes in subtle life details, making the narrative image vivid, letting the audience have a sense of picture, evoking people's memories of the past, and lamenting the flow of time. Composed by Cui Zhenhe, vice chairman of the Guangdong Musicians Association and chairman of the Dongguan Musicians Association, the song won the second prize in the zhejiang province to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of new China.
The perspective chosen by this lyric is novel and unique, taking the wheel as the creative perspective, adopting the writing method of traditional folk songs, highlighting the image of the wheel, expressing the continuous change and development process of the wheel in different eras, vividly and affectionately telling the changes in the living conditions of the three generations of Chinese in the past 70 years. The works interpret small emotions and big feelings, reflect the development process and changes of the times since the founding of New China, and tell the story of the Chinese people's happy life from poverty to today.
Wang Zhiming (left) takes a group photo with composer Lu Zaiyi while participating in a national mass songwriting exchange event in Shanghai
The song "The Stove of Time", which has the same artistic style, focuses on the kitchen stove that people use every day, and profoundly reflects the improvement of people's quality of life by showing the historical evolution of stoves and fuels and the changes in staple foods, and realizes the leap from eating enough to eating well. Cui Zhenhe said that in the creation of such themes, Wang Zhiming can always see the strange in peace, see the micro-thinking, and often have a divine stroke in the eyes, extracting his own thinking and understanding from the details of life and the changes of the times.
In the "anti-epidemic" theme series of songs created in 2020, "There is love and hope", "Waiting for you to go home" and "Bright Red Handprints" are cut through different characters or groups, showing the stories of grassroots medical workers and ordinary people doing their best to fight the epidemic in unity during the epidemic period. "Long winter, long concern; on one side is a small family, on the other side is everyone. You say that you are an angel and are about to leave; saving lives and helping the injured, shouldering great responsibilities..." "Waiting for you to go home" tells the story of her daughter's thoughts and worries about her mother who is fighting on the front line of the fight against the epidemic, experiencing spiritual growth from fear to bravery, showing the brave retrograde spirit of her mother as a medical worker, giving up her small family to protect everyone's dedication, and conveying the self-sacrifice and hard work made by the Chinese people to win the victory against the epidemic from the side, and the lyrics are sincere and have a strong appeal.
Wang Zhiming (right) attends the Guangdong Provincial Creative Advanced Research Class with composer Liu Chang'an
Zero/Yi Dream returned to Lingnan, and the lyrics were awarded frequently
Looking back on the journey of music and dreams, Wang Zhiming and Dongguan Literature and Art grew up almost together. From the construction of a new cultural city to a famous cultural city, and then to the construction of a "capital of quality culture", Dongguan has cultivated a number of grass-roots literary and artistic backbones, and at the same time, these literary and artistic workers who are deeply rooted in the lives of the masses have in turn driven the development of local literature and art.
Music, for Wang Zhiming, is not only a job, but also a lifelong dream pursuit. In the past 13 years since he came to Guanguan, he has always been conscientious in the work of mass culture, and he often walks in Dongguan folk with a Cantonese-speaking "translator", goes deep into the people's group, listens to folk stories and legends, and excavates excellent traditional culture with local characteristics. For a long time, he has been committed to coordinating the declaration of saltwater songs, weeping wedding songs, puppet shows and other intangible cultural heritage projects, archiving the essence of folk culture in the form of words and music, writing Dongguan intangible cultural heritage into sketch scripts and songs, calling on the public to pay attention to the protection and inheritance of traditional culture, and at the same time coordinating and participating in various literary and artistic performances and competitions to make a contribution to Dongguan's music and cultural undertakings.
Dongguan is the source of peach blossoms created by Wang Zhiming's music. He not only cultivates his heart in the beautiful scenery of Lingnan, but also suffers from the nourishment of Dongguan's regional culture, and creates a large number of lyrics related to Lingnan. Among them, "Dream Back to Lingnan" and "Hakka Love Song" have won gold and silver awards at the municipal and provincial music and dance flower fairs, and have been included in the publication and distribution of the album "Dream Back to Lingnan". "Dream Back to Lingnan" carefully captures classic Lingnan imagery such as "a curtain of smoke and rain", "colorful clouds chasing the moon", "fishing boat singing evening", "red lychee fluttering incense", "willows blowing the embankment", vividly reproducing the picturesque scenery of Lingnan and expressing the love and attachment to Lingnan.
In 2020, the song "There is Love and Hope" created by him was selected for the "National Excellent 'War Epidemic' Public Welfare Song Exhibition series" sponsored by the "Learning to Strengthen the Country" platform of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee and the Chinese Musicians Association; in 2021, "Red Kapok" won the Excellent Work Award in the "Singing for a Hundred Years" patriotic original song collection activity jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Education's Caring for the Next Generation Working Committee, the Xinhua News Agency All Media Center, and the Chinese Musicians Association, and Wang Zhiming was also invited by the People's Education Publishing House. Record an interview program on the "Cloud Listening" platform of the Central People's Radio and Television Corporation.
Wang Zhiming in the music studio
Zero/Three childhoods have dreams, erhu and magnetism led into the world of music
Wang Zhiming, a "post-80s generation", was born in Ruichang, Jiangxi, which is known as the "pearl of the Yangtze River and the city of Xiangrui". The beautiful nature has given him a literary spirituality, and it has also nurtured his musical sensitivity.
He often traces the customs and customs of his hometown and the past in music. This wisp of nostalgia turns into a lyric that expresses his longing for his hometown and his feelings about the years. "My Old Place" is Wang Zhiming's representative work, who previously won the Excellent Work Award in the cross-strait theme song collection and selection activity of "a family on both sides of the strait accompanied me". In this selection event, he stood out in the first place.
Speaking of the story of his connection with music, he could not hide his excitement: "Since childhood, there are many sisters in the family, everyone loves to sing, and often sees his father fiddling with erhu and harmonica. Wang Zhiming unconsciously fell in love with music and began to learn to pull erhu. If an erhu opens up his musical world, then the music cassette of childhood is another window that leads him to explore the mysteries of music, and the gentle singing voice flows out of the small tape, nourishing his childhood musical dreams.
After graduating from the Music Department of Shaanxi University of Technology, in 2008, under the attraction of Dongguan's artistic talent introduction policy, Wang Zhiming went south to Dongguan and worked in the Wenguang Center of Dalang Town. As a grassroots literary and artistic backbone, Wang Zhiming is active in large and small performance stages, and actively participates in various literary and artistic creation lectures and training activities, constantly enriching and improving himself.
Due to the needs of his work, he often comes into contact with various opportunities and platforms for literary and artistic creation, as well as songwriting and songwriting activities, "Dongguan's music and dance flower party, drama music art flower meeting, children's art flower meeting, these three flower fairs are held in turn, providing me with a lot of creative opportunities." Thus, Wang Zhiming began his dream journey of music creation in the soil of Dongguan. He consciously chose the path of lyrics, just began to "feel the stones to cross the river", starting from the analysis of the classic works of lyricists, studying the language style and characteristics of lyrics, pondering the creation methods, repeatedly revising and polishing the lyrics on the basis of more writing and practicing, and testing the works through the form of submissions.
In 2011, Wang Zhiming's first work "Da Lang Mei" won the 12th "Humanistic Spring • Chinese National Song Performance and Creation Competition" - the Gold Medal of Chinese Folk Song Excellence and the Silver Award of the First Mass Music and Dance Flower Festival in Dongguan City, and was published in "Humanistic Spring • Selected Chinese National Songs (12)". Through continuous accumulation and learning, he has gradually entered a better state of creation, and his works have frequently made wonderful appearances at the Guangdong Provincial and Municipal Art Flower Fairs and major national competitions, and won gold and silver awards many times. The identity of the songwriter has gradually been recognized and affirmed by peers in the industry, and has become the backbone of Dongguan's original songs.
Wang Zhiming (left) and young soprano singer Song Pinping (center) and composer Cui Zhenhe (right) record in the songwriting studio
Zero/Wanton sees the big with the small, expressing the solidarity between the individual and the times
In the creation of lyrics, Wang Zhiming not only pays attention to the grand themes of the times and society, but also pays attention to drawing energy from personal life experience and life experience, a tree, a flower, an ethereal thought, a story that has just happened... All can be included in his pen, through artistic treatment, interpreting new connotations.
Zhu Ming, a songwriter and executive editor of Lingnan Music Magazine, commented that Wang Zhiming is a rich young songwriter who is engaged in cultural services at the grassroots level, and he creates with a sense of truth and reality, and adheres to the creative position of going deep into life and taking root in the people. From his lyrics, we can understand the warmth and joys and sorrows of each of us ordinary people, witness the solidarity between individuals and the fate of the times, and can touch people's hearts.
Speaking of personal creation, Wang Zhiming summarized it with three key words: the main theme, Lingnan characteristics, and nostalgia, and frankly said: "No matter what kind of subject matter is created, it is always not easy to write well. The road to music is long, I still have a long way to go to form my own style and be recognized by the public, I can't do it overnight, I have to work hard, experience life with my heart, take creation seriously, and time will naturally give the answer. ”
Born in the water town of Jiangnan, studied in the land of Hanzhong, and lived in the humanistic Wanyi, which constitutes the current trajectory of Wang Zhiming's life. Looking back on the process of music creation, Wang Zhiming has always been grateful, and has repeatedly talked about the cultivation and love of many teachers along the way, and is also grateful for the cultivation of dongguan, a vibrant city.
In August 2021, the Dongguan Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism issued the "Implementation Measures for the Cultivation and Promotion of Young Literary and Artistic Talents in Dongguan City" to select, cultivate and promote a number of young literary and artistic talents, and provide project support for the young literary and artistic talents who have been selected. Wang Zhiming became one of the first 30 "Dongguan Young Literary and Art Talents Cultivation Objects" after the implementation of the policy.
Wang Zhiming (second from right) and dongguan music industry participants in the salon
Speaking of this, Wang Zhiming often lamented the cultivation and support of the city of Dongguan for the backbone of literature and art, "It is the soil of Dongguan that allows me to have more opportunities to learn and a platform for display." During the period when Dalang was engaged in mass cultural work, there were often many famous lectures, literary performances and manuscript solicitation activities in the city, so I got a lot of creative opportunities and guidance from famous teachers, allowing me to constantly explore and advance on the road of music. ”
As Dongguan City is about to enter a new starting point for the high-quality development of a city with a trillion GDP and tens of millions of people, the status and role of literature and art are becoming more and more prominent on the road of building a "quality culture capital". Wang Zhiming deeply feels that as a literary and art worker, the responsibility and mission shouldered by him, and using excellent literary and artistic works to unite people's hearts, sing about life, and enhance the cultural identity of the citizens are the problems he wants to think about and face. Today, Wang Zhiming works at the Education Management Center of Dalang Town, Dongguan City, focusing on artistic creation and education.
For the imagination of the future, he shared: "The future is still very long, I will continue to write, write more good works, publish my own music albums, open a concert of works, create a musical that the masses like to hear, and explore more possibilities." "With inner gratitude and pure love for music, he will go forward and write the process of the times and the magnificent chapter of life on the road of music."
Source: Volkswagen