Word: sa
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...Universal's best talent scouts and marketing execs had locked themselves in a boardroom to brainstorm the next world-music star, they would have been high-fiving each other for coming up with something even half as marketable as the strikingly beautiful Sa - or Zhou Peng, as she was known before making a stage name out of her mother's Mongolian surname and a childhood nickname. With troubles in Tibet and Xinjiang generating plenty of international interest in China's ethnic minorities, her origins are perfectly calibrated to appeal to the liberal, middle-aged and mostly Western buyers that make...
...Today, she not only sings in Mandarin and Mongolian but also Tibetan, Sanskrit and a language of her own invention - the latter being a terrible affectation or a delight, depending on your point of view. Sa's look will engender the same kind of polarized response. She frequently poses like the Buddha in promotional photos, even though she is not actually a Buddhist. "Buddhism is a big part of Chinese culture," she says by way of explanation. "I'm interested in learning about...
...might have thought that many Chinese would be unimpressed by the improbable package that is Sa, and denounce her ethnic borrowings and musical contrivances - but there's not a bit of it. Her big break came in 2000, when she won a singing contest on state-run China Central Television, aged 16. CCTV has been a supporter ever since, broadcasting her to hundreds of millions at a time. "As long as you don't express politically incorrect messages, from the government's point of view these kinds of artists are a very positive phenomenon," says Nimrod Baranovitch, a professor...
...Sa is not the first Chinese pop performer to garner world-music acclaim. The Guangzhou-born Zhu Zheqin, better known by her Tibetan name Dadawa, was hailed (by a Western media obsessed with drawing parallels) as the "Chinese Enya" when her debut album Sister Drum was released by Warner Music in 1995. But interestingly, neither she nor Sa have presented themselves as mainstream Chinese. "To a Western ear, mainstream Chinese pop is too sweet - it sounds trivial," explains Baranovitch. "Minority artists offer something different and refreshing. There's a sense of primitiveness, spirituality and exoticism - it sells...
...Universal is hoping. But it is of course too early to tell whether or not Sa will break out of her rarified niche and garner mainstream appeal. She appears to approach the subject philosophically. "I don't mind people misunderstanding my music," she says. "Others really understand it." All that Buddhist chanting must be teaching her a thing or two about detachment...