The Red Sun
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| The Red Sun | |
|---|---|
| 📅 Released | 1992 |
| 🎙️ Recorded | 1991 |
| ⏳ Length | 3:24:25 |
| Language | Mandarin |
| 🏷️ Label | China Record Corporation Shanghai |
| 🤑 Producer | |
Buy this album The Red Sun or listen to it on amazon
The Red Sun: Odes to Mao Zedong Uninterrupted Songs in New Rhythm (Chinese: 红太阳—毛泽东颂歌新节奏联唱; pinyin: Hóng tàiyáng—máozédōng sònggē xīn jiézòu liánchàng), commonly shortened to The Red Sun[1][2][3] (Chinese: 红太阳; pinyin: Hóng tàiyáng), is a 1992 Chinese modern pop music album covering odes to Mao Zedong with a disco beat.[4][5] Following the success of the album, four more volumes were later issued.
Creation Process
In the 1980s and 1990s, singer Cui Jian sang "Nanniwan" with a rock and roll cover, which became a highlight of the pop music scene in mainland China. Inspired by this, Feng Haining, then director of the editorial department of Zhong Sing Shanghai, decided to "cover some classic old songs in a new way". This idea was immediately supported by Yang Shengliang, the president and editor-in-chief of China Record Corporation, and the song collection work was carried out afterwards. Among the many songs collected, most of them are related to Mao Zedong. In addition, 1993 coincided with the 100th anniversary of Mao's birth, so the content of the album was determined to be Mao's ode, and named after Red Sun. It took the form of joint singing and found the Central Broadcasting National Orchestra. The composer Jin Wei served as the arranger and invited singers such as Li Lingyu, Sun Guoqing, Tu Honggang, Fan Linlin, and Zhu Hua to participate in the recording.
Rise in popularity
At first, Yang and other chief creators did not carry out album promotion activities nationwide; but then they found that the album sales exceeded expectations, so they started to promote it on a larger scale and carried out sporadic promotion activities on some radio stations in China. At that time, the media asked Yang’s estimate of the final sales. Yang replied, "It's only a few hundred thousand." However, the subsequent sales figures exceeded the expectations of the chief creators. Three months after the launch of Red Sun, sales climbed to more than three million. According to the media, at that time, the truck line at the entrance of Shanghai Zhongsang’s production workshop was waiting to pick up the goods from morning to night. Every shipment was sold out, and there were even a large number of pirated and imitation products on the market. Subsequently, the China Record Corporation set up additional production and processing sites in Beijing, Wuhan, Guangzhou and other places, so as to deliver goods to nearby areas at any time. Shanghai Zhongsang subsequently established the Red Sun Music Studio and released five albums of Red Sun, but the sales of the next four albums did not exceed the sales of the first album. The album eventually became the best-selling music album in the history of China's audiovisual publishing with a sales volume of 7.2 million.
Regarding the album's popularity, Yang said that one of the key factors is innovation, "new topics, new orchestration, new performance styles, and new attitudes". But he believes that the first factor is the classics of the works themselves. These songs have influenced a generation of Chinese people. At the same time, he believes that the album's popularity is also related to Mao's personal charm.
Writer Ling Zhijun wrote in Changes-1990-2002 China Memoir: "It seems that everyone underestimated Mao Zedong's power. They thought that the Little Tigers farewell tape Goodbye would occupy the market at that time. Now, it seems that Red Sun is still powerful." He believes that the album's popularity is related to the "Mao Zedong fever" in mainland China at that time.
Organization
While most songs are odes to Mao, there are multiple instances in all sub-categories that cover the Communist Party of China, People's Liberation Army, and State of China that do not mention Mao Zedong. The album is split into five CDs, each containing 15 songs on its A-side and B-side. The songs are sometimes shortened versions of a longer song. Played regularly, the ends of the songs flow between each other, making all songs in their side played in chronological order according to its listing in the album seamless. The A-side of CD 1 has footage and subtitles to go along with the music.
Legacy
The Red Sun and the follow-up "Red Sun Fever" quickly became a cultural and social phenomenon. After that, the CCTV Spring Festival Gala will have this kind of old songs together. Today, many song and dance halls and morning exercises in parks use Red Sun as the background music.
The famous Chinese host Cui Yongyuan supervised the compilation of songs "I would rather die than surrender—A movie fan's memories" in 1992, which included nearly 40 classic movie songs. According to Cui himself, the album was inspired by Red Sun.
Track listing
The album consists of five CDs, or sets, 30 songs per CD. The CDs have an A-Side and a B-Side, each with 15 songs.
CD 1
A-Side
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "太阳最红，毛主席最亲 (The Sun is Reddest, Chairman Mao is Dearest)" | 0:00-0:55 |
| 2. | "天上太阳红彤彤 (Red Sun in the Sky)" | 0:56-1:50 |
| 3. | "红太阳照边疆 (The Red Sun Shines Over the Frontier)" | 1:51-2:46 |
| 4. | "毛主席的话儿记在我们的心坎里 (Chairman Mao's Words in Our Hearts)" | 2:47-3:56 |
| 5. | "毛主席的光辉" | |
| 6. | "阿佤人民唱新歌" | |
| 7. | "十送红军" | |
| 8. | "南泥湾" | |
| 9. | "北京的金山上" | |
| 10. | "桂花开放幸福来" | |
| 11. | "敬祝毛主席万寿无疆" | |
| 12. | "我心中的歌献给解放军" | |
| 13. | "青稞美酒献给毛主席" | |
| 14. | "读毛主席的书" | |
| 15. | "毛主席著作像太阳" | |
| Total length: | 21:28 | |
References
- ↑ Geremie Barmé Shades of Mao: The Posthumous Cult of the Great Leader 1996 - Page 69 "hai changzhe guoqude geyao — wo dui 'Hong taiyang — Mao Zedong songge xin jiezou lianchang' de zai sikao." 233."
- ↑ Christian Utz, Frederick Lau - Vocal Music and Contemporary Identities: Unlimited Voices in East ... 2013 - Page 247 "Hong taiyang: Mao Zedong songge xin jiezou lianchang [The Red Sun: Odes to Mao Zedong sung to a new beat]. 1992. China Record Corporation, SCD-9201, Shanghai. "
- ↑ Nimrod Baranovitch . China's New Voices: Popular Music, Ethnicity, Gender, and ... - 2003 - Page 307 "Hong taiyang: Mao Zedong songge xin jiezou lianchang (The Red Sun: Praise Songs for Mao Zedong Sung in Succession to a New Beat). 1991. Zhongguo changpian zonggongsi Shanghai gongsi, L-133."
- ↑ Ian Peddie Popular Music and Human Rights: World music 2011 p136 "The most popular music item of this period was a cassette entitled The Red Sun (Hong taeyang, 1992), a compilation of revolutionary songs from the Mao period, accompanied by a modem disco beat. Produced by the Shanghai Record "
- ↑ 许敏 (2006-08-30). "《红太阳》为什么这么红" (in 中文). 人民网. 江南时报. Archived from the original on 2016-05-13. Retrieved 2016-03-03. Unknown parameter
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