Gong Linna at her May concert, "Five Elements of Love". (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)
"Before I took the vocal training taught by Gong Linna, my voice was kind of rough. A year's training totally changed that," said Zhu Xing, a Beijing resident in her 50s.
Zhu is one of the 40 or so residents of a northern Beijing community who have participated in the vocal training project taught by Gong.
Just like the others, Zhu said she first came for Gong's fame, but as days went by, she became a part of the choir and benefited in many ways.
"In addition to learning how to sing and use our voice, we have become more optimistic and enthusiastic about life," Zhu said.
The vocal training project, which came from an idea by the community head, was carried out by Gong for more than a year.
Gong said while she felt happy she could help the elderly learn something new, she also accepted the invitation for her own purposes.
"I had always wanted to collect the traditional singing methods for teachers in Chinese musical schools to use in their teaching, so I launched the Vocal Initiative(or Shengyin Xingdong in Chinese) in 2009, collecting traditional Chinese singing techniques and studying them, trying to work out a way to teach those skills," Gong said.
"Now it's the seventh year since the Vocal Initiative has been put forward, and the primary work has almost finished, so we can see if the training methods were effective. I'm glad it's working out for the choir."
The idea of the Vocal Initiative came from Gong's experience as a younger singer.
As a graduate from one of China's top musical schools, China Conservatory of Music, and prize winner of a national singing competition, Gong said she enjoyed fame and fortune upon graduation. At the same time, though, she was quite puzzled about where she was going.
"We are all trained to sing in a bel canto way, and everyone sings more or less in the same way. If you close your eyes, you won't even know who is singing."
Gong said her peers back then were all caught up in the idea of standing up straight, smiling and looking beautiful. "It was quite frustrating," Gong said.
It was not until she met her husband Robert Zollitsch, or Lao Luo, that Gong took the brave step of really being herself.
"My husband Lao Luo used to say that my pretentious look and singing on TV was disgusting. It was a heavy blow for me, but I guess it is the medicine that the patient needed," Gong said.
Starting then, Gong freed herself from high-heeled shoes, make-up, and long beautiful gowns, and just went "wild".
She and Robert tried to do what they deemed as art, and unexpectedly, their act went viral.
One of her songs, Tante, or Perturbed written by Robert, made Gong a household name overnight.
Without lyrics, Tante is filled with a string of vocals that rise and fall in unexpected pitches. It was said to be impossible to imitate by some renowned Chinese singers. But such comments just made more want to challenge themselves, that they went further to imitate Going's exaggerated facial expressions.
respectively named "Gold", "Wood", "Water", "Fire" and "Earth".
