Sometimes its interesting to see that people tend to view things as their own, regardless of whether something really is or not. This may be especially true here in China where virtually everything is copied without much regard to its origin. For instance, I had a Chinese friend whose phone had an instrumental ringtone of the rock/pop ballad Right Here Waiting which is apparently quite popular in China. Of course, anyone who was in America and listened to the radio at all in the late 1980s would remember the song since it was played incessantly at the time. In fact, it was a # 1 hit single for singer/songwriter Richard Marx in 1989. Here's a video of Marx performing the song to guitar (rather than the original piano) accompaniment.
Curious about how my friend chose this song for her ringtone, I asked her about it and was slightly surprised to find that she'd never heard of Richard Marx, but more surprised when she insisted that the song was actually Chinese rather than American. I didn't recollect Richard Marx looking very Chinese and tried to tell her that it was actually an old song by an American singer that must have been copied by a Chinese singer, but she refused to believe this, saying that maybe the American copied the Chinese song. While its not uncommon for Chinese singers to record cover versions of popular American songs, it would be exceptionally rare for an American singer to cover a translated Chinese song (I can't think of any examples offhand).
Considering that most Chinese people don't know Richard Marx from Karl Marx and probably haven't heard the English version of Right Here Waiting, I wondered how it became so popular here. I'm still not sure, but from a little online research I found out that Marx (Richard, not Karl) was one of the early Western singers whose music had some degree of exposure in China (until the 1980s, communist China was almost completely isolated from the outside world and almost no Western music was heard). Right Here Waiting also fits well within Chinese pop music sensibility which tends to favor simple ballads that can be performed at karaoke clubs.
I also found out that in the 1990s, a Cantonese cover version of the song was recorded by Kenny Bee (锺镇涛; Zhong Zhentao). Instead of Right here Waiting, its was more poetically titled 紅葉斜落我心寂寞時 ("The falling maple leaves reflect the loneliness of my heart"). Here's a video:
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Apr 8, 2012
I don't know if Richard Marx (or his music publishing company) has licensed the use of his biggest hit song here in the Middle Kingdom for ringtones, karaoke, etc., but I imagine its used without permission much more than not. Too bad for poor Richard who could be raking in royalty payments from all the Chinese phone users' ringtones, etc. (in reality, Marx is not likely poor since he's also had a very successful career as a songwriter and producer since his performing days). And just for fun, here's a version of Right Here Waiting played on the guzheng, a Chinese traditional instrument.
At least since these videos are on YouTube, Richard Marx might actually receive some royalties from Chinese versions of his song. Regardless of Richard's royalty income, Right Here Waiting is likely to remain right here ringing on phones throughout China.
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