While much has opened up in China over the past few decades, music is still subject to a significant amount of censorship. As a result, much of China's commercially popular music tends to sound like Asian-inspired, mind-numbing muzak to Western ears. This is not to say that there aren't any talented Chinese singers and I do occasionally find some that are a bit different. One example is Jane Zhang (张靓颖; Zhang Liangying), who became one of China's most popular singers after competing in the Super Girl televised singing competition in 2005 (similar to American Idol).
In the video above, Zhang performs a song with Japanese composer/musician Kitaro, who wrote the music for an opera about the city of Hangzhou's famous West Lake. The opera was directed by China's most famous film director, Zhang Yimou (no relation to Jane, who shares the same, very common Chinese surname), and provides a historical and cultural summary with music, dance and technology. The show takes place on a a stage stored below the lake's surface during daytime which is raised at night for actors to perform on.
While Jane Zhang's performance of Impressions of West Lake is evidence of her vocal ability (including a very wide vocal range), she unfortunately often falls victim to what's become a Chinese tradition of singing syrupy pop ballads and bland hip-hop-inspired dance tunes. Possibly, this is what a majority of the Chinese audience wants, but I suspect that this is largely due to the relatively restrictive musical environment that's denied them much of the variety found in Western popular music. If Ms. Zhang and other talented singers could find more interesting songs to record, Chinese musical development might start mimicking the nation's rapid economic development.
Here's a music video of the same song which contains some video from the outdoor opera mentioned above.
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