# Is it possible to sing in Chinese? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 3, 2006, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866 "2006-03-03T04:09:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/1 "2006-03-03T04:09:00Z")
Forgive me if this question sounds ridiuclous, but since Chinese is a tonal language it seems to me like it would be pretty damned difficult to sing anything since the way you say a word would be completely changed. How is it possible to sing in Mandarin? šŸ˜• ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/2 "2006-03-03T04:16:02Z")
Itā€™s plenty possible. My wife is from PRC, she tells me when you sing you pretty much ignore the tones and apparently native speakers have no trouble understanding you because they can tell what you are saying from the context. Only certain words make sense when combined with the other words around it, so to speak. ---
**Author:** ![sundog66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@sundog66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sundog66)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/3 "2006-03-03T07:06:55Z")
In my experience listening to Chinese music, I think itā€™s more a matter of producing the correct tone within whatever note youā€™re singing. Tone values are are relative, after all. The syllable may call for a high tone, rising tone, falling tone, etc., and these can all be produced within the note required by the tune of the song. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/4 "2006-03-03T10:55:09Z")
IANALinguist, but: People donā€™t generally use tones when singing. Itā€™s still easy to understand. Hell, itā€™s possible to _speak_ Chinese with no tones and be understood under most circumstances. The real problem is when foreigners unfamiliar with the language use the _wrong_ tones. ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2006, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/5 "2006-03-04T21:23:37Z")
I asked my Chinese teacher this questions once. Her reply was that the songwriter has to know the tones and make the notes match (or vice versa). During the period when government was controlling all the arts, they convinced people to write new words to well-known tunes. Many of the folks willing to do this were not of the highest caliber, so the results were sometimes amusingā€“I remember something about a song that was supposed to be praising the revolution but sounded more like a discourse about a cat with a big, fuzzy tail. (that memory is very old and probably inaccurate, but you get the idea) ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/6 "2006-03-04T22:08:18Z")
will this help [Moon Prayer (Ting Ting)](http://www.robpongi.com/pages/comboTINGTINGHI.html) ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/7 "2006-03-05T00:05:39Z")
I know next to nothing about Chinese music or Chinese language, but I know something about Western music. Thatā€™s what the above link is. This woman may be playing a pipa, but she is singing in a Western musical scale, in Western musical harmonies, with Western muscial rhythms. I do not see how this can help anyone understand Chinese language and how it is set to music in any traditional way. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/8 "2006-03-05T00:45:01Z")
How about the Christmas Story scene in the Chinese restaurant? Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/9 "2006-03-05T01:58:18Z")
> [@FlyingRamenMonster](#): > > IANALinguist, but: People donā€™t generally use tones when singing. Itā€™s still easy to understand. Hell, itā€™s possible to _speak_ Chinese with no tones and be understood under most circumstances. The real problem is when foreigners unfamiliar with the language use the _wrong_ tones. Tell me about it. When I was in China I had a hell of a time in restaurants because when I ordered dumplings they thought I was saying sleep. It beats me how they couldnā€™t get it from the context. I assumed they were having a bit of fun with the ā€œbig noseā€. There was an Italian guy there who could sing in Chinese, phonetically. I donā€™t know how good he was, but when he sang karoake he got a huge round of applause. It might have been points for trying. He couldnā€™t speak a word of Chinese otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/10 "2006-03-05T02:10:26Z")
Basically, what people said - you just ignore tones. Singing in English cuts plenty of linguistic corners too, what with substituting ā€œā€˜nā€™ā€ for ā€œandā€ and the frequent use of sentence fragments. The meaning gets through. That is, unless youā€™re listening to Chinese opera _shudder_. Whenever I go to my older relativesā€™ house, they have it on. If you think Western operaā€™s annoying to the initiateā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![sundog66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@sundog66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sundog66)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/11 "2006-03-05T04:41:41Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > How about the Christmas Story scene in the Chinese restaurant? Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra. šŸ˜• Chinese has the syllable ā€œlaā€. ---
**Author:** ![Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stark_Raven_Mad)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/12 "2006-03-05T05:10:33Z")
> [@sundog66](#): > > šŸ˜• Chinese has the syllable ā€œlaā€. I think **Cats** is confusing Chinese with Japanese, which doesnā€™t make much of a distinction between the R and L sounds. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/13 "2006-03-05T06:09:41Z")
> [@athelas](#): > > That is, unless youā€™re listening to Chinese opera _shudder_. Whenever I go to my older relativesā€™ house, they have it on. If you think Western operaā€™s annoying to the initiateā€¦ Oh god. Iā€™m sorry, but I HAD to comment on this and warn people. For those unfamiliar with it, Chinese Opera is NOT singing :eek: Itā€™s an exquisitely terrifying form of aural torture perfected over hundreds of years of turbulent Chinese history, incorporating such elements as Rage of the Mongols, Unholy Sacrifices for our Holy Emperor, and Unsilenced Pain of a Thousand Eunuchs. If Hell had a soundtrack, this would be it. Proof (not safe for work ā€“ or anywhere else, really, if you value your sanity)ā€¦ [http://www.chinapage.com/sound/palace-sitin.rm](http://www.chinapage.com/sound/palace-sitin.rm) Scary, scary stuff ā˜¹ ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/14 "2006-03-05T08:17:46Z")
Chinese pop industry is a multi billion dollar business. If youā€™ve got trouble thinking that melodic Mandarin would be difficult to sing, try Cantonese. All the big canto-pop stars now also sing in mandarin. Chinese opera is an acquired tasteā€¦and after 20 years in China I doubt Iā€™ll ever acquire the taste. Frankly I think itā€™s popularity is only with people over about 80 years old. Do check out the movie Farewell to my Concubine, which is _not_ torturous to listen to. It stars Leslie Cheung, HK movie star and Canto-pop sensation who tragically committed suicide a couple of years ago. Hereā€™s a link from Time Magazineā€™s [top 100 films](http://www.time.com/time/2005/100movies/0,23220,farewell_my_concubine,00.html) ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/15 "2006-03-05T09:23:50Z")
Back in one Linguistics class, the class and the prof were discussing the issue of singing in tonal languages. We decided, after listening to a couple of our classmates whose native languages are tonal languages, that the singer still produces a tone for the sound but that he or she will pick either the beginning, middle, or end of the sound to match the tone to the note. We also decided that the matter bears further research. The quarter ended soon after the discussion so, of course, we all blew of the research issue. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/16 "2006-03-05T09:52:36Z")
I third the warnings about Chinese opera. I foolishly attended a Cantonese one in Hong Kong at Chinese New Year once. Luckily I managed to get out before my brain made an escape bid and crawled out of my bleeding ears. The horror. The horror. I also knew an Mandarin opera singer from Beijing who used to drink one too many tsingtao and give us a blast. It was excruciating. Anyway, on occasion I asked my Canto friends what the words of a particular pop song meant, and quite often they knew the general gist, but didnā€™t know in detail, because the tones had been subsumed by the tune. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/17 "2006-03-05T10:00:34Z")
**Jet Jaguar, FlyingRamenMonster, athelas** , and **jjimm** say: no tones in Chinese song. The explantions given sound plausible. \*\*sundog66, NoCoolUserName, \*\* and **Monty** say the tones are somehow folded into the melodic pitch. > [@Monty](#): > > the singer still produces a tone for the sound but that he or she will pick either the beginning, middle, or end of the sound to match the tone to the note. This sounds like the _Sprechstimme_ developed by Arnold Schoenberg in _Pierrot Lunaire_. Did he get the idea from Chinese song? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/18 "2006-03-05T10:21:23Z")
There is the distinct possibility that there are differing qualities of Chinese songwriting. Canto- and Mando-pop pap churned out with trite melodies (or merely copies of existing western pop tunes) might be atonal, while classical music is more thoughtfully composed. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/19 "2006-03-05T12:31:51Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Oh god. Iā€™m sorry, but I HAD to comment on this and warn people. For those unfamiliar with it, Chinese Opera is NOT singing :eek: Itā€™s an exquisitely terrifying form of aural torture perfected over hundreds of years of turbulent Chinese history, incorporating such elements as Rage of the Mongols, Unholy Sacrifices for our Holy Emperor, and Unsilenced Pain of a Thousand Eunuchs. If Hell had a soundtrack, this would be it. Hahahahaha! šŸ˜ƒ I still like it ā˜¹ ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2006, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866/20 "2006-03-05T12:52:32Z")
(sort of) related question. I was watching _House of Flying Daggers_ last night, and ziyi Zhangā€™s character sings a rather lovely song- does anyone have any idea if it is actually an old Chinese song, or a modern song written for the movie? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sing-in-chinese/346866.md?page=2)