Pop songs approved for classes
16/3/2005 8:39
Shanghai Daily news Local middle school students will be
allowed to sing Hong Kong and Taiwan pop songs in their music classes for the
first time, instead of being limited to patriotic folk songs, many of which are
decades old.
The city government's new list of 100 approved songs for middle
school music classes includes three popular songs from Hong Kong and
Taiwan.
The three approved songs are: "Snail" by Taiwan singer Jay Chou,
"Hero" by Jonathan Lee from Taiwan, and Hong Kong star Andy Lau's
"Chinese."
Teachers can begin using the three songs in their music classes
immediately, according to the Shanghai Education Commission, which published the
list of recommended songs.
The three songs encourages people to persevere in
face of difficulties or lauds the good natures of the Chinese people.
"The
lyrics of these songs are inspiring," said Wang Yueping of the commission's art
academic research office. "It is important for us to make a list which is both
educational and caters to young students' tastes," he added.
As recently as
the early 1990s, some local schools banned students from listening to pop music
on campus as many popular love songs were considered irrelevant and a
distraction.
The addition of pop songs to music classes was warmly welcomed
yesterday by local students.
"We are always asked to sing monotonous
revolutionary songs," said Wang Wenjia, a local student, adding that some of the
old songs sound funny to modern students. "Finally we can sing something of our
own."
Despite the additions to the list, most of the recommended songs are
still traditional patriotic works written by Chinese folk musicians or old
revolutionary songs that have been passed down for
generations.
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