When will China have its own version of Taylor Swift?

Unless you were under a rock all last week, American pop princess Taylor Swift rocked Shanghai for three nights. During her Thursday night finale, Swift announced that the audience was witnessing local history, as Swift was the first foreign musician to perform three consecutive dates at the Mercedes-Benz Arena.



Swift has had no small number of historic firsts in recent years, including being the only artist in history to have three albums sell over 1 million copies in their first week of release. It was no surprise, then, when tickets to Swift's Shanghai shows sold out within minutes.



Surveying the stadium seats filled with adoring tweens, my friend, an executive in the Asia music industry, said Swift easily could have sold out six nights here. But my wife, Chinese and in her mid-20s whom I accompanied to the high-energy concert, had a different perspective. "How long until China has its very own Taylor Swift?" she asked me above the screaming audience.



I suspect she was taking indirect aim at all the vapid, candy-flavored Mando-pop acts that have permeated China's entertainment scene over the past decade. These so-called recording artists, created by record label executives from Hong Kong and Taipei, pump out soulless, forgettable songs inspired by idol groups from Tokyo and Seoul. Limited licensing of official ISBN numbers for albums may also lead Shanghai recording companies to stick with profitable formulas (auto-tuned production + dancing abilities x pretty young face = hit single) instead of signing original acts.



Which is a crying shame considering how many talented aspiring musicians there are in the mainland. According to numerous sources, there are currently an estimated 40 million piano students in China. Indeed, at just about every school I have ever taught at here, most of my students starting at the primary level and continuing on through high school play the piano.



While the number of piano players in the US and Europe has been rapidly declining in recent decades, China's has soared as classical Western instruments have once again become fashionable among the middle classes. As a result, China is today both the world's largest piano consumer and producer, accounting for 80 percent of global output.



The problem, however, is that many Chinese students are pushed into playing musical instruments such as the piano by their helicopter parents - the same parents who then eventually kill off any passion or ambition these kids may have had about music once the gaokao (China's national college entrance exams, which students spend their high school career preparing for) looms in the horizon.



Whether or not you like her peppy brand of music, it's impossible not to respect Taylor Swift. She learned the guitar and the piano at a young age, talked her parents into enrolling her in voice lessons, then through sheer determination spent her entire adolescence performing at local events and talent contests, all the while getting rejected by record labels until, finally, someone took a chance on her. I can't imagine many Tiger Mothers in China granting their child that kind of artistic expression.



And there's a good reason why Taylor Swift has struck a chord with listeners worldwide. The girl is not just a pretty face; in addition to playing multiple instruments she writes most of her own music and lyrics. All around us at the Shanghai concert, young Chinese girls, many who on their own probably couldn't form a single sentence in English, were singing along with Taylor word for word.



The Chinese mainland does have its own singer-songwriter superstars. Indie rocker Qu Wanting's latest album went triple platinum in the mainland, however, according to a profile in Bloomberg, "Qu had trouble gaining traction in part because the concept of a vocalist writing her own music didn't fit with the Chinese industry standard."



It's unfortunate that China's music industry, and the billions of listeners who keep them in business, are not more supportive of local singer-songwriters with true musical abilities. For if an 18,000-seat arena can hold three nights at full capacity for foreign talent like Swift, imagine the response an equally talented Chinese musician would receive.



With China's societal predisposition to learn the piano at a young age, combined with Shanghai's highly respectable music conservatories and a nascent online platform for more artist-to-fan listening experiences, the question is not why isn't there a Chinese Taylor Swift, but WHEN will she emerge from the ashes of the commercial idol groups who currently captivate local audiences?



The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Global Times.

