Entertainment: Starting with a Song of Rice Fragrance

"Come on, let's shout out the name of this song together!"

Zheng Ning saw "herself" extending the microphone, with an endless audience below like a vast ocean.

"East Wind Breaks!"

"Wow, not bad! You all guessed what song I'd sing, hehe. Alright, next I'll perform a Chinese-style song that I wrote myself, 'Dong Feng Po'!"

The voice just fell.

A soft piano melody then drifted from the speakers on both sides of the stage.

Amidst the clear and gentle piano music, "myself" slightly raised my chin, held the microphone in both hands, and walked to the center of the stage.

A clear and melancholic "moonlight" shone down from above, enveloping "myself" within it, instantly filling the stage with a faint sadness, or perhaps a sense of parting sorrow.

As the pleasant music began, the audience fell silent. In the stadium with tens of thousands of people, only glow sticks and light boards were quietly waving.

"Myself" chuckled, then began to gather his emotions.

The prelude was short, but it meandered through people's hearts like a quiet river flowing through their hometown. Then, a slightly hesitant, indistinct signature voice appeared in the ears of all the audience members:

"A lamp of sorrow stands alone by the window, I'm behind the door, pretending you haven't left yet..."

"Hey, it's such a gentle song! Just looking at the title, I thought it would be one of those majestic, powerful war anthems!"

Zheng Ning was taken aback at first, but quickly accepted the contrast and calmly began to feel Jay's singing and his emotions at that moment.

This greatly helped him when he sang the song later.

This relaxed and carefree attitude in front of a huge audience, the creation of the atmosphere, the momentum, the adjustment of mindset, and the control of breath...

All of these are things that I, a newcomer to the music scene, should learn from.

"And he said the song is called 'Chinese Style'?"

As Zheng Ning pondered the other person's singing techniques, he wondered to himself.

"This Chinese-style music does have some similarities to the ancient music from our Western Continent. It includes drums, piano, electric guitar, and even some electric bass..."

Because the terms on both sides are different, it proves that I haven't figured out why this song is called "Chinese style" yet.

But as he listened to the lyrics that followed, he suddenly felt a sense of understanding.

"Returning to this familiar place feels like revisiting a familiar place; the full moon only amplifies my loneliness. The candlelight, illuminating me in the dead of night, cannot bear to criticize me..."

"Myself" walked slowly and proudly on the stage.

The cold, moon-like light illuminated his lonely and desolate figure behind him, making the entire stage appear even more poignant and sorrowful.

The dancers, dressed in ancient-style long dresses, began their dance in the dim light of the cold moon.

"Huh? Something's not right. This tune... it's getting weirder and weirder."

As Zheng Ning listened, he suddenly frowned!

"Why does it feel like the scale isn't continuous? It's missing at least one, two... two notes?"

Zheng Ning's eyes widened in astonishment at her discovery!

He listened a few more times and confirmed it repeatedly.

"Indeed, this song doesn't have the keys of 4 and 7!"

"This song, 'Dong Feng Po,' was actually composed using only the pentatonic scale!"

Zheng Ning was completely stunned!

There are such strange ways of composing songs, where two out of seven notes are omitted!

No wonder it sounds so strange, but once you listen to it for a while and get used to it, it actually has a unique and unconventional beauty.

What's going on?

Zheng Ning certainly didn't understand these things before, since she hadn't received systematic music education.

But now he has received advanced composition skills instilled by the system!

This reminded him of what his music teacher had taught them when they first started music classes in junior high school.

He remembered.

At that time, the music teacher did indeed teach everyone the five ancient tonal patterns: "Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zhi, Yu".

These are the names of the five tones in the pentatonic scale commonly used in ancient music in the Western Regions.

Its biggest difference from scale forms that originated in North America and other regions is that it does not have fa and si, but only do, re, mi, sol, la.

The song "Dong Feng Po" that I am listening to now uses this ancient arrangement method, and only uses these five scales.

"Is this why they call this style 'Chinese style'? Is 'Chinese style' on Earth equivalent to the ancient Western style we have here?"

Zheng Ning, who is now considered a formal musician, was thinking and comparing rapidly in his mind.

After you left, the wine warmed my memories, and my longing grew thinner.

Water flows eastward, how can time be stolen?

Flowers bloom and mature only once, but I missed it…

Jay Chou's voice resonates in your ears, full of rich ancient Chinese charm.

"And it's not just the melody that leans towards the ancient style."

"His lyrics also make full use of ancient vocabulary, such as core images from ancient poems, like sorrow of parting, candlelight, wandering, ancient roads, and desolate smoke."

"However, to avoid appearing old-fashioned and outdated by rigidly pursuing 'traditional style,' the lyrics were deliberately rearranged using a modern, prose-poem-like style, abandoning the grammar of classical Chinese."

Blue Star doesn't have Li Qingzhao, so naturally it doesn't have the "Do you know, do you know, it should be that the green leaves are lush and the red flowers are faded" from Li Qingzhao's poem "Like a Dream: Last Night the Rain Was Sparse and the Wind Was Strong".

However, the highly overlapping ancient cultural experiences allowed Zheng Ning, a native of Earth, to immediately recognize that lyrics like "a cup of parting sorrow" materialized abstract emotions into quantifiable entities, and that the word "thin" in "wine warms memories, longing makes one thin" should mean reduction or shrinkage...

After all, before switching careers to become a singer, Zheng Ning was a top student at Shuncheng University. She scored over 120 points in Chinese in the college entrance examination, so she has a basic understanding of classical Chinese.

"Dong Feng Po" really uses a lot of traditional Chinese style elements.

The arrangement, the lyrics, the singing style, the stage costumes, the dancers' clothing and even their makeup are all the same.

Zheng Ning felt quite intoxicated; it was a pleasant atmosphere that could make one slightly tipsy.

But... it feels like something's missing?

The instruments on the stage were all imported foreign instruments, such as pianos, drum kits, and electric guitars.

If we simply use them to express the so-called ancient style, wouldn't it seem a bit hypocritical?

If we say that the Chinese civilization on Earth and the Western Continent on this planet share similar styles and both possess brilliant ancient cultures…

Is it missing a genuine element, originating from ancient China?

Just as Zheng Ning was thinking this, he suddenly heard a series of rapid, strange sounds, like pearls of all sizes falling into a jade plate!