Such concerns were familiar to the songwriters and those around them
too. “My Beloved Hometown” was written in a private music salon called
Damucang in 1987.27 Before the draft of the lyrics was
shown to other musicians, the manager of salon Liu Weiren approached
lyricist Meng Guangzheng (Figure 1) to check whether he dared to release
such a work. Meng explained: “I visited my wife’s hometown, and I found
it didn’t look as beautiful as I had been told. But I wish the village
can become pretty.” Composer Xu Peidong (Figure 2) was interested in
the draft. In their collaboration, the lyricist and musician
incorporated the multiple ideologies of the time into the song in a way
that they hoped might not raise official objections but carry a new pop
song style. For instance, the first line of the lyrics was originally,
“My hometown is not such a beautiful place” using the word “place”
(difang ). Yet “place” was a keyword in official songs, such as
“In the Place of Peach Blossoms
in Full Bloom” (Zai na taohua shengkaide difang ), where it
always carried a positive gloss. In order to avoid running counter to
that official norm, Xu Peidong changed the phrase to the more
straightforward words: “My hometown is not at all
beautiful”.28