The Rise of Humanism in 1980s’ Chinese Pop Songs
Composer Fu Lin who was active in Chinese popular music since the 1980s
described the composers in his generation were used to write songs with
“conceptual words” (gainian ci ).4 Fu’s notion
of “conceptual words” here has a double meaning. It has a strong
association with the symbolic words used in revolutionary songs, for
instance, the revolutionary youth very often used the symbolism of the
sun to hint at their passion for Chairman Mao (Wagner 1995). Its second
meaning points to Chinese traditional literati aesthetics, where it was
also customary to objectify emotions through use of such metaphors. Such
an example is found in the song “The Sentiment of the Leaves for the
Root” (Lüye dui gende qingyi , 1986; Ex 1).