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).