Sorry for the long hiatus. Many things happened: Summer Camp, school, college applications, job, etc... But here is the analysis I've longed to do since 2 months ago. Enjoy! And BTW, here is the download link to the entire album.
And here's the youtube link.
This song is from “The First Album” (“第一册”) by Confucius Says (子曰) in 1996. It's called Ciqi “瓷器.” This word literally translates to “pottery,” synonymous with “China”. Also, in the Beijing dialect of Mandarin, this word means “brothers.” The triple entendre, then, should become obvious. This song deals with the notion of brotherhood, and more generally, the cohesion of the people, paralleled by the properties of a pottery, in China. In translating the lyrics of this song, I thus left Ciqi as a word itself to preserve its triple entendre:
Boiling the beans while charring the stalks
and of this the beans thus wailed:
"Borne are we of the same root;
should you now burn me with such disregard?"
I scoop up a pile of dirt, and you spit into my hands, Ptui!
I shed two drops of tears, mix it up, mix it up,
turn it into a mushy mud. Hey, all's done!
Out of it we'll make a you and shape a me,
You within I, I within you.
Let's huddle, embrace, embrace, huddle, yea?
We're brothers! Ciqi!
Brothers, brothers,
Brothers, brothers,
Brothers, brothers,
Brothers, brothers,
I scoop up a pile of dirt, and you spit into my hands, Ptui!
I shed two drops of tears, mix it up, mix it up,
turn it into a mushy mud. Hey, all's done!
“This comrade is actually benign at heart,
but because he often did not exercise self-constraint,
the bourgeoisie ideas corrupted his mind,
insidiously changing his head,
as to make him commit evil in his daily life.
However, we still have to
welcome him, educate him, help him, sympathize with him.”
We are friends,
we are brothers
we are comrades
we are Ciqi!
We are yellow
We are big
We are long
We are black
we are Ciqi!
We are yellow
We are big
We are long
We are black
I scoop up a pile of dirt, and you spit into my hands, Ptui!
I shed two drops of tears, mix it up, mix it up,
turn it into a mushy mud. Hey, all's done!
Brothers, brothers,
Brothers, brothers,
We are friends, we are brothers
we are comrades, we are Ciqi!
We are yellow, We are big,
We are long, We are black.
If you help me, I'll help you
If you trick me, I'll kill you
Boiling the beans while charring the stalks
and of this the beans thus wailed:
"Borne are we of the same root;
should you now burn me with such disregard?"
and of this the beans thus wailed:
"Borne are we of the same root;
should you now burn me with such disregard?"
I scoop up a pile of dirt, and you spit into my hands, Ptui!
I shed two drops of tears, mix it up, mix it up,
turn it into a mushy mud. Hey, all's done!
Out of it we'll make a you and shape a me,
You within I, I within you.
Let's huddle, embrace, embrace, huddle, yea?
We're brothers! Ciqi!
Brothers, brothers,
Brothers, brothers,
Brothers, brothers,
Brothers, brothers,
I scoop up a pile of dirt, and you spit into my hands, Ptui!
I shed two drops of tears, mix it up, mix it up,
turn it into a mushy mud. Hey, all's done!
“This comrade is actually benign at heart,
but because he often did not exercise self-constraint,
the bourgeoisie ideas corrupted his mind,
insidiously changing his head,
as to make him commit evil in his daily life.
However, we still have to
welcome him, educate him, help him, sympathize with him.”
We are friends,
we are brothers
we are comrades
we are Ciqi!
We are yellow
We are big
We are long
We are black
we are Ciqi!
We are yellow
We are big
We are long
We are black
I scoop up a pile of dirt, and you spit into my hands, Ptui!
I shed two drops of tears, mix it up, mix it up,
turn it into a mushy mud. Hey, all's done!
Brothers, brothers,
Brothers, brothers,
We are friends, we are brothers
we are comrades, we are Ciqi!
We are yellow, We are big,
We are long, We are black.
If you help me, I'll help you
If you trick me, I'll kill you
Boiling the beans while charring the stalks
and of this the beans thus wailed:
"Borne are we of the same root;
should you now burn me with such disregard?"
The song opens with a jazzy duet between the bass guitar and the drums, preparing for the sober opera-voiced rendition of the famous poem “The Quatrain of Seven Steps” (the first 4 lines). The novel Romance of Three Kingdoms attributes this poem to Cao Zhi, the son of the Warlord Cao Cao. It is fabled that his brother Cao Pi, in fear of Cao Zhi's possible usurpation of his power, ordered him to produce a poem in 7 steps or else he would be put to death. To his surprise, Cao Zhi accomplished the feat, producing “The Quatrain of Seven Steps” lamenting in an extended metaphor brotherly love being destroyed by power struggles. The beans and stalks originally belonged to the same plant just as Cao Zhi and Cao Pi were born from the same womb, but now the stalks fueled the fire that boiled the beans just as Cao Pi attempted to kill Cao Zhi. In the same vein, this poem applies to the Chinese as a people, who often refer to themselves as “同胞兄弟” or “brothers from the same womb.” Confucius Says, like its name suggests, alludes to this classic work to open the song with force and authenticity, which is only rendered stronger by the opera-voice ---- another allusion to tradition ---- and the soft tone, which seems to mourn the decline of brotherly love.
The song then switches to a more cheerful mood, with the singer singing in a heavy Beijing accent. This voice details a traditional practice of making a promise, where the two parties spit in each other's hands after swearing. The practice manifests the cultural emphasis on being faithful to brothers, presenting a contrast to the poem before of power struggles. Confucius says continues the sweet words with symmetry between “I” and “you.” The loose drums and bass with “wahwah” highlights by the guitar meanwhile provide an optimistic pulse.
In the middle section of this song is a modified passage from a Xiangsheng, a form of comedy characteristic of its quick bantering. It uses a moralizing tone to describe and judge someone while the music again returns to a jazzy quiet duet between the bass guitar and drums. The return to the beginning style-wise signifies the return to the separating aspects. Here even though the Xiangshengist calls out to “welcome him, educate him, help him, sympathize with him,” the premise is that “he” inherently possesses an evil that is socially unacceptable. Thus “he” is alienated first before the attempt to embrace him. Whereas the classical poem describes a political, or more generally, a material incentive for alienation, this part describes an ideological (Marxism vs Capitalism) and a social incentive for alienation.
Then the song again breaks off to a more mirthful tone, with inclusion instead of exclusion as its theme: “We are friends, we are brothers, we are comrades, we are Ciqi!” However, the repetition and parallelism soon become more and more ridiculous with “yellow,” “big,” “black,” but deceitfully end with “we are Ciqi!” These lines satirize the state-run propaganda of a monolithic Chinese populace.
After a few more times of repetition, the song arrives at the explicit formulation of its message: “If you help me, I'll help you; If you trick me, I'll kill you.” The Chinese people, then, are as capable of sticking together as of backstabbing each other. Like a pot (Ciqi), the people feel adamantine and impenetrable to touch, but if we let something as natural as gravity or human greed to do its deeds, the pot will smash to pieces.
As the song's end comes back to meet its head, the cohesion and alienation also balance each other off. Confucius Says thus expresses a concern of the perpetual cycle of union and detachment recurring in Chinese history (for a very simple example, the dynastic cycles).
I have chosen this song with the inspiration of the Urumqi Massacre. Ciqi attacks the state for its propaganda of a culturally united China, but the truth, as shown by the Massacre, is a sadly no. The people in Urumqi live in cultural and ethnic hostility, and even for region as densely populated by Hans as Guangdong the few minority ethnicities still hold implicitly inferior positions. Moreover, Ciqi attempts to ameliorate the problem by appealing to human nature instead of solely by criticizing the state. The problem is inherently a cultural one, as shown by Ciqi's heavy allusion to traditional practices and literature and arts, that cannot be cured by laws only. One must rid the social prejudice in his or her heart and refrain from poisoning the new generation with such backward thoughts and then allow the potent social current to level out the injustice from there.
