Hear the World Dadawa HK Cultural Centre Grand Theatre Reviewed: Oct 15
She's not the greatest mover on stage, but she's a big shaker on the world music scene: the young Chinese vocalist and songwriter Zhu Zheqin performs under the moniker Dadawa, a name that seems to lie somewhere between Lady Gaga and a prefecture in Japan, and it's well chosen for her mission to be musically and geographically androgynous.
What's immediately refreshing about her performance is the absence of tired old tags like 'fusion' and 'East meets West'; that's essentially what you hear, but massaged in a way that blurs boundaries until they disintegrate. The concept infects the whole experience: Miao male singers, dressed in traditional costume, take on the deceptive air of Vatican priests in a change of light; Dadawa's sparkling frock shouts Aztec as much as oriental; the brilliant Khazak dombra player has you checking for hidden sombreros behind the strummed strings; and, eyes closed, it could well be Bob Dylan blowing on the lusheng, China's ancient mouth-organ.
The opening event in this year's New Vision Arts Festival, the show was devised by Dadawa herself, with all the arrangements by Miquia, another female composer, but with Mongolian roots.
During the continuous 75 minutes of orientally sourced folk music, there were few moments that threatened to raise an ethno-flag for the research and preservation of traditional music. Whenever this seemed just around the corner, we were whisked off by attractive back projections, diverting lighting effects and Western harmonies with a smattering of New Orleans, all atop a timeless rock of percussion and synthesisers.
At the centre of this skilful collage is an undemonstrative artist with a haunting voice who lets the well-prepared music do all the work. Dadawa must rank as one of today's least pretentious and most quietly arresting musicians.
