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Kylie Knott

TANTE. UNEASY AND BEYOND
	Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra
 
Watching Gong Linna perform the song TanTe during a New Year television performance in 2010, it's difficult to tell if she's in pain or laughing hysterically.
Screeching wordless folk-inspired sounds with her powerful voice, there's no doubting her wide vocal range. But it's the sounds combined with her dramatic facial expressions and over-the-top lobster-like outfit that takes the performance to a whole new level. A video of the song went viral on the mainland, turning her into an internet sensation.
The song also spawned a string of copycats — Hong Kong singer G.E.M. sang TanTe during her Get Everybody Moving concert in 2011. But Gong says: "Many people cover it and want to sing it but even if they heard it 10,000 times, they could not do it."
Now Hongkongers will get to hear Gong's vocal gymnastics when she takes to the stage with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra at the Cultural Centre this month.

Also performing is her German husband, composer Robert Zollitsch — a.k.a. Lao Luo. While having very different backgrounds — Gong was born in Guiyang, the capital of southwest China's Guizhou province and Zollitsch was raised on traditional Bavarian folk music in his home city, Munich — both are united in their passion for Chinese folk music.
Lao Luo wrote TanTe and Gong says she welcomed the challenge to sing it. "He always gives me new challenges and I love this. Sing high, sing higher — I'm always learning with his songs ... it's important to change and learn. I think my music will die if I don't adapt."
Gong started singing at the age of five, and when just 16 enrolled to study folk music at the Chinese Conservatory of Music in Beijing. In 1999 she held her first solo concert with the China Central Nationalities Orchestra, China's most prestigious traditional music orchestra. In 2000, she won the Chinese National Singing Competition as the best female singer.
Lao Luo, who in 1993 was awarded a scholarship to study at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, has written most of the music for Gong's albums. His love for reading and writing traditional Chinese poems enables him to compose music with lines from famous poems and transform classical Chinese musical elements into a global language.

"I have worked with Chinese music for so long that it's like a new language has developed. I love the melody and this remains an essential part of Chinese music," he says.
Gong says her performance will be varied and emotional. The first part will be wild and steeped in Chinese roots. The second part "will be very elegant, very quiet", as she sings love poems by Li Qingzhao, a Chinese writer and poet of the Song dynasty. "The last time I sang this in Hong Kong the audience cried," she says.
The third part will be Gong singing TanTe followed by audience participation on singing techniques.
Also interpreting Lao Luo's music will be dizi virtuoso Wang Hua and Niu Jiandang, guest principal suona of the orchestra, who will perform two of his concertos.
 
Cultural Centre Concert Hall, 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, December 20, 8pm; December 21, 3pm, HK$100-HK$380 Urbtix. Inquiries: 3185 1600
 


Gong Linna performs with Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra

Gong Linna sings with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra.

Gong performs TanTe in China

Gong and her husband Robert Zollitsch

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48 Hours

Watching Gong Linna perform the song TanTe during a New Year television performance in 2010, it's difficult to tell if she's in pain or laughing hysterically.
