Presentation Schedule
Practices of Bridging the Gap Between East-West Cultures: Singing, Songwriting and Lyric Translation from Chinese into English (104616)
Session Chair: Natalie Perez
This presentation will be live-streamed via Zoom (Online Access)
Wednesday, 13 May 2026 10:40
Session: Session 1
Room: Live-Stream Room 3
Presentation Type: Live-Stream Presentation
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When it comes to poetry and songs, there is not much research or practice in singable poetry or lyric translation from Chinese into English. This research attempted to achieve "singability" in poetic and lyric translation. The methodology is based on practices of song translation and singing performances. This research took both spectra of songwriting and music analysis into consideration. To illustrate, song translation and music theories by Xiang, Benward and Saker, Wu, and Bell. The research used categories and suggestions given by Low and Franzon to analyse how target songs achieved "singability". The study cases are two of Teresa Teng’s timeless classics, one of which is an ancient Chinese poem, Shih Su’s "Prelude to Water Melody" and the other one is "The Moon Represents My Heart". When rendering them into English songs, song structure, melody, song writing, cultural and linguistic gaps, rhythm and poeticity were taken into consideration. The author proposed new terms, "understandability" and "listenability", that should be considered when lyrics are translated for a singing or performable purpose to help Western audiences better understand poems and songs as well as the context and background. This research attempted to explore that performing songs in a language other than its original language in singing performance can help connect people and cultures and facilitate mutual understanding. Hope this research would help bridge the gap between theory and practice of rendering Chinese poems and songs into English to connect East-West people and cultures in a feasible and musical way.
Authors:
Gene Hsu, Verse and Voice, United Kingdom
About the Presenter(s)
Gene Hsu, a singer-songwriter-ethnomusicologist and professional interpreter and translator. Her work is connecting East and West through meaning and melody.
See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule
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