ContactAsk the Sky and the Earth: A Cantata for the Sent-Down Youth
Four decades ago, at the call of Chairman Mao, 20 million Chinese youth of middle- and high-school age streamed from the cities to the countryside to participate in the "Down to the Countryside" movement. For years they lived among the peasants, separated from their homes and families, sacrificing formal schooling to be "re-educated" through hard agricultural labor. It was a time of great idealism and incalculable hardship, and shaped the lives of a generation of Chinese.
Ask the Sky and the Earth is a symphonic choral suite that grapples with this difficult chapter of history. With lyrics by Su Wei and melodies by composer Tony Fok, it tells the story of the youth of Guangdong province who were re-educated on the rubber plantations of Hainan Island. Since its premier in 2008 it has been performed throughout China and become a touchstone for Chinese of the sent-down generation. In 2009 it won Guangdong's annual Lu Xun Arts and Letters Award.
With support from the Hong Kong firm COMBA Telecom I have been working to create a new orchestral arrangement and an English libretto for Ask the Sky and the Earth, in order to bring this work to an international audience. With memorable melodies and an accessible musical language, Ask the Sky and the Earth stands to give foreign listeners a unique emotional window into what it was like to be young in China during the late 1960s.
Links
- About Su Wei
- Yale Daily Bulletin article about Su Wei and the Yale Band premier of Ask the Sky and the Earth