Posted in Semester Reviews

GEH1006/GEC1001 Chinese Music, Language and Literature (in English)

Posted on by Voez

This was another random GE module that I took to clear my UEs. As its title suggests, we learn about Chinese music from PRC, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore in the different eras. I would like to caution that we do not just learn about modern or current music (etc mandopop), we get to explore (and hear) different musical styles, such as cantopop, rock music etc. Therefore, this is a PSA that its not just listening to Jay Chou’s songs (though some of his songs were indeed explored in 1 or 2 lectures/tutorials), so if that’s your only intention to take this module, maybe this isn’t right for you!!

Anyway, we also got to explore songs in movies (such as 我的少女时代), which will be relevant in the group project as elaborated below. The later part of the lectures and tutorials (near Week 10 onwards) focus on Chinese poems (also from different dynasties).

Some degree of Chinese proficiency will be good but tbh not very necessary as most song lyrics shown are translated into English.

The grading components are as follows:

  1. Individual Essay (45%)

This essay was actually due after recess week, and we were expected to write a ~1200 word topic on one of the popular Chinese singers and one of the songs explored in the lecture. This includes:

  • Zhou Xuan
  • Teresa Teng
  • Cui Jian
  • Sam Hui
  • Jay Chou

tbh, all of us just received the grading feedback for our essay, so perhaps i shall focus more on the tips to score well for this component.

  • Firstly, make sure you have an adequate and balanced coverage of the required content. For my batch, there were two parts to the essay, (a) significance of the chosen singer, and (b) one song discussed by that singer. It’s not sufficient to gloss over the singer’s influence in just a couple of lines.
  • Secondly, APA citation is important. I was absolutely roasted for my atrocious reference list (oof), because i did not know that there are different APA citation styles for different publications (apparently citing style for journal papers are different for theses or books or videos) And yeah… marks are deducted for lousy citations (sigh)
  • Thirdly, credibility of sources used in essay. I feel like this was already repeatedly emphasized by the prof, but apparently some students still rely on sketchy blogposts, forums, or even links from wikipedia when doing the essay (pls do not do this!!) One tip I have is to just find academic papers from NUS Libraries, or Google Scholar. Theres actually a lot of free scholarly papers on the internet!
  • Fourthly, having a good understanding of the song chosen. The lyrics of the song chosen might be different from what is portrayed in the MV.
  • Fifthly, just a disclaimer ah, this is my own personal opinion, but if you take this module with the intention of getting an A, pls don’t choose Jay Chou as the topic AHAHA. I MEAN, im not saying that you cant score well if you choose to write about him, but majority of the cohort chose to write about him and his songs, and theres not much you really can do to stand out?? But this is just my opinion ah, if you are a super megafan of Jay Chou and want to write about your idol then go ahead lor but just try to be more unique?

2. Group Project (35%)

This was randomly assigned in your tutorial groups. Basically, we choose one movie to analyze and identify the songs used in the movie (whether they are diegetic or non-diegetic).

I also just received the feedback for this, so let me also focus on the tips to score well for this component.

  • Firstly, also make sure that you have a balanced coverage of the required content in the project. You need to give a short brief of the movie chosen, and also explore the songs in the movie itself. Most groups typically chose 2-3 songs and clips in the presentation.
  • Secondly, there is strict timekeeping, so make sure that you do not exceed the 15 mins allocated per group. Also, this presentation was done online, so try to make sure there’s no technical difficulty, or your presentation slides/videos don’t lag.
  • Thirdly, this is also my opinion ah, if you want to get A, I think its better to choose movies that are more niche? There were so many groups in my tutorial that chose ‘You Are the Apple of My Eye‘, and ngl, my groupmates and I were kinda sian hearing the same presentation and songs over and over again AHAHA.

3. Tutorial Attendance/Participation (20%)

I think this is pretty self explanatory bah, just show up for tutorial, raise hand and answer questions. We get to prepare the questions before tutorials, so its just a matter of ‘fastest hands’, because some people in my tutorial group were really onz. The tutor was really strict with recording what we said so if you give some lousy/ fluff answers, you might get called out LOL. Tbh, I think if you take this module, you can pretty much get by without reading any of the course readings because most of the tutorial questions are less about the theory, but more about your opinion about certain topics (etc your favourite poem explored in lecture?)

Overall opinion:

Tbh, I kinda enjoyed this module?? I think a lot of people may disagree with me HAAHHAHA but I personally enjoyed listening to all the different songs in the different eras and different countries. Yeah they are not really conventional songs that you hear nowadays, but i think its pretty cool to hear how the songs have changed over the years. Ok la, maybe i just share some of the songs that we explored throughout the semester, and you can decide whether you want to take this module!! 😀 Note that the list is not exhaustive, i only picked some of my favourites hehe xD

So yeah, as you can see above, its not just listening to Jay Chou’s songs, but we get to explore different variety of songs from different singers!

I feel like overall, this module is pretty chill too cuz theres no exam, and you don’t really have to take down notes because they are not really tested? And honestly, I kinda stopped watching the lecture after Week 11, because tutorials are pretty much over. While there are significant number of readings in this module, like i mentioned above, I personally got by without really reading any of them (ahahahahahah sorry i was lazy).

I would totally recommend this module, but i wouldn’t say that this is my favourite GEH module (heheh sorry BUT I STILL ENJOYED THIS MODULE OKAY). I think I can actually be in the position to say this cuz i actually took a total of 3 GEH modules (the other 2 being GEH1074 Luck and GEH1056 Cultural Diversity in Contemporary World). But I still think this module (GEH1006) is still pretty good if you are genuinely interested to learn more about chinese music (beyond just mandopop and jay chou), and I also think its pretty easy to score well as long as you put in the effort in both your project and individual report!!

And yeah as usual, pls don’t ask me for notes cuz i won’t be entertaining such comments 😀 lemme know if you have any questions, and i can try to answer 😀 (no promises tho)

voez

22 April 2023

Author:

Hi, I am currently a Year 4 student taking a double major in Business Administration (Marketing) and Economics at the National University of Singapore. When I first entered university, I remembered feeling lost and confused about how things work at NUS, and thus created VOEZNUSBIZ, a blog where I can help juniors and prospective students alike on their journey at NUS.

Leave a comment