Taiwanese band Semiscon perform during this year's Shanghai A Cappella Music Camp. Photo: Yang Lan/GT

A cappella - singing unaccompanied by musical instruments - dates back to a time before most musical instruments were even invented. Conceived immaculately out of the Gregorian monk chants of the 9th century and later refined by 15th century church choirs (hence the name's Italian translation "in the manner of the chapel"), a capella relies not just on the ability to sing without instrumental lead, but also the skill to mimic certain instruments and sounds with voices to create a veritable vocal orchestra.

A cappella is not to everyone's tastes, however. For the past century it has occupied a very small niche market, most notably the 1950s American barbershop quartets and doo-wop bands. Hybrid forms of a cappella have seen the occasional resurgence over the decades, including the dynamic The Beach Boys and the melancholic The Mamas and the Papas in the 1960s and street-smart Destiny's Child in the late-90s, though in order for these bands to breakthrough into the mainstream they "cheated" with instrumental backing and complex studio arrangements.

In China, where musical tastes admittedly tend to center around commercial, auto-tuned pop productions, a cappella has been relegated to the niche of the niche. But following a recent renaissance thanks to televised singing programs in the US such as The Sing-Off and Glee, and the 2012 Hollywood hit musical Pitch Perfect, a cappella has returned to the global mainstream, including in China, with a pitch-perfect vengeance.

Pitch-slapped

After sitting for 16 hours on a slow-speed train from Guangdong Province, Lai Wensheng and his a cappella band Resound arrived just in time to perform at the Fifth National A Cappella Competition in Shanghai. While most other groups performed a cappella classics, Resound chose a funky Cantonese style with a strong rhythm section and faultless harmonization, which earned them second place at the competition.

"Maybe it was the grueling train trip that invoked our fighting spirit. If we had come by plane, we might not have won at all," Lai joked after the competition, admitting that his phobia of flying is the reason he and his band suffered the 1,500-kilometer journey.

A graduate of the Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou, Lai first delved into the instrument-less world of a cappella when he was recruited as a sophomore by a small campus band. It was then that Lai learned how to "play with the human voice" to simulate sounds and instruments. Lai's first band dissolved after their graduation, but in order for him to move forward as a musician, he forced himself to go backward as a student, returning to the conservatory to recruit undergrad students for a new band he was forming.

Chen Haoran and Chen Shaoyang thought a cappella was "choir music" when Lai first approached them about joining his group. Initially the music had little appeal to them. But after practicing a few numbers with Lai, the two juniors' interest in this unusual genre was piqued. "After practicing, we found that we got along well with each other. No instrument could compare with the harmony of our voices," Lai said not a little proudly.

Inspired by urban a cappella groups such as Naturally 7, Lai wanted a "beat-boxer" to give their sound some hip-hop-style percussion. Human beat-boxing - imitating the sound of a drum with one's mouth, lips and throat - originated from 1980s inner-city African-American rap groups who could not afford a drum machine, but it eventually took on a life of its own in the hip-hop genre. For Lai's group, their B-boxer appeared in the most unlikely person - an international trade student named Zhang Licong.

"I had never met any a cappella singers before watching them (Lai and the others) perform. They were amazing, so I joined the group," said Zhang, who also works full time for Samsung, which limits his band-practice time to after work.

But it wasn't until the nascent group heard the melodic notes of female vocalist Wang Chenrui echo through the halls of their conservatory that they felt their band was complete. "When people see us, they will not think of us as some other singers from the pop music department of the conservatory, but as a cappella singers," said Wang, who won the "Best Lead Singer" prize at the Fifth National A Cappella Competition in Shanghai.

Resounding versatility

Like Resound, many Chinese a cappella groups were formed on campus. Taiwanese a cappella band The Wanted Vocal Band was founded by six students aged from 17 to 20 after their high school music teacher, Liu Jingyu, introduced them to a cappella. One year after The Wanted Vocal Band was formed, they won first prize at the Shanghai competition.

For their performance, The Wanted Vocal Band covered the hit song "Daft Punk," itself a cover song made famous by American a cappella group Pentatonix, who were the 2011 winners of The Sing-Off television program.

"Instruments have limits; they can not change a lot. But the human voice is versatile and has a wide range. And we can further modify the sound effect of human voices with modern technologies," member Chien Pei-yun said.

Shanghai's very own a cappella group, Across, were formed in 2008 at the Shanghai International Studies University and have a rotating roster of members in the vein of Japanese ensemble idol groups. Every year, when the band's senior students graduate, new members are recruited. Unlike other university-based a cappella bands, none of the Across members are music majors; for them, a cappella is more of a hobby than a professional pursuit.

In spite of, or perhaps owing to, these differences, Across' performance at the Fifth National A Cappella Competition in Shanghai was met with resounding applause. The band "recomposed" the "Fortieth Symphony in G Minor of Mozart" into a cappella, which was the competition's only symphony song and also the only one without lyrics. They followed this unusual approach with a daring hybrid huju (Shanghai opera)/a cappella performance of "Looking for the Sound in Dreams," which earned Across third place.

Across Asia

A cappella is in fact nothing new to Chinese music. Famous mainland singers such as Gao Xiaosong and Gu Feng sang a cappella when they were young, and in 2009 Vocal Asia, a platform that unites Asian a cappella musicians and fans, began promoting a cappella at mainland universities.

"At that time, Chinese groups were still training and performing on their own. We had no idea how many there were, or where, until 2011, when we organized China's first a cappella music camp and national competition," Henry Juan, marketing and project director of Vocal Asia, told the Global Times.

Juan and his organization initially conducted a field survey and, to their surprise, found that there were over 40 a cappella groups in China. Peking University even had its own a cappella student society. "It exceeded our expectations," Juan said, noting that back then none of the a cappella bands at Beijing and Shanghai were aware of each other.

According to Juan, another big obstacle of being an a cappella band in China is the ignorance of local audiences. "People were looking at it as something bizarre, like acrobatics," said Juan.

Every year, Vocal Asia organizes Shanghai A Cappella Music Camp, which precedes the national a cappella competition. The first year's competition hosted 11 teams; this year, there are 18 teams with over 150 members from all over China. Taiwanese band Semiscon were invited to perform during the camp to inspire and entertain the students, as well as offer them advice. Naturally 7, one of the top a cappella bands in the world, performed in Shanghai after.

Vocal Asia also has cooperated with Shenzhen TV for an a cappella competition on the Chinese version of The Sing-Off, which exposed the niche genre to millions of viewers, further expanding a cappella's popularity in China. "We have accomplished many things that were not possible five years ago," Juan said.

As for fans and enthusiasts, local meetups such as Single Singers in Shanghai gather weekly for pick-up performances and to share videos and songs by their favorite Chinese and foreign a cappella groups.

According to data provided by Vocal Asia, there are approximately 250 a cappella groups in China at present, which is about five times the number in 2011. Since most a cappella bands are formed by amateurs, many remain unqualified to compete at the international level. They persist nonetheless.

Despite being a relatively new band with members who are still in college, Resound from Guangzhou have won a steady series of national and district competitions in China, including their second-prize-winning performance at the Fifth National A Cappella Competition in Shanghai. The group plans to continue to compete locally and perhaps even record their own album, which they hope will eventually attract invitations to international competitions.

"The road for a cappella music in China is still long, but the future is bright," president of Vocal Asia Clare Chen said.

Wang Jiangang contributed to this story