ARTS / MUSIC
Ethnic Tibetan musician chases dream of being a force for positivity in rural China
Plateau rapper
Published: Nov 02, 2022 09:50 PM

Sangdejia Photos: Courtesy of Sangdejia

Sangdejia Photo: Courtesy of Sangdejia

 
In addition to his school work at a music college in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sangdejia spends most of his time in his dormitory room composing lyrics with the computer his father bought for him as a gift for college.

Dreaming of becoming a professional rapper, the 20-year-old released his new Tibetan language rap single on music platforms in China last week. 

After first hearing of Sangdejia's dream many years ago, Li Chengcheng, who at the time was teaching Putonghua (Standard Chinese) at Sangdejia's school, decided to support the then 15-year-old boy's dream as well.

"He is such a caring and warm person. I still remember when I first got to know him in 2013. Heading to his home for a family interview, on the road he told me that he knew an orphan near his home and asked me if I could do something for that poor child," Li recalled in an interview with the Global Times.

"With him being a warm-hearted, determined and resilient child, I thought he would do a great job in music," Li added. 

Window to the world

During the 2010s, an increasing amount of Chinese music-related variety shows were appearing on TV. From lyric composers to rappers and singers/dancers, the rise of pop music trends transformed people's everyday lives online, to include the young school boy from Huangnan, a Tibetan ethnic village in Qinghai Province.

With rapping in local dialects, such as Cantonese or Sichuanese, quickly becoming a trend across the country, Sangdejia saw a new way to show his hometown to the world.

"It is a different way to show off the culture of my hometown. I hope to do that: Get young people to learn more about Tibetan culture through my rap music," Sangdejia said.

Sangdejia and Li's story starts 10 years ago, when Li, still a college student in Chongqing Municipality, chose Huangnan as the place for her part-time assistant teacher work during summer vacations.

At the time she first arrived, Huangnan was a poor village in the area.

"The broken desks, the mottled crooked staircase and the stunning view of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. That was my first impression of the place," recalled Li, who has worked there every summer for six years.

Most of the families Li visited had been making a living digging up caterpillar fungus - a valuable ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine - or herding. 

"Those children, they grew up so fast. One day Sangdejia was riding a motorcycle, and through the noise of the engine and the wind, I heard him tell me he wanted to be singer," Li said.

In order to help Sangdejia achieve his dream, Li took him on a "rap tour" after he graduated from middle school to seek out rappers in the Xizang Autonomous Region in Southwest China.

She brought Sangdejia to many places, from a tea house in Lhasa where the then amateur tried for the first time to compose a rap, to a live house in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, where they met more Tibetan rappers. 

Major changes 

In recent years, Huangnan, which is known for the Regong arts, an important segment of Tibetan Buddhist art, has undergone many changes. 

The village has improved local infrastructure to support the economy and culture. 

Fully-equipped factories for traditional Tibetan rugs have been built, a cultural creative industrial park was established and the government has nominated hundreds of first-class painters to pass down the art of thangka, traditional Tibetan paintings on silk or cotton.

In 2021, Li traveled back to Huangnan and she saw the once poor village had now become a place with a booming population and improved infrastructure. 

"Tall buildings and chain supermarkets are everywhere, and they even have their own Regong arts museum," Li said. 

Li's former students, most of whom have been admitted to universities across the country and who used to be shy in front of her, have also changed a lot. 

"Not just Sangdejia, but others are more confident, more able to express themselves, and have more ideas of their own and that is a good thing to see," she said.

On music platforms, Sangdejia calls himself Yak Herder. He turns moments from his life into songs.

"Fighting for my dream, for a better life, and for my aged parents and their hope for me. I will work harder and achieve my dream one day," go the lyrics to his previous single album, "Grow Up."