Songs you absolutely have to know

[aristotle1990]

For general cultural literacy, what are the most important Chinese songs a foreigner should know (have heard, or better yet, can recite the lyrics to)? I'm thinking national songs like 义勇军进行曲 and 东方红, pop songs like 月亮代表我的心, etc. Nursery songs too -- are you really gonna let a dumb baby outshine you at karaoke?

This gets overlooked a lot, but think about someone who's been studying English for years and has never heard Hey Jude...

[madmaxxx]

Here some must-know songs at KTV:

童话

老鼠爱大米

浪花一朵朵

桃花朵朵开

爱我别走

朋友

我对你有点动心 (with a female partner).

I would love to cite some 周杰伦songs, but his songs are really difficult. (Frankly saying, I haven´t sung a single one of his tracks). On the other hand, pretty much every 王力宏 song is rather easy to learn, if you like them.

[Hofmann]

Songs you know the melody of or songs you don't know the melody of?

[daofeishi]

Great thread. Here are my two picks:

Children's song: 两只老虎

Pop: 对面的女孩

[jbradfor]

If you could provide a link to them that would be great. e.g. for 对面的女孩 I found this song, is this really the right song? Doesn't do much for me.....

[aristotle1990]

Here's the music video for Richie's Ren's 对面的女孩看过来 on Youku. Definitely gets my vote.

月亮代表我的心 (arguably the most famous Chinese pop song ever -- you hear this on TV in different contexts all the time).

义勇军进行曲 (national anthem of the PRC).

My favorite version of the Communist-era song 东方红 (actually kind of stirring...).

[Sarevok]

I quite like Chinese revolutionary songs, off the top of my head:

东方红

国际歌

义勇军进行曲

南泥湾

游击队之歌

学习雷锋好榜样

走进新时代

歌唱祖国

中国人民解放军军歌

社会主义好

For these I mostly know their complete lyrics. I generally avoid pop songs, but some of them, like 月亮代表我的心 (I personally hate this one) or 对面的女孩看过来 can't really be avoided...

My personal favorite is 达坂城的姑娘, but this one isn't of Chinese (汉族) origin

[doraemon]

The only revolutionary song I happen to like is 义勇军进行曲, probably because it's played so often.

Chinese people seem to LOVE 童话 for some reason, although I didn't seem to find anything spectacular about the song when I heard it.

I think 茉莉花 is also a pretty famous traditional song. ;)

[bhchao]

Here is the revolutionary song for all Chinese. This one is for China the motherland!:

[daofeishi]

If you could provide a link to them that would be great. e.g. for 对面的女孩 I found this song, is this really the right song? Doesn't do much for me.....

That is the right one. It think that is one of the songs you have to at least know about for cultural literacy. It seems to show up everywhere.

Also, we shouldn't forget to include one of China's first, and arguably most famous, rock songs:

[eatfastnoodle]

There is no "must know" songs as each generation has its own preference and it's not uncommon to see one generation scoff at the music preference of another generation with utmost disgust. My parent regard each and every pop song as absolutely unbearable noise. I don't really like 周杰伦's stuff even though plenty of people love him. “月亮代表我的心” is nice but way too old. Among revolutionary songs, I like national song (but only played without lyric, which I consider a distraction.), L'Internationale (only Russian version, maybe it's French, I'm not so sure.). And Song of the People's Volunteer Army (only the oldest version, late version sounds soft, if you know what I mean.) 大花轿/火风 is such a unpolished song, I forgot it long time ago, yet somehow it managed to evoke some fun memory when I heard it at a NBA game. (God knows where they found it.) 让我们荡起双桨 is probably the song that comes closest to a must-know for young kids, at least for young kids of my generation. 侯德键's 龙的传人，罗大佑's 童年，张民敏's 我的中国心 were three most influential songs, IMHO, during the 80s. I guess at the end of day, pop songs come and go, the only songs that people of all ages and background know (not necessarily must know, but they know) are revolutionary songs.

[c_redman]

Surely there's more culturally than pop and revolutionary songs. For example, what would be the equivalent of Camptown Races, or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? Or the theme to the Beverly Hillbillies B) ?

[eatfastnoodle]

Surely there's more culturally than pop and revolutionary songs. For example, what would be the equivalent of Camptown Races, or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? Or the theme to the Beverly Hillbillies B) ?

Actually, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star could just be one of these songs as it's part of the official curriculum for elementary school kids. Several of the songs from Sound of Music were also taught as part of the official curriculum along with L'Internationale， national anthem and 游击队之歌， so I'd say that most kids know them and they serve as part of their earliest music education. But if there is one song that everybody has to know, I'd say it's "让我们荡起双桨".

[skylee]

I suggest 世上只有媽媽好.

(BTW it is 張明敏 instead of 張民敏.)

[trien27]

Here's the music video for Richie's Ren's 对面的女孩看过来 on Youku. Definitely gets my vote.

The title = 心太軟 by 任賢齊 not 对面的女孩看过来[/url]. 对面的女孩看过来 are only lyrics to the song.

[skylee]

The title = 心太軟 by 任賢齊 not 对面的女孩看过来[/url]. 对面的女孩看过来 are only lyrics to the song.

trien27, you are absolutely wrong.

[gougou]

The title = 心太軟 by 任賢齊 not 对面的女孩看过来[/url]. 对面的女孩看过来 are only lyrics to the song.

Baidu agrees with skylee. Maybe you do some fact-checking next time before you call out other people as being wrong?

[roddy]

Trien, can I draw your attention to your rapidly plummeting reputation.

[GreenArrow45]

Surely there's more culturally than pop and revolutionary songs. For example, what would be the equivalent of Camptown Races, or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? Or the theme to the Beverly Hillbillies B) ?

This may be a bit of a silly question, but, what is Camptown Races?? I have never heard of it...

as far as songs - I don't know how popular it is (and it may have been listed already as I don't know the name of it), but there is a song with a Chinese girl singing both in English and Chinese, and the English at least she is asking where have all the cowboys gone (if i remember correctly). Anyways, a fair number of my foreign friends here can/seem to enjoy singing that song. Sorry I can't be more helpful with the name - hopefully someone else knows what song I am talking about.

[jbradfor]

This may be a bit of a silly question, but, what is Camptown Races?? I have never heard of it...

I don't know if this is only an American thing, but it's one of those folk songs everyone knows the melody to, no one knows the lyrics to....

One example on

. And the wikipedia article.