Beyond nostalgia: Can xinyao still strike a chord?

Yet xinyao emerged in the late 1970s as a campus movement, when youth here saw Taiwan’s campus folk songs and Hong Kong’s Cantopop gain prominence and yearned for a local music of their own.

Students began writing and performing their own Mandarin songs about friendship, youthful longing and identity, often accompanied by simple instruments like the piano or acoustic guitar.

The ground-up movement also had socio-political motivations, said singer-songwriter and educator Jimmy Ye. He noted that it was the period when schools began to pivot to English as the primary language of instruction.

“This existential angst played a part to fuel the drive to uplift the use of Mandarin in mainstream society, in this case through popular music,” said Mr Ye, who is director of the Office of Student Life at Singapore Management University.

The movement nurtured talented songwriters and performers like Liang Wern Fook and Eric Moo, who not only found success in Singapore but also managed to break into the cut-throat overseas Mandarin music market.

Timing played an important part, as the lucrative Chinese music industry was then opening up to foreign acts. In Singapore, the movement gained ground alongside local television dramas, with many of their theme songs penned by xinyao artistes.

Concerts and radio airplay also sustained a wider cultural conversation and album sales.

The movement started to peter out in the 1990s, when sales slowed and many up-and-comers chose the practical route to settle down in other careers or start families. Some fans said xinyao had no new sparkle, while others noted that the music had become too commercial and lost its charm.

Mr Ye said the social conditions that proved so fertile in giving rise to the music genre are very different today.

For instance, nobody is so emotionally affected by the changing role of Mandarin in Singapore that they would be spurred to take up the gauntlet to restore its position, he added.

“This new norm where Singaporeans display and accept a reduced fluency in all languages, let alone Mandarin, means that most of us are indifferent to the struggles of any one language and culture,” he said.

If made-in-Singapore music is to be sustainable and sellable overseas, the emphasis must also be on production and artistic standards and topics with universal appeal, rather than quaint ditties about uniquely Singaporean quirks, he added.

Ms Eva Tang, the director-producer of The Songs We Sang, said many present-day attempts to “revive” xinyao take an institutional and top-down approach, which runs counter to the very spirit that made the movement possible.

“Cultural movements are usually artiste-led, not engineered from the top down,” she said. “Institutions play an important role, but that role is to open doors, support experimentation, and help artistes imagine possibilities beyond what they can currently see.”

Xinyao was in 2018 included in the National Heritage Board’s inventory of 50 intangible cultural heritage elements. The genre has since been featured in musicals and performances by the SCCC and Singapore Chinese Orchestra.

The state has also co-opted xinyao as a symbol of Singaporean Chinese distinctiveness and cultural confidence. In his National Day Rally speeches in 2014 and 2022, then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong used the songs as an example of how artistes here have long embedded a local flavour in their creative works.

With China’s rise and the growing desire to appreciate one’s roots, some like Mr Cai said xinyao continues to encourage young people here to engage with Mandarin.

More than 50,000 students from secondary schools, polytechnics, ITE and universities have participated in the Xin Kong Xia singing and songwriting competition over the past decade. The annual event is jointly organised by the Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning, TCR Music Station, Lianhe Zaobao and Jurong Pioneer Junior College.

“Through music, we can spark their interest in the language and show them that Chinese can be beautiful and relatable,” he added. “This is how the xinyao spirit of creativity, originality and local storytelling can continue through new generations.”

Drawing an analogy to how Tang poetry and Song prose still influence Chinese literature and culture today, Dr Liang said xinyao’s legacy continues to shape Singapore’s musical landscape.

Music producer Billy Koh noted that Mandopop stars like JJ Lin, Mavis Hee and Stefanie Sun were mentored by xinyao pioneers like himself, Tan Kah Beng, Lee Wei Song and Lee Si Song.

Musician and co-founder of music school Intune Music Peng Chi Sheng said it was xinyao which inspired him and many others to pursue music full-time.

A pianist, composer and one part of local Mandopop group LimTayPeng, Mr Peng said the movement has already fulfilled its role of inspiring the next generation.

“Perhaps there is nothing more noble than leaving behind a body of classic songs that younger generations can continue to sing and reinterpret for many years to come.”

More information on the Xin Kong Xia National Schools Xinyao Singing and Songwriting Competition 2026 can be found on xinyao.zaobao.com.sg.

Tickets for The Songs We Sang are available on sfs-somerset.com. Tickets for Xinyao 44th Reunion Concert’s added show on July 5 are available on Sistic from April 8.