Who Is Tan Dun? 誰是譚盾？

A composer composed by music

Gisela Jia

Tonight,  I was checking a Level 5 student's homework. Ellie needed to translate a sentence from English to Chinese: 

Tan Dun is a famous Chinese-American musician.

譚盾是一位著名的美籍華裔音樂家。

Ellie first had a hard time pronouncing the alphabetic name "Tan Dun". I told her how. She said that's a strange name. I said, the name sounds great in Chinese. I also said he lives in New York City. That made Ellie ask "谭盾是真的人？“ (Tan Dun is a real person?)

I said yes and felt I had to prove that he is a real person. So, I pulled out his music from YouTube and we listened together for a few minutes.

After the class, I thought to myself - this is just another example of how much there is in Chinese culture and language for us to introduce our students. It's an endless amount.

Against this backdrop, any small action counts. My action tonight is to put together a few links for students and families to enjoy Tan Dun's music and learn about, not how he composed music, but how he was composed by music, as he himself claimed.

Click below to see the video:

Tan Dun winning Academy Award for original score

Length: 5 minutes; award ceremony

Composed music: For the World by Tan Dun (from the movie Hero)

Length: 5 minutes; Violin;

Tan Dun conducting music

Length: 4 minutes

How the childhood sounds on the streets made this musician

Length: 4 minutes; Language: English

Turn the secrete female language into music 

Length: 4 minutes; Language: English

Nu Shu 女書 is a secrete language invented by women and used among women in mountains of Hu Nan province. Tan Dun composed music to express his understanding of Nu Shu through the sounds of music.

Tan Dun about making music - Interview in Mandarin

Length: 30 minutes; Language: Mandarin

Enjoy Tan Dun!