"音乐诗人"李健的传奇

一曲《传奇》，王菲空灵的歌声响彻春晚舞台，也让出道8年的音乐才子李健一夜爆红。2001年，当时还是"水木年华"主唱的李健曾以《一生有你》红遍大江南北。李健的音乐如画，歌声如诗，优雅而深沉，唯美而飘逸。

And now, we turn to pop singer Li Jian, arguably the most talked-about Mandarin pop singer at present.
His sudden rise to fame was directly brought about by a big name in the business - pop queen Faye Wong, who sang his song "Legend" at this year's CCTV Spring Festival Gala about a month ago.

Anything can become the subject of street talk if it makes it on to CCTV's annual gala show, China's most-watched television event of the year.

But with people's tastes in entertainment becoming more sophisticated, it has become extremely hard to come up with a show that can keep hundreds of millions of viewers entertained.

The song "Legend" achieved it. Many netizens say the song fit Faye Wong's voice and style like a glove fits a hand.

When people found out that the song was written by Li Jian and originally performed by him, they did not expect it to be sung as well as the original version.

But they were pleasantly surprised.

The original version turned out to be just as phenomenal as, if not more so, Faye Wong's.

That is why there have been an astonishing surge of online searches about the man behind "Legend".

And as people found out more about Li Jian, they started to rekindle a fancy they had forgotten years ago.

Popularity may have come suddenly for Li this time, but it was definitely not the first time he has tasted success.

The pop duo Shui Mu Nian Hua, of which he used to be a member, was quite successful when it burst on the scene in 2001.

Before them, there was a discontinuance of the so-called "campus ballads" movement in the Mandarin pop music scene.

The "movement" was indeed a short-lived one, as it only began to gain publicity in 1994 when a compilation album called "Campus Ballads I" was released.

The songs written by various artists exuded originality and honesty, making the album a rare alternative to the pop music scene at the time.

Back then, pop music was stuck in cliches in both form and subject. In terms of form, cheap electronic arrangements prevailed. And their subjects were mostly limited, appallingly, to the entanglements of romantic relationships.

Songs such as "Lover of a Vagabond Singer" by Lao Lang became instant sensations, especially among college students and recent graduates.

The album, along with the people who made it, immediately hit upon a huge market, and commercial success soon followed.

Commercial success not only provided funding for the proud balladeers but also distorted the aesthetics of "campus ballads" in the name of promoting them.

Also, as the artists grew older, they quickly grew out of their college student mindsets.

The unique culture of "campus ballads" inevitably withered in the late 1990s.

With the emergence of Shui Mu Nian Hua, people convinced themselves that the great tradition was revived single-handedly by the duo.

Shui Mu Nian Hua was founded by Li Jian and Lu Gengxu, both graduates of Tsinghua University.

Their harmonious duets quickly made them the most successful campus ballad duo on the Chinese mainland.

They were shortlisted under the "Best New Artist" category of all the major pop music awards in China, and ended up winning quite a few.

Songs from their first and second albums were almost impossible to miss, as they were constantly played on TV, radio and in record shops throughout the country.

But as fans were expecting their third collaboration, Li Jian announced that he had split from Lu Gengxu in 2002, because he was tired of frequent commercial performances and endless praise, and didn't agree with a decision to shift their style from folk to rock.

Li says there was little interpersonal drama, if any, about the split.

"It was not a hard decision for me. The reason for me to break up the team was simply that musically I could not get the freedom that I needed to have. Sometimes Lu would play me a song that he really loved, but I could not say to his face that I hated it, and vice versa. There were quite a few songs that I did not feel proud to present to the public, but I had to go with the decision of the rest of the team. That was really painful for me, so I quit."

Since the split, Li released four original albums and one cover album, all in his own musical style: soft and warm, earthy and intimate.

The 36-year-old has broken away from the stereotype most people have of pop stars, largely because of his academic background.

Tsinghua University, from which he graduated with a degree in electronic engineering, is deemed by many Chinese to be the country's equivalent of MIT.

While studying at Tsinghua might not have contributed to Li's career musically, it certainly gave his songs a different touch.

Li has never been drawn to the glamour of showbiz. On the contrary, he is reserved in his public appearances and keeps a low profile. He considers himself an intelligent person, so much so that he feels he has to do more than just making music.

A few weeks ago Li visited Beichuan County, near the epicenter of a devastating earthquake that killed 80,000 people.

He says he will write a song to celebrate the courage and perseverance of the quake survivors.

"I have some big ideas. I think it'll be a heart-warming song. I'll keep it far from the cliches of pop music, and I'll keep the lyrics really simple and natural. I'm also considering using some of the tones of the local Qiang ethnic people. I hope music can play a bigger part in consoling these unfortunate people."

Li says ultimately he wants to be a public intellectual, so he can influence society positively.