Society

Music talent school fuels superstar dreams

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-12-08 10:48

Students attend a drama class at the Lee Wei-song School of Music in Shanghai, Dec 7, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

The lure of stardom

With the lure of stardom, many Chinese young people are starting to look at singing as a career option.

One is 21-year-old Ren He. Despite opposition from his parents, he closed the small restaurant he owned in his hometown of Tongliao, a city in northern Inner Mongolia, and took a big part of his savings to pay for his course at the school.

"Before I came here, I felt I sang quite well. After coming here and getting professional training, I found that I was such an amateur," Ren said.

"After all, this is very professional training. I completely changed some of my methods and I have improved a lot."

The full time course costs 24,000 yuan ($3,600) for half a year and is divided into junior and senior levels for a full two-year course.

The school was founded first in Singapore by local musician Lee Wei-song in 1995, and the Shanghai branch was opened in 2007. Lee and his twin brother Lee Shih-shiong are credited with being pioneers of the Singapore xinyao music movement, a local music movement with a focus on songs about life in Singapore.

Lee Wei-song's school later became famous for grooming one of Singapore's most famous singers, Stefanie Sun.

His school now hopes to unearth mainland China's next singing superstar and expand its presence in other Chinese cities.

There are now more than a dozen similar professional singing schools in Shanghai alone, offering music courses to wannabe singers looking for a shot at fame.

Though TV talent shows have fuelled the boom in these schools, they are actually a double-edged sword, said Ethan Han, manager for the Lee Wei-song School of Music.

"It's a dilemma because talent shows give a quick shortcut out from our school. Some talent shows judge you on your image and general package, and you do not have to sing very well. So they are not choosing the best singer," he said.

"We had a training class for contestants in a talent show in the past. It was for a month, they learn some things, they go compete and they stop studying here."