Pop band Flower has been troubled by a series of reports in the media and on
the Internet that at least four songs on their latest album are copies of songs
by a few international bands.
The four young men in Flower, signed to the EMI label, initially denied the
accusation. The media however has been relentless. The Beijing News invited the
chief music director of an arts publishing house to compare the songs.
The expert concluded that the recordings of the four songs were startlingly
similar. One shared an almost identical melody, with the only differences
occurring in the seventh bar and the ending, with a song of the Japanese duo
Puffy AmiYumi. The company representing the Japanese duo said their songs had
clearly been "sampled."'
Flower lyricist Da Zhangwei admitted to the press this week that he and his
band mates have so many tunes stored in their heads that they "have no time to
identify, revise and delete" ones which aren't theirs.
However, Flower is not the only band to have been singled out for plagiarism
recently.
A Mongolian song "Three Lucky Treasures," which won second place at the CCTV
Spring Festival Gala on January 28, was accused by netizens of imitating the
theme song of the 2002 French film "Le Papillon." Buren Bayaer, the lyricist and
singer of the song, has come forward to say that he wrote the song in 1994. And
in 1997, he recorded the song on 500 cassettes and gave 200 copies to his French
friends, according to China Radio International.
Although few people have the expertise to make the judgment, the allegations
themselves warn us again that plagiarism is an ill that is hurting the creative
mind.
It is true that increased international exchanges and an explosive amount of
information available on the Internet now provide far more intellectual and
cultural resources to people than in the past.
As well as the Internet, we have also inherited some 5,000 years of
historical, social and cultural legacies most without names of creators.
Seven years ago, a TV programme host proudly announced that a veteran folk
song singer was the composer of a well-known ethnic Hezhen song that he'd sung
for nearly 40 years.
People of Hezhen in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province were angry at the
remark, as all the composer/singer did was rearrange the main melody of their
ethnic folk song. They went to court, and won recognition for the work.
Perhaps the singer wondered about the fairness of the decision. After all,
without his contribution, the vast majority of people would not be aware of the
beautiful sound of Hezhen music.
However, plagiarism could be a crime. We cannot be tempted to just copy and
paste and claim the results as our own ingenuity, without obtaining permission
or giving due respect and credit to those who have made contributions.
Can we borrow from them or take their ideas as our own, without so much as
naming the sources that provide us the inspiration?
We cannot. If we do so, we are as wrong as the lead singer of Flower and the
veteran folk artist.
Email: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 03/16/2006 page4)
