Between the Lines with Jerry Lim: Rainbow Sister

Rainbow Sister

This traditional Chinese folk song tells of a young lad who travels far from his village, holding fond memories of a loved one. After an expressive opening solo, the tempo picks up in this authentic and spirited arrangement, which includes both Mandarin and English text. See below for a pronunciation video spoken by the arranger. Growing up in multiracial Malaysia, Jerry Lim was immersed in various European, American, and Asian music, giving him a unique perspective on integrating Western and Eastern styles.

Jerry Lim

Arranger Jerry Lim is a veteran music educator, having taught for 30 years at all levels of K–12 music education. He currently teaches high school choir in Washington state. He received his BA and MA in Music Education from the University of Washington.

Growing up in multiracial Malaysia, Jerry studied piano performance and was immersed in various European, American, and Asian cultural and musical backgrounds, which enculturated him with a unique perspective in the integration of Western and Eastern melodies and music. His Gameboy music soundtrack in 2001 for Magi-Nation was critically acclaimed as musically innovative.

He is an active member of NAfME and ACDA, having assisted in managing various festivals and conferences. He regularly writes and arranges for his ensembles and is looking forward to sharing his musical perspectives with the music community.

What inspired you to arrange Rainbow Sister?

When I was teaching middle school choir, I had a few Chinese students, and I thought it would be great as a multicultural song to share with the other students in the choir. It was a reaffirming experience for the Chinese students to learn something from their own culture and then share it with other students in the class. There were not a lot of Chinese folk songs available for middle school choir at that time, so I decided to look through a Chinese folk songbook that I had and selected a few to arrange for my choirs.

I chose “Rainbow Sister (Hong Cai Mei Mei)” as it had a jaunty, lively melody with a catchy hook, and it was not available as a choral arrangement for middle school choirs. Most Chinese folk songs that I encountered were either arranged as easy 2-part or complex SATB arrangements. I decided to arrange “Rainbow Sister” in SSA as I was fortunate to have quite capable singers in my young middle school choir. It was very well received at our festival performance, and I continued to arrange more Chinese folk songs for my choir. It would be a few years later that I finally submitted my arrangement to Alfred Music for consideration to be published.

What teaching suggestions do you have to share for Rainbow Sister?

I think the biggest challenge in learning a foreign language song is to learn to say or sing the words in that language. Most people would feel that Mandarin lyrics would be challenging to sing since speaking Mandarin with its tonal inflections presents quite a challenge. However, if the Mandarin lyrics are limited or repetitive, the learning can be more easily achieved. Furthermore, the tonal inflections of Mandarin do not become as critical when singing. (The overall lyrics provide the context in which to interpret the word choice when sung.)

Accuracy of the lyrics can be a huge problem when researching traditional Chinese folk songs that may span a few hundred years in history. As most cultural transmissions tend to be oral transmissions, the lyrics and words of the songs may change over time depending on the interpretation of the “context.” There were historical references to the song as “The Maiden with the Red Ribbon,” but the current lyrics in this song were adapted by Zhu Fengbo, a singer in the Shanghai Opera House in the 1960s.

Pinyin is the transliteral pronunciation of Mandarin when written in Romanized letters. In attempts to convey the tonal inflections of Mandarin, Pinyin can be written with various diacritic marks to indicate the tonal character of the pronunciations. However, in daily usage, most Pinyin “spellings” are simplified for ease of use, especially in typing and texting without diacritic marks. You just type the Pinyin pronunciation and choose from the recommended Chinese word provided by the computer or phone.

The first step to learning to sing Rainbow Sister is, of course, to learn how to pronounce the Mandarin words in the song. It is most helpful if the choir has a native Mandarin speaker to help guide the choir in speaking the Mandarin words. If a Mandarin speaker is unavailable, then a pronunciation recording of the words would help. It should be noted here that even in China (and with all the Chinese populations around the world,) the various dialects and localized accents can greatly influence how the Mandarin words would be pronounced. So, be that as it may, the Pinyin spellings provide a general guideline to how the Mandarin words would be pronounced. Alfred Music has also provided a recording of the Mandarin word pronunciations to assist in learning the lyrics.

After sufficient practice with speaking the Mandarin words using the Pinyin spellings, try singing short phrases of the Mandarin words before putting them all together. This arrangement uses only one verse of the Mandarin lyrics, so the task of learning the Mandarin words should be achievable. The rest of the English lyrics are not literal translations of the Mandarin lyrics but do convey the context and sentiment of the song. The song tells of a young traveler who has traveled far away from his village and how he reminisces about his love and longing for Rainbow Sister.

What additional background information would be interesting for singers?

This song can be a great addition to festival choral repertoire as it adds diversity to the wealth of multicultural music materials available to choirs everywhere. This song can be a bridge to researching the historical wealth available through cultural exploration and re-introduction to contemporaneous revisions of traditional folk music. This was one of the greatest contributions by Teresa Teng in the 1970s to reintroducing traditional Chinese Folk tunes as popular music in Eastern Asia with the introduction of Mandopop and Cantopop.

In learning this song in the choir classroom, extended activities can include historical research in Chinese folk songs, a biography of Teresa Teng, and also viewing and contrasting contemporaneous performances of Chinese artists like Dao Lang, Zhuo Yiting, and Abao. As this is a Chinese folk song, it can be a supplementary resource material when learning about China, the Chinese culture, or the Chinese language.

The Chinese folk song “Rainbow Sister (Hong Cai Mei Mei)” originates from the Suiyuan Province (now the central area of Inner Mongolia) in China from the Han dynasty. The song tells of a young lad who travels far from his village, holding sweet memories of Rainbow Sister. “Rainbow” is most likely indicative of the colorful dress worn by young maidens in Mongolia. “Sister” reflects the Chinese custom of addressing elders as “uncles” and “aunties” and younger peers as “brothers” and “sisters.” The English lyrics in this arrangement explain how greatly the young lad misses the beautiful maiden, Rainbow Sister.

Throughout history, this song has seen many adaptations and changes. The most famous adaptations were from Wang Luobin, Zhu Fengbo, Teresa Teng, and Dao Lang. The Chinese songwriter Wang Luobin adapted the song into an anti-Japanese occupation anthem during World War II. Zhu Fengbo was a singer in the Shanghai Opera House that kept the traditions of Chinese folk culture alive even as Mao’s 1967 Cultural Revolution purged and eradicated much of the historical Chinese way of life. Teresa Teng was the Taiwanese superstar songstress who blended traditional Chinese musical styles with Westernized musical styles and introduced Mandopop and Cantopop to popular music listeners during the 1970s and 1980s. Dao Lang is a contemporary male singer from Sichuan, China, who was voted best pop singer and artist in 2002 by the Beijing Music Society.

What message do you have for singers learning this piece?

As the choir learns to sing this Chinese folk song arrangement, reflect on how Chinese migrant workers would travel near and far all over the world to seek their fortunes. This is not very different from the migrant cultures we have today. People travel to where they can find better opportunities for themselves and their families.

Although this song contains a melancholic context, the character of the song should still remain lively and energetic beyond the slow opening verse. The liveliness almost depicts the song as a work song where the traveler has traveled far away for work. Also, the song, having originated from Inner Mongolia, retains the characteristic dance-like rhythms common with Mongolian folk songs.

The choir should have fun singing this Chinese folk song. Most times, choirs are hesitant to attempt unfamiliar music material only because of the lack of resources to deal with the unfamiliar. Here, Alfred Music provides a pronunciation guide with an audio recording for practicing the Mandarin words in the song. This simple approach will help choirs learn to sing this song quickly and be successful in learning the Mandarin words.

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