New York: NTD’s Chinese International Vocal Competition – An In Depth Report

Day One

You wouldn’t expect to find a congregation of some of the world’s best Chinese vocalists in the heart of New York City, but that is exactly what we’re going to show you.

We’re here at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at New York’s John Jay College, for NTD’s third International Chinese Vocal Competition. Let’s go in and take a look…

Day one and contestants have come from all over the world to demonstrate their abilities on stage. Up for grabs, prizes of up to ten thousand dollars.

Contestants must be of Chinese descent and songs can be Chinese or Western. There’s one other rule, the performances must not glorify or contain the influence of the Chinese Communist Party.

[Julie Lemmons, Contestant]:
“When I was in mainland China I saw many competitions, yet most of them are glorifying the culture of the Communist Party. These formations of performers, like they are fighting in a battle. So this time when I hear these traditional Chinese songs and these world famous songs from Italy I feel really delighted.”

45 contestants compete throughout the day for a place in the semi finals.

Having completed a full day of singing, contestants are now eagerly awaiting the results of who will go through to tomorrow’s semi-final.

22 contestants made it through. One of them was Coco Chen. She had high hopes for day two.

[Coco Chen, Contestant]:
“Excited. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, too. I think everyone’s pretty good, so I just want to do my best job, and hope everyone else can do their best job too, tomorrow.“

Day two and contestants must perform in front of a live audience, yet most felt encouraged rather than hindered.

[Chen Yun-ju, Contestant]:
“The audience today were very passionate, besides myself, I feel the other contestants also found it very encouraging.”

[Coco Chen, Contestant]:
“I like lots of audience, the more audience that come, it makes me more excited.”

And that audience were also excited by what they saw.

[Leon Lemmons, Audience]:
“It’s pretty amazing, you know, here I am in New York City and we have performers from Taiwan, mainland China and all that, and they are singing in Chinese one song, the next song they’re singing in Italian. Its incredible.”

Coco Chen sang first today…

[Coco Chen, Contestant]:
“It was a surprise, I was like, Oh! Wow! I’ve got to go first tomorrow?”

First in a competition, that keeps getting harder.

[Coco Chen, Contestant]:
“It’s getting harder and harder, because the competition gets tougher and tougher, and you go from having no expectation, to a little expectation, to a little bit more expectation.”

Coco’s expectations were fulfilled, she made it through… There was just one thing…

[Coco Chen, Contestant]:
“The first number that pops into my head is number four, I hope I can get it, not number one again.”

And she did get it, well almost.

Day 3

[Han Suqiu, Judge]:
“People have been slowly losing the traditional, orthodox, purely truthful, kind, and beautiful vocal arts. What will happen in the end, I don’t know. However, we indeed now have a group of performers who are really trying to return to the traditional arts.”

Explains competition judge Han Suqiu.

And the very best of that group are competing in the final.

After another series of breathtaking performances, its over to the performing arts centre at Purchase College Westchester for the prize giving ceremony.

Coco Chen came third in the Female category, taking home a check for a cool one thousand dollars, and a large bronze trophy.

[Coco Chen, Contestant]:
“It feels good, except this thing is very, very heavy.”

Geng Haolan from Guangzhou, China took first place. In the male category Yuan Qu, origionally from Tibet, took the top prize.

We’re going to talk to the winner of the male category, Mr. Yuan Qu.

[Yuan Qu, 1st Place Winner]:
“I’m very happy, very happy. I want to take this golden trophy as a trophy of encouragement, to encourage me, I’ve still got a long road to travel,” he says.

A long way to travel, maybe, but he’s already come this far.

And that concluded our coverage of the 2009 New Tang Dynasty International Chinese Vocal Competition, I’m Ben Hedges, We’ll see you again next year.

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(NTDTV)