Review of Tibet in Song (2009) by V H — 19 Dec 2010

Ngawang Choephel was born in Tibet in 1966, about 16 years after China invaded Tibet. When he was two years old, his mother fled with him to a refugee camp in India to escape the oppressive Chinese regime. After growing up hearing her sing Tibetan folk songs and later studying ethnomusicology, Choephel returned to Tibet in 1995 to make a documentary about the traditional music of his homeland. He travelled through the countryside for a couple of months and shot quite a bit of film before being arrested, convicted of espionage charges, and sentenced to eighteen years in prison. He was released in 2002 with the help of some big name celebrities and immediately resumed work on his film - this film.

"Tibet in Song" is as much about China's attempt to squelch all traces of Tibet's culture as it is about Tibetan folk music. It tells how China introduced nationalistic versions of Tibetan folk songs as part of its "patriotic education" campaign and banned the playing of the traditional versions. It features an interview with three female ex-prisoners were tortured for several years for their continued refusal to sing the Chinese national anthem. It also has interviews with young people who've grown up hearing almost nothing but Chinese music and who like it much better than their own music.

I tend to agree with them. Tibetan music is - or I should say was - so embedded in their culture that they actually have a different song for each of their different daily chores. There's a song for milking the yaks, another for churning the butter, another for herding, and another for roofing. I suppose they're beautiful in a sense, but they're not catchy or danceable -- they're traditional - so it's not surprising that the kids gravitate more towards the high-energy Chinese pop tunes. I mean, we only trot out "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" for a few weeks every year before switching right back to Radiohead or Rihanna.

As sad as it is for Choephel to discover that the traditional Tibetan songs and dances have all but disappeared, this is really just a tangible manifestation of the bigger issue - the oppression of the Tibetan people by the Chinese government. Though purportedly this film is about music, hearing about riots and protests and tales of resistance interests me far more than Tibetan throat singing.

As documentaries go, "Tibet in Song" is a bit uneven, but it's about such a sympathetic subject and Choephel went through so much to make it that it's hard to resist grading it on a curve. I think serving 6 1/2 years in a Chinese prison deserves an extra tomato.