History of the CFC/Wawasee Blues Band
According to some Sino-ethnomusicologists, the musical tradition known in the United States as “The Blues” can be traced to various Chinese opera themes of the early-to-mid 19th century in Beijing, Shanghai, and other provincial musical sources. A variety of tunes and themes popular in Qing (and possibly earlier) dynasties were re-purposed by a number of American and British Sino-ethnomusicologist artists, such as Elvis Presley or the Beatles (refer to the video linked below for an example).
The following videos and photos show some of the research and performance work being done at Chinese Family Camp to recover and re-appropriate these classic Chinese works, restoring the original dynastic lyrics and themes. This webpage will document our ongoing research on Imperial Chinese blues/rock classics, including:
“Sweet Sour Pork” (later made famous in the west by Neil Diamond as “Sweet Caroline“) – research by Uncle Mark Chow
“General Tso’s Chicken” (repurposed by Lieber & Stoller into “Riot in Cell Block #9“) – research by Uncle Allen Yang
“CFC” (re-used by the Beatles under the title “Yesterday” – view the Wawasee Blues Band version YouTube video below)
“Chicken Cashew” (re-interpreted by the band Climax as “Precious and Few“)
The Wawasee Blues Research Consortium in their Cedar Lake/Northwestern Indiana premiere performance at CFC in 2022.
Behind-the-Scenes Sino-blues research work
Prof. Allen and Prof. Steve analyzing the Camp Song and its uncanny similarities with late Tang Dynasty tone poems.
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