Girl superpower
BY Liivi Sandy
Photography courtesy Ember Swift
Canadian independent artist Ember Swift always dreamed of going to China, but a successful music career got in the way—until this year. Swift, who took Asian studies at the University of Toronto, and wrote her undergraduate thesis on the role of women in Chinese music, spent three months in China—mostly in Beijing—studying the newly emerging feminist music scene there.
Her research wasn’t intended to draw conclusions, but rather to witness what is happening musically with women in China. While there, she interviewed about 15 female artists, including a member of the first all-female rock band, Cobra. “It was amazing to see a shift in culture,” Swift says. “China is rising to the global stage, and to see Chinese artists emerging is really beautiful.”
Traditionally, it’s been difficult for female musicians in China to assert their talent, and Chinese women are only just beginning to fi nd their place as rock and pop musicians, with the help of the internet and other media. Lesbian artist Qiao Qiao, for example, recently released a song on YouTube despite the country’s repressive attitudes toward homosexuality.
Swift, an Ontario born singer/songwriter with nine albums to her credit, was considered something of a role model to the women she met, but the 33 year old got something musical out of her stay, too. She wrote a few songs in Mandarin and picked up new tones and pitches unique to the Chinese scale. “I fell in love with the energy there,” she says. “I think the next body of work I put together will reflect that.”
