新书推介 · NEW BOOK

歌曲出海，翻译的不只是歌词

陈恒汉、陈佳卉英文专著 Transmusic Soundwaves 出版

CPCL Academic Monograph · 2026

一首华语歌被译成另一种语言、在另一片土地上被传唱，发生的远不止“换一种语言唱”。华侨大学外国语学院陈恒汉教授与研究生陈佳卉合著的英文学术专著 Transmusic Soundwaves: Translation and Communication of Contemporary Overseas Chinese Pop Songs（中文可译作《跨乐声波：当代海外华语流行歌曲的翻译与传播》），由香港开元出版有限公司（Creative Publishing Co., Limited，CPCL）出版。全书以“翻译”为经、“传播”为纬，回应封面上的那个问题。

ENGLISH

When a Chinese song is carried into another language and sung in another land, far more changes than the words. Transmusic Soundwaves: Translation and Communication of Contemporary Overseas Chinese Pop Songs, an English-language monograph by Professor Henghan Chen and graduate researcher Jiahui Chen of the College of Foreign Languages, Huaqiao University, is published by Creative Publishing Co., Limited (CPCL) in Hong Kong. With translation as its warp and communication as its weft, the book takes up the question printed on its cover.

歌曲跨越国界时，随之远行的还有什么？

When songs cross borders, what travels with them?

四十年，歌声在路上Forty Years of Songs on the Move

从1980年代费翔翻唱《故乡的云》、在1987年央视春晚唱响《冬天里的一把火》，到2000年前后“天王天后”群星闪耀，再到2020年代刘宪华用多语言、多乐器、多媒介重新演绎华语金曲，海外华人对当代华语流行音乐的贡献有目共睹。这四十年既是一部音乐翻译史，也是一部社会交往与文化交流史，系统的学术考察却不多。

作者注意到两种“错位”：国内流行音乐研究往往“重文本、轻语境”，热衷分析歌词和旋律，很少追问一首歌在跨国流动中如何被重新编码、重新理解；翻译研究则常把“音乐翻译”窄化为歌词的字面转换。本书把翻译理解为跨语言实践和“再语境化”：歌词的语际翻译、同一语言在不同地区之间的语内改编、音乐与画面等非音乐符号之间的符际转换，三者交织，构成书名所说的“跨乐声波”。

ENGLISH

From Fei Xiang's covers of “Clouds of My Hometown” and “A Fire in Winter” (sung at the 1987 CCTV Spring Festival Gala), through the “Pop Kings and Queens” who dominated the decade around 2000, to Henry Lau's multilingual, multi-instrumental reinterpretations of Chinese classics in the 2020s, overseas Chinese have helped shape contemporary Chinese pop for four decades. That history is one of musical translation as much as of cultural exchange, yet it has seldom been studied systematically.

The authors point to two blind spots. Popular-music research in China has been “text-heavy, context-light”, reading lyrics and melodies without asking how songs are re-encoded as they travel, while translation studies has often reduced music translation to the literal conversion of lyrics. The book treats translation instead as cross-lingual practice and recontextualization: interlingual translation of lyrics, intralingual adaptation of one language across regions, and intersemiotic transfer between music and non-musical signs. Together these make up the “transmusic soundwaves” of the title.

“跨乐”：读懂一首歌的六种关系The Transmusical Paradigm

英语初学者熟悉的《字母歌》和童谣《小星星》是同一段旋律，它还可以追溯到莫扎特根据法国民歌 Ah! vous dirai-je, maman 所作的变奏曲。音乐和文学一样，处处有“互文”。

在热奈特（Gérard Genette）“跨文本性”理论和拉卡斯（Serge Lacasse）流行音乐互文模型的基础上，陈恒汉在2024年4月发表于《中国社会科学报》的文章中提出华语流行歌曲互文性研究的“跨乐”范式，本书作了系统阐发：凡在一首音乐与其他音乐之间建立显性或隐性联系的要素，都属于“跨乐性”。范式分音乐“内部”和“外部”两个层面，各有三种关系：

作者强调，这些关系在具体作品中往往层层叠加，需要整体地看，而不是孤立地套用术语。

ENGLISH

The “Alphabet Song” and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” share one melody, which goes back to Mozart's variations on the French song Ah! vous dirai-je, maman. Music, like literature, is full of intertextuality.

Building on Gérard Genette's theory of transtextuality and Serge Lacasse's intertextual model for recorded popular music, Henghan Chen proposed a “transmusical” paradigm for Chinese pop in an April 2024 article in Chinese Social Sciences Today, and the book develops it in full. Transmusicality covers every element that links one piece of music, overtly or covertly, to other music. The paradigm distinguishes three relations inside the music (intermusicality, hypermusicality, polymusicality) and three outside it (paramusicality, comusicality, metamusicality). In real songs they usually overlap and are best read together.

八位歌手，逐首试译Eight Artists, Song by Song

第四章选取陶喆、王力宏、孙燕姿、梁静茹、林俊杰、方大同、刘宪华、于文文八位歌手的代表作品，以彼得·洛（Peter Low）的歌曲翻译“五项全能原则”——意义、可唱性、自然度、节奏、押韵——为主要框架，结合目的论和接受美学，逐首做英译实践与分析。几个细节：

• 《龙的传人》中“巨龙脚底下我成长”译作 I grew up beneath the dragon's wing，保住了“龙”的意象，英文也读得顺。
• 为守住旋律的节奏框架，译者会压缩非核心成分，比如把“想跟我吵架”压成 Wanna pick a fight，让英文音节数与原词大致相当，歌手不必加快语速。
• 孙燕姿的成名曲《天黑黑》，本身就改编自一首闽南童谣。
• 方大同以 R&B 和灵魂乐为底色、以中文为主要创作语言；2016年他创立厂牌 Fu Music，以《西游记》为概念推出专辑《JTW 西游》，他的创作本身就是一场东西方之间的“文化翻译”。
• 林俊杰从翻译自己的歌走向中英双语原创。书中认为，这是从“用翻译减少文化折扣”走向“用原创避免文化折扣”。

ENGLISH

Chapter 4 works through representative songs by David Tao, Leehom Wang, Stefanie Sun, Fish Leong, JJ Lin, Khalil Fong, Henry Lau and Kelly Yu, using Peter Low's “Pentathlon Principle” (sense, singability, naturalness, rhythm and rhyme) alongside Skopos theory and reception aesthetics. A few moments from the case studies:

• In “Descendants of the Dragon”, 巨龙脚底下我成长 becomes “I grew up beneath the dragon's wing”, keeping the dragon while reading naturally in English.
• To hold a melody's rhythmic frame, the translators trim non-core words: 想跟我吵架 becomes “Wanna pick a fight”, keeping the English syllable count close to the original so the singer need not rush.
• Stefanie Sun's breakthrough single “Cloudy Day” (天黑黑) is itself an adaptation of a Hokkien nursery rhyme.
• Khalil Fong kept R&B and soul as his foundation and Chinese as his language; in 2016 he founded the label Fu Music and built the album JTW Journey to the West around the classical novel, an act of cultural translation in its own right.
• JJ Lin's move from translating his songs to writing bilingual originals marks, in the book's terms, a shift from reducing “cultural discount” through translation to avoiding it through original creation.

翻译、改编、再创作Translate, Adapt, Reinvent

书中把华语歌“出海”概括为三条递进的路径：翻译解决“听得懂”，改编解决“愿意听”，再创作解决“进得了市场”。

• 改编
  ：2005年，挪威歌手 Lene Marlin 把王菲的《我愿意》改编成英文歌 Still Here；近年，印尼歌手 Putri Ariani 演唱印尼语版《一路生花》，法国歌手 Aili 亲自参与法语歌词改编，演绎《Mojito》《青花瓷》《茉莉花》。改编版走红后，常常把听众引回中文原曲。
• 再创作
  ：2025年，《跳楼机》以一段旋律为“母版”，为不同市场推出东南亚舞曲版、粤语对唱版、英文版等多个版本；《大展鸿图》采样1950年代粤剧《帝女花》片段，配上嘻哈节奏和舞蹈，几乎没有刻意“翻译”，却在海外短视频平台引发各国网友的舞蹈挑战。
• “空耳传播”
  ：海外网友用发音相近的英文词记下中文歌词、拍对口型视频，先因好玩而转发，再回头查原意，“先翻译、后传播”的顺序被倒了过来。

书中认为，这些做法正汇合成一套“版本化运营”的方法：把一首好歌当作 IP，做多语种、多版本、多市场的开发，从“单曲出海”走向“生态出海”。

ENGLISH

The book frames the global outreach of Chinese pop as three progressive pathways: translation overcomes the barrier of understanding, adaptation the barrier of willingness to listen, and reinvention the barrier of the market.

• Adaptation.
   In 2005 the Norwegian singer Lene Marlin released “Still Here”, an English version of Faye Wong's “I'm Willing”. More recently the Indonesian singer Putri Ariani recorded an Indonesian version of “Blossom All the Way”, and the French singer Aili has helped write French lyrics for “Mojito”, “Blue and White Porcelain” and “Jasmine Flower”. Popular adaptations often lead listeners back to the Chinese originals.
• Reinvention.
   In 2025 “Bungee Jumping Machine” (跳楼机) used one melody as a master copy for several market versions, including a Southeast Asian dance version, a Cantonese duet and an English version. “Great Aspirations” (大展鸿图) sampled the 1950s Cantonese opera The Princess Changping over a hip-hop beat and, with almost no translation at all, set off dance challenges on overseas short-video platforms.
• Mondegreen dissemination.
   Overseas users transcribe Chinese lyrics with English words that sound alike and make lip-sync videos. They share first and look up the meaning later, reversing the old order of “translate, then disseminate”.

These practices, the authors argue, are converging into “version-based operation”: treating a strong song as intellectual property to be developed across languages, versions and markets, and moving from single songs going global to an ecosystem going global.

四点发现Four Findings

1. 歌曲翻译是一种动态平衡。
   “五项全能原则”适用于华语歌，但需要补上“声调适配”和“文化意象传递”两个维度，还要照顾短视频碎片化传播的语境。书中观察到：歌名翻译多用归化，好懂、上口，承担“入口”作用；歌词正文则尽量保留月亮、山水、流年等意象，让听众听出“不一样的声音”。
2. 传播格局从“港台中心辐射”转向“全球节点扩散”。
   流媒体和短视频让个人创作者可以直达全球听众。
3. 流行音乐是海外华人身份认同的“情感连接器”。
   从1980年代新加坡“新谣”运动中的华语焦虑，到今天海外华人对“过年”“祈福”题材的共鸣，歌声提供了一种可以随身携带的文化归属感。
4. 翻译、改编、再创作正汇聚为“版本化运营”。
   这为华语流行音乐走向世界提供了一条可复制的产业路径。

ENGLISH

1. Song translation is a dynamic balance.
    The Pentathlon Principle works for Chinese songs but needs two further dimensions, tonal adaptation and the transmission of cultural imagery, as well as attention to short-video contexts. Song titles tend to be domesticated so they work as an easy “gateway”, while lyric bodies keep images such as the moon, mountains and waters, and the passing years.
2. Dissemination has shifted from a center to a network.
    Radiation out of a Hong Kong–Taiwan center has given way to diffusion through global nodes, as streaming and short video give individual creators direct access to listeners everywhere.
3. Pop music is an “emotional connector” for overseas Chinese identity.
    From the Chinese-language anxieties of Singapore's Xinyao movement in the 1980s to today's resonance with songs about the New Year and prayers for blessings, it offers a portable sense of cultural belonging.
4. Translation, adaptation and reinvention are converging into version-based operation,
    a replicable industrial pathway for Chinese pop to reach global audiences.

几条建议Recommendations

针对译本质量参差、传播碎片化、专业支撑不足等问题，书中建议：

• 分层翻译：面向东南亚华人社区推出保留完整意象的双语版本，面向海外华裔青年推出附简短文化注释的版本，面向外国听众推出兼顾可唱性与文化内涵的本地化改编版。
• 由高校翻译专业、华文研究机构与海外华人社团合作，开设公益译配工作坊，形成参考译本和译配规范。
• 探索“音乐+文旅”，以城市风光、非遗等为题材创作歌曲，再由海外华人译者做多语种传播。
• 为草根译者建立荣誉激励和版权保护。
• 鼓励华语音乐人培养中英“双语创作”能力。

对人工智能，书中的判断很清醒：AI 可以当“术语核对员”和“基础句生成器”，但音节与旋律的对位、押韵和情感分寸，仍要靠译者反复试听、试唱来完成，“人机协作”才是方向。

ENGLISH

To address uneven translation quality, fragmented dissemination and thin professional support, the authors recommend:

• tiered translations: bilingual versions with full imagery for Southeast Asian Chinese communities, versions with brief cultural notes for young overseas Chinese, and singable localized adaptations for international listeners;
• volunteer translation workshops that bring together university translation programs, Chinese studies centers and overseas Chinese associations to produce reference translations and shared norms;
• “music + cultural tourism” projects that commission songs about city landscapes and intangible cultural heritage for multilingual release;
• recognition and copyright protection for grassroots translators;
• bilingual songwriting skills for Chinese musicians.

On artificial intelligence the book is clear-eyed: AI can serve as a “terminology verifier” and “basic sentence generator”, but fitting syllables to melody, finding rhymes and judging emotional nuance still depend on translators who listen, sing and revise. Human–machine collaboration is the way forward.

关于作者About the Authors

陈恒汉陈恒汉，华侨大学外国语学院教授、译审，硕士生导师，翻译系主任，兼任剑桥大学考试委员会BEC考官，教育部学位与研究生论文评审专家，福建省高校人文社会科学研究基地“中外文学与翻译研究中心”成员，福建省外文学会理事，“闽侨智库”泉州委员会成员等。曾任剑桥ESOL外语考评部华南区培训师、新加坡国立大学亚洲研究所合作研究员。主要从事社会语言学、翻译传播学、文化软实力和国别区域研究，并涉猎文艺创作、评论等。在国内外学术刊物发表论文60余篇，在《联合早报》《南洋商报》等报纸发表评论若干，文章收录于“中国社会科学网”等。主持教育部、中国外文局、福建省社科等各级科研课题20项，出版著作18部，包括专著《语言的流播和变异：以东南亚为观察点》等6部，评论《为了忘却的记录》等3部，教材《剑桥商务英语BEC中级快捷之路》等4部，随笔《走读亚细安——境外田野工作11地》，译著《深海的珍珠——英语诗歌译鉴99篇》等，另有电子出版物诗、文集各1卷以及词曲唱作光盘等。曾获福建省第四、六届高等教育科学优秀论文奖（2005，2011）；泉州市第三、四届社会科学优秀成果奖（2008，2011）；联校教育社科医学研究论文奖（2009）；华侨大学第八、十届教学成果奖（2017，2020）等。指导学生获得全国大学生英语竞赛、全国英语写作大赛、全国口译大赛、全国科技翻译大赛、福建省大学生商务谈判比赛、华侨大学优秀本科/硕士论文等奖项。

陈佳卉　华侨大学外国语学院研究生，研究兴趣为翻译研究、文学与音乐研究、跨文化传播，曾参加福建省外国语文学会年会、华侨大学“研究生论坛”等学术活动。

ENGLISH

Henghan Chen is a Professor and Senior Translator at the College of Foreign Languages, Huaqiao University in China, where he serves as a Graduate Supervisor and Head of the Department of Translation and Interpreting. He is also a Cambridge BEC examiner nominated by UCLES, a council member of the Fujian Foreign Languages and Literature Association, and a member of the Quanzhou Committee of “Minqiao Think Tank”. His research focuses on sociolinguistics, translation and communication studies, cultural soft power and area studies, with additional interests in literary and artistic criticism.

Jiahui Chen is a graduate student at the College of Foreign Languages, Huaqiao University in China. Her research interests include translation studies, literature and music studies and cross-cultural communication. She has taken part in academic events such as the Annual Conference of the Fujian Foreign Languages and Literature Association and the “Graduate Forum” at Huaqiao University.

后记：一个夏日午后Afterword: A Summer Afternoon

书稿完成于一个炎热而安静的夏日午后。陈恒汉在后记里写道，敲下最后一个字后，他用手机播放孙燕姿的《天黑黑》，接着是许美静的《阳光总在风雨后》。多年前南洋之行的记忆与眼前的校园生活叠在一起，专业理解遇上日常经验，在他看来，这正是“跨乐”最平常、也最动人的样子。这本书，献给所有在异乡用母语歌唱的人。

ENGLISH

The manuscript was finished on a hot, still summer afternoon. In the afterword, Henghan Chen recalls playing Stefanie Sun's “Cloudy Day” and then Mavis Hee's “Sunshine After the Rain” on his phone, as memories of a journey to Nanyang years earlier merged with everyday campus life. That, he writes, is transmusicality at its most ordinary and most moving. The book is dedicated to all those who sing in their mother tongue in foreign lands.

阅读全书Read the Book

全书可免费在线阅读、下载 PDF。点击文末“阅读原文”即可进入本书主页，也可以在浏览器里打开：book.cpcl.hk/978-988-79866-2-1书页还提供 APA、MLA、Chicago、GB/T 7714、BibTeX、RIS 六种引用格式。

ENGLISH

The full book is free to read and download as a PDF. Tap “Read more” at the end of this post, or visit book.cpcl.hk/978-988-79866-2-1. The book page also offers citations in APA, MLA, Chicago, GB/T 7714, BibTeX and RIS.

引用本书 · How to cite

APA 7　Chen, H., & Chen, J. (2026). Transmusic soundwaves: Translation and communication of contemporary overseas Chinese pop songs. Creative Publishing Co., Limited. https://doi.org/10.6914/978-988-79866-2-1

GB/T 7714　CHEN H H, CHEN J H. Transmusic soundwaves: translation and communication of contemporary overseas Chinese pop songs[M]. Hong Kong: Creative Publishing Co., Limited, 2026. DOI:10.6914/978-988-79866-2-1.

本书主页（免费全文）｜Book page：https://book.cpcl.hk/978-988-79866-2-1/DOI：https://doi.org/10.6914/978-988-79866-2-1出版｜Publisher：开元出版有限公司 Creative Publishing Co., Limited（CPCL®）· 香港