Cheng Fangyuan

"Follow Every Rainbow Till You Find Your Dream"
Yu Qing, CCN

“Follow Every Rainbow till You Find Your Dream” - That’s the lyric from the song titled “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” in The Sound of Music, first released in the middle 1960s. That is over forty years ago. Some fans described the musical as “the happiest sound in the world and quite possibly and easily the most famous musical film in the history of Hollywood !”
Whether you agree or not, the musical did travel to China in the early 1980s. The person who introduced the songs to a Chinese audience was a girl named “Cheng Fangyuan” or China’s Julie Andrews, with a natural and unique voice.
In fact, Cheng taught herself singing. She even taught herself how to play guitar and speak English in the early 1980s when few people could speak English in China.
Cheng followed her rainbow, and found her dream in the end. A self taught singer, she is now one of the top Chinese performers listed in the “Century Music Album” in China. She is now a voice professor at the Central Conservatory of Music in China, and her voice can still be heard from her CDs, a part of the Chinese Century Music Collections.
Cheng enrolled in the Central Conservatory of Music at the age of sixteen, with a major in Erhu, an ancient two-string Chinese musical instrument. She found her passion in singing, however. So she followed her rainbow by teaching herself singing.
In the early 1980s, it was a rare sight in China to see the image of a Chinese girl who sang English songs, playing guitar, with the touch of a free spirit on a big stage. China had little Western influence at that time after three decades of “closed door” policy.
It is Cheng who made the “Do-Re-Mi” a household sound among the Chinese. Ask any Chinese you met, and ask them to sing the song. I bet that they could do it for its simple pleasure and delightfulness.
Cheng’s voice is natural and soothing to the ear and her style is one of a kind, refreshing and inspiring. Cheng has won numerous awards, including being twice nominated as one of the top ten voices in China in the 80s; and in 1993, she was nominated as the “most popular singer” in a country with over one billion audience. A singer, musician, movie actress, song writer, and professor, Cheng’s songs have enduring qualities. In life, Cheng is a soft-spoken person with a gentle soul.