China is a vast country with a long history and diverse nationalities, and therefore there are a great number of widespread ballads and folk songs. Among them, Jasmine Flower stands out for its beautiful and catchy tune. It's so popular that nearly everyone can hum along.
Jasmine Flower has been a hit across the country since ancient times. There may be some variations of the ballad, but the version popular in the lower reach of the south of the Yangtze River is the most typical and widely spread. The melodious, elegant and emotional tune is in praise of jasmine flowers, referring to the pure and true love between a man and a woman in an indirect way. Back in the Qianlong Period of the Qing Dynasty, the lyrics of Jasmine Flower was included in Zhuibaiqiu, an anthology of Chinese operas published at that time. This fully demonstrates its long history.
In 1804, John Barrow, the secretary of the first British ambassador to China, especially featured the score of Jasmine Flower in his work Travels in China. The ballad thus became the first Chinese folk song introduced overseas in the form of a publication. It soon got popular in Europe and South America etc.
In 1924, the world-renowned opera master and Italian composer Puccini finished the draft of opera Turandot shortly before he lost his battle with cancer. Set in the Yuan-Dynasty China, the opera created a beautiful yet obdurate princess named Turandot. Puccini made the tune of Jasmine Flower one of the main music elements of the opera and adapted it into a female chorus, giving a Chinese flavor to the Chinese story completely composed and performed by foreigners. In 1926, the debut of the opera was a great success in Italy. After that, the fragrance of Chinese Jasmine Flower drifted to a wider area along with the popularity of the classical opera.
Related English Chinese translation：
再次听到《好一朵美丽的茉莉花》的悠扬曲调，我感觉宋祖英献唱的这第一首歌，抒情、动人，富有独特的韵味。这也是晚会的主旋律，主持节目的杨澜打趣说，宋祖英就是来自中国的一朵茉莉花。舞台上方是宋的拼音“SONG”，字母O中是三个楷体汉字“茉莉花”。SONG，在英文中是歌曲的意思，一语双关，确实巧妙。
按中国民歌研究学者乔建中考证，早在18世纪中叶出版的戏曲剧本集《缀白球》中，就记载了茉莉花的歌词。英国地理学家约翰•巴罗1804年所著的《中国旅行》一书中，将《茉莉花》最早介绍给了西方。意大利作曲家普契尼在创作以中国公主为主人公的歌剧《图兰朵》时，采用了《茉莉花》，这才让这首中国民歌广为世界所知。
《茉莉花》，成了中国音乐和中国的象征。这几年中国对外文化交流中的频繁演唱，更使这首歌为外国人所知晓、吟唱。一些外国有心人也分析，中国人喜欢在国外演唱《茉莉花》，因为它旋律优美平和，符合中国人“以柔克刚”的个性，在文化交往中也显示了中国的“和平发展”、“和谐社会”的理念，是对付威胁论的一个有效手段。
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