According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of “musician” is “a composer, conductor, or performer of music”. The definition of “composer” is “one that composes, especially a person who writes music”. In addition, the definition of suffix “-an” by Merriam-Webster is: “-an” is a noun suffix with variation of “-ian” or “-ean” (Merriam-Webster, 2020). There are two definitions to the noun suffix “-an”. The first is “one that is of or relating to”, such as “American”; The second is “one skilled in or specializing in”, such as “phonetician”. Therefore “musician” or “composer” are words which describe a person who is skilled in specific areas, same as words of other professions, such as “electrician”. The suffix “-an” is quite similar to another noun suffix “-er”, whose top meaning is “person occupationally connected with”, such as “lawyer” or “engineer”.
discussion, it took me some time to really understand what those words meant in the western cultural context and how their meanings are different
and have high virtuosity” (Baidu, 2020). Because the word “家jia” means “one who has mastered one type of skills that is way above his peers” (Baidu, Baidu Baike_jia, 2020). Not only high virtuosity is one standard for a “musician” (“音乐家”) in Chinese, also a “musician” (“音乐家”) in Chinese tend to be the musicians in the field of classical music, such as Bach or Beethoven. Same as the definition of “musician” (“音乐家”), “composer” (“作曲家”) also has the similar meaning when it is translated into Chinese: “one who composes music and has high achievement” (Baidu, Baidu
The Chinese translation of “musician” is “音乐家”(yin yue jia), it means “people who specialize in music activities, are successful,
Research (Lado, 1979) shows the surface and immediate translation would generates more errors than the translation through deep translation by unskilled translator.
“artist” could help to explain why. “Artist”, in Merriam-Webster, can mean two things: “one who professes and practices an imaginative art” or “a person skilled in one of the fine arts”. One emphasizes “imaginative art” as in creativity, while the other emphasizes “skills”. The Chinese translation of “musician” or “composer” has adopted the first definition of “artist” while the western definition might not have that
On top of the early misunderstanding of the difference in the meaning of the words when translated, there is another reason that prevented me as a musician from claiming myself as a “musician”, a “singer,” or a “pianist”. I refer here to the Chinese social custom of addressing oneself with a modest title and to address others with honorific titles. For example, a self-introduction in Chinese from a musician like myself would be, “I sing and I play some piano and I write some music as well” (“我唱歌，而且弹一点钢琴，也写一些音乐”). In this kind of Chinese context, musicians of course would not address themselves as a singer or pianist with very high virtuosity as in “音乐家” “歌唱家” and “钢琴家”, just like musicians in the west would do. And musicians might address themselves as “音乐人” “歌手” “钢琴演奏者” in an official occasion, but as a casual self-introduction, musicians would avoid putting titles on themselves. Instead, a musician would choose to describe what they do, such as “I play saxophone”, or “I play violin”. And to make it sound even more modest, one would add the word “some” into the sentence, “I play some saxophone” (“我吹一点萨克斯风”).
difference in culture background created confusion for me and for others at the beginning of my studies. For me, I was, on one hand, intimidated by other musician’s confidence, and on the other thought it was sometimes an abuse in using abovementioned words due to my own misunderstanding. For others, I appeared to be not confident about what
I do, which might be ok at first in the Finnish cultural context, but might also lead to loss of collaboration
translation of “音乐人” in Chinese), which could be considered as a closest translation for “musician” in Chinese, however not entirely covering the meaning of “musician” in English. First, “音乐人” usually means “music producer or song-writer”. Second, “音乐人” is mostly used in popular music genres. The broader definition of “音乐人” can also mean musicians other than producer or song-writer, but it is also often used to collectively describe a group of musicians rather than
used for individuals. (Baidu, Baidu Baike_yinyueren, 2020)For musicians other than producer or song-writer, they are usually addressed by their own professional titles, such as a “singer”.
A “pianist” in Chinese is “钢琴家”, it means that a piano player who is good and recognized by the public can then be called a pianist. The translation of “piano player” in Chinese is “钢琴演奏者”, which is closer to the meaning of the English word “pianist”. One proof of the difference is the movie “The Pianist” in 2002, which has been translated as “钢琴家”. Even “钢琴演奏者” (“piano player”) is often associated with “钢琴演奏家” which often means classical concert piano player who has high virtuosity in piano playing.
The Chinese translation of the word “singer” also has the same difference. “歌唱家” is “a singer, that is a master in the art of singing, who has a superb singing standard, a deep artistic standard, a noble moral culture, and are loved and welcomed by the broad masses of the people.” (Baidu, Baidu Baike_gechangjia, 2020). Another word that is much closer to the meaning of English word “singer” is “歌手”, which is usually used in pop genres. Highly successful singing artists can be addressed as “歌唱家” but not “歌手” because “歌手” is not matching their status. “歌手” are “ordinary” singers or pop singers.