KTV Wednesday - Wang Fei - Nothing Remains

Written and composed by Wang Fei herself, Nothing Remains may just be the best song to come out of the Beijing rock scene in the first half of this decade. So if by Gods you have not yet heard it we order you to drop everything and listen. In turns plaintive and heartbreakingly lovely, Nothing Remains tells the feelings of a woman torn between two lovers. Pushing far beyond the limited emotional range of most contemporary pop, this song is bleak but filled with as much love as grief. It will make you glad you're learning mandarin:

What can we say about this that isn't better communicated by repeat listening? Since a lot of intermediate students have trouble with the proper use of 把, the obvious thing is pointing out the 把...给 structure that frames almost every single line in the song. This allows us to put the object before the verb, as with the English sentence, "I took the song and listened (to it)." If you're having trouble picking this up by ear, become a premium subscriber for full access to our manually annotated online transcripts.

Note: our embedded video is being hosted courtesy Youtube. If you're in China you can see the same video here on Youku.