"Mo Li Hua" (Chinese: 茉莉花; pinyin: Mòlìhuā or Mòlihuā^[a][1]; lit. 'Jasmine Flower'^[b], also called Sinfa^[2]) is a Chinese folk song of the "xiaoqu" ("short song") tune type genre, hailing from the Jiangnan region which encompasses the lower banks of the Yangtze river around Suzhou, Shanghai and Hangzhou.^[3][4] The song has been typically dated back to the 18th century to the reign of the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty though some scholars have argued that the lyrics predate the Qing dynasty entirely and possibly hail from the Ming era.^[5] Over time, many regional variations were created, and the song gained popularity both in China and abroad.^[6]

The modern notation of the folk song was first transcribed in writing in the West by the British diplomat John Barrow, an assistant attache to George Macartney, documenting the tune during the Macartney diplomatic mission to the imperial court of Qianlong in 1793. His publication of the song in 1804 in Europe propelled it to a "grand entrance on the world stage" and gained it "widespread international popularity" according to ethnomusicology scholar Frederick Lau.^[5]

The song was adapted in performances such as that of the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's final opera, Turandot, set in Imperial China, where the tune served as the leitmotif for the titular fairy-tale Chinese princess.^[7][5] The tune has been adapted and referenced in "various traditional Chinese and international music concert circuits, concerts by pop bands and solo singers, scholarly debates, new choral arrangements, and state-sponsored events as an emblem of national pride"^[8] and has often been hailed a "significant national musical and cultural icon" of China akin to that of Korea's Arirang and Japan's Sakura Sakura.^[9]

It has been used during events such as the 2004 Summer Olympics, 2008 Summer Olympics and 2010 Shanghai Expo opening ceremony, and the Hong Kong and Macau handovers. During the 2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests, it was used in reference to the Jasmine Revolutions, as a deniable and hard-to-block way of expressing support for democracy.^[10][11][12]

The song has been generally cited to originate during the Qianlong era (1735–1796) of the Qing dynasty,^[3] though ethnomusicologist Frederick Lau has noted that "we now know that the earliest “Molihua” lyrics appeared during the Ming dynasty Wanli period (1563–1620)."^[5] There are several regional versions of the song,^{[13][14]: 84–} with different lyrics and melody.^{[15]: 46–} One version of the song describes a custom of giving jasmine flowers, popular in the southern Yangtze delta region of China.^[3] Another, longer version describes the fear of plucking the flower.^{[15]: 46– [14]: 81–82} Through these variations, the song has also been called "Xiao Hua Diao" ("Fresh Flower Melody") and in northern China, the song is sometimes called “La Mei Hua” ("Waxed Plum Blossom") or “Yu Mei Hua” ("Jade Plum Blossom").^[5] The song descends from the "xiaoqu/xiaodiao" tune type genre, which have the characteristics of being "usually multistanza in form and with uniform phrase structures and equal numbers of words."^[5] It has been played on ancient metal bells (bianzhong) and modern jade chimes.^[4] It uses the five note (pentatonic) scale ubiquitous in Chinese music. The tune is one of xiaodiao ("short tunes"), popular in Chinese urban areas.^[16] In 1804 a British diplomat, John Barrow, noted that the tune seemed to be one of the most popular songs in China.^{[14]: 84–}

The song became one of the first Chinese folk songs to become widely known outside China.^{[14]: 81–82} The song was also analyzed in the unfinished three volume work of the 19th century Austrian-Czech music historian August Wilhelm Ambros, "History of Music," who remarks on the musical leaps within the melody.^[17] As such, the melody had already become well known among Western listeners when it was used by Giacomo Puccini in his opera Turandot (1926), boy choir air "Là, sui monti dell'est", where it is associated with 'Turandot's splendor'.^{[3][4][18][19]}

In 1982 the song found a place on a UNESCO list of recommended songs.^{[14]: 84–} When China regained sovereignty of Macau and Hong Kong, in 1999 and 1997, respectively, this music was played in the ceremonies. The song was said to be a favorite of the former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Jiang Zemin (it was at his request that the song was played during the transfer ceremony in Hong Kong).^[12] The tune was played during Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party meetings,^[20] and was widely used as hold music by provincial government offices.^[21]

During the 2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests, protesters reposted videos of Chinese Communist Party officials singing "Mo Li Hua", and suggested playing it on cell phones as a form of antigovernment protest.^[12][10] The song was placed on authorities' list of online censored materials.^[10] Videos of the song, including at least one from an official event (a 2006 Kenyan students' welcome for Chinese president Hu Jintao, in which he sings the song and explains its importance), were removed from Chinese websites, and searches for the song's name were blocked.^[22] The censorship attracted widespread attention and was difficult because of the popularity of the song and its association with Chinese culture and history.^[11][12] At least one new version of the song, mentioning fear of arrests, has been developed by the activists as a response.^[11][23]

There are several versions of the song, with different lyrics and melody.

One of the popular versions lyrics goes:

Another popular versions' lyrics, with three strophes:^{[15]: 46–}

Anton Arensky arranged the tune in the 1890s.^[25]

Puccini began working on his (ultimately incomplete and final opera piece) Turandot in March 1920 after meeting with librettists Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. In his impatience, he began composition in January 1921, before Adami and Simoni had produced the text for the libretto.^[26] As with Madama Butterfly, Puccini strove for a semblance of authenticity by using music from the region, even commissioning a set of thirteen custom-made gongs.^[27] Baron Edoardo Fassini-Camossi, the former Italian diplomat to China, gave Puccini a music box that played 4 Chinese melodies.^[28] Puccini incorporated three of these melodies into his opera, the most memorable of which is the folk melody "Mo Li Hua."^[29] Mo Li Hua serves as a leitmotif for Princess Turandot's splendor.^[30] In total, eight of the themes from Turandot appear to be based on traditional Chinese music and anthems.^[31]

Music historians have subsequently traced Puccini's fascination with Chinese music that led to the usage of the folk song as "thanks to a music box, coming from a former Italian diplomat who had served in China, which he received as a gift."^[7] W. Anthony Sheppard, Marylin and Arthur Levitt Professor of Music at Williams College has traced this music box to have been likely the source of the Turandot leitmotif.^[32] Sheppard notes that the accompanying music sheets for this music box version which Puccini would have referenced also had mistakenly titled the name of the song as “Sinfa” (“Fresh Flowers”).^[2]

Puccini's Turandot rendition of "Mo Li Hua" has gained its own compositional popularity. The Chinese-American composer Tan Dun's^[33] Symphony 1997, which commemorated the handover of Hong Kong, uses a setting inspired by Puccini's.^[2] His 1990 Nine Songs: Water Spirit performance, where "Mo Li Hua" was referenced, has also been argued by composer Christian Utz to be an evolution upon Puccini's quotated version rather than having drawn from the original folk tune itself.^[33]

At the closing ceremonies of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, Mo Li Hua was sung, partially unaccompanied by a young Chinese girl, and partially accompanied by the music by a Peking University students (whose version has been described as infused with a techno beat), to introduce the next Olympic Games site.^[3][34][35] An adaptation of the melody by Tan Dun and Wang Hesheng, chosen from more than 4,000 pieces, was played during the medal ceremonies at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games as the introductory motif of the victory theme.^[4]

It^[which?] was also performed at the 2010 Shanghai Expo opening ceremony by an orchestra with the pianist Lang Lang.

Mo Li Hua appeared in a 1937 Hollywood movie The Good Earth (based on a novel by Pearl S. Buck).^{[36]: 51–} During World War II, some Hollywood films used the "Mo Li Hua" tune to represent the Chinese.^[2]

The song was also used as a theme in Avatar: The Last Airbender, a 2005-2008 television series.

The song has been adapted by many artists around the world, for example by Kenny G.^{[14]: 84–} The YouTube comments for his performance later became an outlet for Chinese protestors to express support for democracy.^[11]

In 2009, Russian singer Vitas, during the Chinese premiere of his program Sleepless Night, at least has also performed "Mo Li Hua" (never included in digital download until then).^[37]

After the song became an emblem of the 2011 pro-democracy protests,

In 2013, the international Canadian-origin superstar Celine Dion performed the song in Mandarin on the Chinese CCTV-1 as part of its CMG New Year's Gala show welcoming in the 2013 Spring Festival/Chinese New Year. She sang in a duet with Chinese soprano and 2006 Grammy Award nominee classical/folk singer Song Zuying.^[38][39]

Since 2018, Kazakh singer Dimash Qudaibergen has performed this song in Mandarin on four occasions, three years in a row, during New Year and Chinese New Year celebration galas on various TV stations^[40] including a duet with the first Chinese Vocaloid dubbed "Luo Tianyi" as vocalist on 23rd January 2020.^[41][42][43]

In 2018, the song was heard in the beginning of music video of Gluk’oZa and Leningrad’s song “Zhu-Zhu” (“Жу-жу”). The song was also in beginning of music video of 2021 song by Gluk’oZa named “Moths” (“Мотыльки”).

In the 2016 turn-based strategy 4X video game developed by Firaxis Games, Civilization VI, "Mo Li Hua" is the civilization theme for China, progressing from the original melody during the ancient period to a orchestral evolution of the song in the modern period.

• Printable score
• Jasminum sambac, the species of jasmine the song is based on.
• Music of China
• List of Chinese folk songs

^a The song has been mistakenly titled as 魔力紅, which is pronounced similarly.

^b Though most commonly known in English as the Jasmine Flower, the title has also been translated as Beautiful Jasmine Flower^[22] or Such a Beautiful Jasmine.^[10] It has also been transliterated as Mo Li Hua,^[13] Mo-Li Hua,^[18] Moli Hua^{[36]: 83–} and Molihua.^[4]