While the Chinese music scene is still dominated by mainstream music, alternative music is gradually gaining recognition as it continues to flower secretly across the country.

Announcing the arrival of a new music trend, A Wishful Way was released in 2003. By the domestic band Hopscotch, the album was an immediate surprise. Its release marked the first time an English album was released on the Chinese mainland by a domestic band. And their style was so very different from the monotony of mainstream music. They were also different from any of the angry underground metal bands around. More appreciable by young intellectuals, Hopscotch used a mix of Indie-rock and trip-hop.

The title track "A Wishful Way," expresses a feeling of loss, a detachment from reality, and a wish to live in one's own dream world. The main vocal Tian Yuan sings, in lazy and dreamy way, again and again: "I've been waiting all these days. I've been standing all these days, to find it hard to get it through. All I want is a good chance for we can live underground." Let's listen.

Established in 2000, Hopscotch is made up of two members: main vocalist Tian Yuan and guitarist Li Tao. Originally formed by Li Tao and another fellow, the band only began to shine after a high school girl joined in—that was Tian Yuan. Upon the release of their first album A Wishful Way in 2003, the main vocalist was only 17. However, the murky and sophisticated way of singing this vocalist brings to the band doesn't quite match her age. Tian Yuan's haunting, sensitive and even slightly hypnotic voice becomes an attraction.

The ten original scores all written in English also aroused the attention of music critics in addition to the media. However, according to Hopscotch themselves, they didn't intend this to be a selling point. They just felt that sometimes the Chinese language fell short of communicating a certain attractiveness when combined with their melodies; while English just sounded more comfortable, more often. Let's hear another track from the band, entitled "Soldier." It seems this song was composed after they watched some war movie. It communicates a soldier's desperation and hatred for war alongside an aspiration for peace.

And we will conclude our introduction of Hopscotch with another track, called "When I Think Of You." This track is perhaps the only love ballad on the entire album. It tells of the mix of emotions a girl feels when she's in love. Though it says nothing explicitly about the relationship at the center of the song, one gets a strong feeling that the singer has been through a lot with this love. The sensitive girl has a quiet strength and with it she takes in everything that comes along with her relationship--the joys, the sorrows, the moments of feeling wonderful and the invariable moments of disappointment. Enjoy!