Before he directed Where Have All the Flowers Gone, Gao Xiaosong was a renowned pop songwriter who established his name in the 1990s.
"Tongzhuo de Ni(My Deskmate)," a song written in 1992, was Gao's first attempt.
The song was written about a university graduate, who recalls his love for a girl sitting next to him at university.
The lyrics are in plain spoken-language, but the melody is fresh, pure and conveys slight distress.
Released in 1993, the song, sung by Lao Lang, was a great hit across the country among young people, especially university students.
In the following years, Gao continued to write about 30 songs, which were all welcomed by pop song fans.
Besides "My Deskmate," Gao's another famous work is "The Brother on My Upper Berth," which is about friendship between university roommates.
Most of Gao's songs have the following keywords: youth, love, friendship, beauty and desolation.
Using sentimental and graceful words, Gao combined these elements with fresh and pure melodies in his hits.
In the late 1990s, the songs were frequently heard on the campuses of many Chinese universities.
Pop music critics even gave Gao's songs a name, "Campus Ballads," and claimed that it was a new genre of pop music.
The popularity of Gao Xiaosong's songs also led many students to write their own.
Even today, there are so-called "campus singers" at universities.
Many have long hair, play guitar and sing songs they have written.
Gao himself was a "campus singer" at the prestigious Tsinghua University, one of the top universities in China.
In 1988, Gao was admitted by the department of wireless technology at Tsinghua after graduating from the Beijing No. 4 Middle School, one of the best high schools in Beijing.
At Tsinghua, Gao organized a student band called "Bronze."
In 1990, Gao dropped out of Tsinghua, realizing that being a scientist was not the life he wanted.
The Tsinghua dropout then opened an advertising company and began the practice of shooting TV commercials, through which he accumulated experience for shooting Where Have All the Flowers Gone.
Then in 1993, together with Lao Lang, he became famous with his hit songs.
But the versatile artist with broad interests was never faithful to any medium.
Between 1997 and 1998 he turned to writing and wrote a novel, The Faces Written on the Wall.
Gao had also planned for a long time to make films.
As early as in 1994 he conceived the script for Where Have All the Flowers Gone.
Then in 1999, Gao met Chen Ziqiu, the head of the Beijing-based DMVE Cultural Development Co Ltd, who was very interested in Gao's scenario and decided to invest in it.
Gao said much of what he tries to express is quite intangible and abstract.
But his style of evoking fleeting images and his use of suggestion has proved very compelling in both his music, novel and movie.
Brought up in a well-off family with intellectual backgrounds, Gao joked that he was a dandy.
"I have proved that a dandy can also turn out good artistic works," he said.
(China Daily August 5, 2002)
