Music Talks

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. At Nanchang Hangkong University in Jiangxi Province, a group of foreign students have formed a band named after the initiative. In this episode, the band's vocalist Daniel from Tanzania, drummer Nyasha and backup singer Ollie from Zimbabwe join us and share some of their songs.

Paying it forward is a way to pass acts of kindness on to others. Wang Qian is a zither instrumentalist and an educator with the Central Conservatory of Music. In recent years, she has been dedicated to giving back to society with the power of music, as she believes the role of modern musicians is not solely about making music, but also about inspiring others and broadening their horizons.

May 1 marks International Workers' Day, an annual holiday to pay tribute to the laborers around the world. Gucang, previously known as the New Workers, is a band based in Beijing. What's special about this band is that this troupe is largely comprised of former migrant workers and has sung solely for laborers over the past two decades. In this episode, vocalists of the band, Xu Duo and Lu Liang, j...

April 24 marks the Space Day of China, an annual occasion to commemorate the country's achievements in space exploration. To pay tribute to human's space exploration endeavors, musicians from China and Iceland have joined hands and created a theme song titled Space Fantasia. In this episode, Icelandic musician Doctor Victor, Chinese pop singer Nerissa Wang and guzheng player Luan Siyuan, aka Lucy,...

Since 2019, Hao Sa, a Chinese instrumentalist with the Beijing Peking Opera Theatre, has been diligent in incorporating more Chinese classical instruments into the Peking opera ensemble, more specifically the seven-stringed zither and the Chinese hammered-dulcimer. Today, Hao shares with us how and why she has been pivotal in spreading these ancient cultural performance arts to a larger audience.

The Chinese classic "Flowing Water" is played with one of the oldest Chinese instruments, called the Guqin, also known as the seven-stringed zither. In early April, Chinese President Xi Jinping introduced the story behind the thousand-year-old tune to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron when they recently held informal talks in Guangzhou. In this episode, we'll introduce the ancient instrument....

The Chinese classical piece “Along the River during the Qingming Festival” portrays the landscape of Bianjing, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty during the 10th and the 12th centuries, and gives us a glimpse of the daily lives of the ancient people and how they celebrated the Qingming Festival or Tomb-sweeping Day. In this episode, our guests on the show are composer Liu Weiguang and vertic...

Our guest today is Halamuji, an ethnic Mongolian musician from Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China. The Mongols are often dubbed as "the people on horseback." Aside from their nomadic way of life, they are also known for their distinctive music. In this episode, the 24-year-old musician shares several pieces of music featuring the Mongolian throat singing and the horsehead fiddle.

For our listeners living in the Northern Hemisphere, spring is in the air with grass turning green and blossoms on the verge of blooming. You’ve probably noticed daytime has gradually become longer than that in the gloomy days of winter. Eventually, the length of day and night at some point become the same, and this year, the phenomenon occurs on March 21 on the Gregorian calendar. According to th...

The sanxian is a three-stringed traditional Chinese lute with a long fretless fingerboard and a rounded base often made of snake skin. In this episode, Wang Yu, a sanxian artist with the China Broadcasting Performing Arts Group, joins us again on the show and brings some of his latest creations. Among them is Sanxian: The Sound of China, a piece featuring his collaboration with electronic musican...

Our guest today is Zhu Wenjing, a pipa instrumentalist and also a movie lover. For those who're not familiar with the instrument, the pipa is the well-known four-stringed Chinese lute that's shaped like a pear. Zhu has been teaching the pipa for quite some time. Recently, she's also been active as a content creator, covering a number of notable movie soundtracks.

For those who are thinking of picking up a traditional Chinese instrument, the guqin may not always be considered first. Actually, the guqin is one of the oldest plucked instruments in China that dates back over 3,000 years. In recent years, a group of young Chinese has been dedicated to bringing the ancient instrument to a wider audience. In this episode, Zhu Liyue, head of the Zi De Guqin Studio...

Wearing traditional Chinese clothing with a face veil and sitting in front of the ancient Chinese zither, Peng Jingxuan is surrounded by a number of bystanders as she plucks the strings on the street of France. Aside from being an international student currently studying in Lyon, the 27-year-old guzheng player is also a fast-growing online influencer. In this episode, we get up close with Peng as...

Fei Wai is a male band based in the city of Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Unlike rock or pop bands that usually involve instruments like the guitar and drums, this group consists of three signature traditional Chinese instruments, namely the bamboo flute, the pipa, or the four-stringed lute, and the erhu, the two-stringed fiddle. The three Gen Zers have been covering pop songs since 2020, and their v...

To present ancient Chinese wisdom of 24 Solar Terms through musical expression, composer Yang Qing wrote an orchestral suite titled “Life Rhythms.” As we embrace the season of renewal, Yang brings to us a few works from the orchestral suite to introduce the melodies of spring.

The Spring Festival holiday reaches its climax with the Lantern Festival, which falls on February 5 this year. It is widely celebrated with lantern shows, riddles, and glutinous rice ball treats. In this episode, Liu Jidong, director of the Beijing Mountain and Water Orchestra, brings us several pieces of uplifting music to mark the final carnival of the Spring Festival. He also shares the story o...

The Chinese New Year welcomes the arrival of the upcoming year. Although the seven-day holiday is reaching its end, we hope to keep the excitement going for our listeners. Our guest on the show is Chen Libao, a Chinese horn instrumentalist with the China National Traditional Orchestra, who has made a commitment to rearranging the Chinese classics by blending Western musical styles, yet somehow he...

January 22 marks the Spring Festival, the most important traditional occasion for Chinese people. It's a time of merriment, family reunions and a fresh start. In this episode, Dai Yin, head of the Nanjing Traditional Chinese Orchestra, joins us and shares a few works to get you into the festive spirit.

We'll introduce a couple of modern Erhu works with a storytelling vibe that'll seamlessly get you into the musical zone. If you're a long time listener to our show, you probably recognize that the instrument is a member of the bowed-string family, notable for depicting intricate emotional expressions and closely resembling a human's voice. Today, our guest on the show is Erhu instrumentalist Li Fe...

After China optimizing its anti-Covid-19 measures in late December, the nation has gradually returned to normal routines, including professional musicians. He Xie is a composer and a Chinese harp instrumentalist who's been planning his concert since April of last year. However, it was put on hold twice due to the pandemic. Thanks to the recent changes of Covid restrictions, the composer is now abl...

The internet has changed people's lives in many ways and has given rise to new jobs, such as online influencers. Nowadays, a group of young musicians in China are striving to bring traditional Chinese music alive through digital content. Our guest today, Liu Qingyao, is one of them.

New Year's Day falls on January 1 on the Gregorian calendar. How will you celebrate and recount this year as it comes to a close? To spread the festive vibes in the air, here on this show, we'll share some upbeat tracks from "The Drum Voices" series, composed by Yan Minmin. We'll also check out some fun New Year's traditions in different countries from around the world.

Over 2,000 years ago, ancient Chinese people created a time system based on the Sun's annual motion to guide agricultural production and social practices, or what we know today as the 24 Solar Terms. Throughout the years, the Chinese solar terms have also inspired many artists in various fields, including Yang Qing, a young composer with the China Broadcasting Performing Arts Group. And from this...

Can you imagine the despair and the hopelessness when polar bears have to swim for days in the deep ocean to find habitable ice caps to live on, thousands of koalas are swallowed up by endless wildfires, and marine animals are dying in oil spills or get entangled in plastic? If you can, it is never too late to make a change, which matters not just for the vulnerable creatures but also for ourselve...

In this episode, we dive into the world of the bamboo flute, one of the oldest musical instruments known in China. Celebrated flutist Tang Junqiao joins us today, sharing with us several of her very own handpicked songs. Tang is a leading figure of contemporary Chinese folk music who has been to many parts of the world performing concertos with the bamboo flute among internationally known orchestr...