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, join us and share some of their stories.

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, join us and share the story behind their collaboration.

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. You'll hear how it sounds, how it is used in both ancient and contemporary music, and you'll hear from musicians and artists who share with us their stories on how and why they came to master it.

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 vertical flute performer Tian Long. Let’s find out how the melody is able to take us back to the hustle and bustle of the city during spring, about 1000 years ago.

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 the Chinese 24-solar terms, this special day is called the spring equinox. In this episode, we will bring you several spring tunes to keep the optimism going.

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 Wei Huhu to present diverse sanxian music styles from across the country.