A WORLD OF SOUNDS
A recent festival highlights world music’s growing popularity among Chinese. Zhang Zefeng reports.
Two giant stages stand in the center of a 6,670-hectare orchard of blooming pear trees. Performers clad in ethnic attire sing and dance under colorful lights.
This is a scene from the Water and Pear Blossoms World Music Festival in Shandong province’s Yangxin county from April 5 to 7. Twenty-six bands from nine countries and regions performed.
The festival was organized by the band Hanggai, which is known for combining Mongolian folk music with modern styles.
“This is probably one of the few festivals in China devoted to world music,” says Ilchi, Hanggai’s vocalist and tobshuur (two-stringed lute) player.
“It’s an activity with diverse cultural concepts.”
World music encompasses several styles, including traditional and neo-traditional music, as well as music that contains more than one cultural tradition.
It has been gaining momentum in China, as performers often appear on mainstream domestic talent shows.
Notable world-music bands and performers include Hanggai, ethnic Yi folk singer Jike Junyi, ethnic Uygur rocker Perhat Khaliq and indie folk band Shanren from Yunnan province. They claimed stardom through hit TV shows like Sing My Song and The Voice of China.
“World-music performers have become an important part of mainstream music platforms,” says Ilchi.
This year’s music festival brought a diverse range of bands and singers, including Japanese tribal punk band Turtle Island, Japanese musician OKI and western Chinese contemporary folk band Travelers.
“Turtle Island aspires to integrate traditional and modern Japanese culture into their music so that people pay more attention to the past,” Ilchi says.
“China hosts various ethnic cultures. Many young Chinese musicians have been working to preserve traditional folk music. We want to show them some successful foreign counterparts through the festival.”
The festival is not only a place for music exchanges but also a platform for emerging performers to showcase their talents.
The five-member band Marmota has been devoted to discovering and preserving Mongolian folk music since 2009. Its lyrics are in Mongolian and Tuvan.
“I got to know some excellent world-music performers here,” the lead singer Danpel says.
“It’s a great platform to discover world-music talent in China and promote the county’s ethnic music.”
Chinese musician Dangih Nurlan from the Kazak ethnic group performed a solo show on the first day.
Dangih Nurlan hails from Tacheng in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and plays ethnic Kazak music that has been passed down over centuries.
“My music depicts traditional nomadic herders’ lives and such natural splendors as grasslands, mountains and bodies of water,” Dangih Nurlan says.
“The world-music festival is a place where different ethnicmusic genres can coexist.”
Dangih Nurlan makes his living in Beijing playing Spanish music in restaurants as this kind of music is more suitable for these settings.
“The music festival provides me with a platform to play the music I truly love,” he says.
“Kazak music is the music of my ethnicity, which is very important to me.”
Hanggai, the Mongolian word for a place with beautiful pastures, mountains and rivers, is considered a “Chinese representative” of world music. The group developed the idea for the Water and Pear Blossoms World Music Festival from observations it made while touring overseas.
“There are many music festivals overseas — a great variety. What makes a music festival stand out is its unique characteristics and attitude,” Ilchi says.
“Here, we want people to be immersed in nature and experience diverse cultures through music.”
And the event benefits the county.
The venue was a garbage dump before the event was first staged last year, Yangxin’s mayor Liu Jinyi says.
“The music festival brings travelers and boosts the local economy,” Liu says.
“Local people get to enjoy high-quality world music in their hometown. It cultivates their musical tastes and enriches their lives.”
Yangxin resident Ge Yongling, who also participated in last year’s festival, says the event is popular among locals.
“There’s a surge of people joining,” she says.
“This festival showcases musical styles from China and the world. I feel extremely proud that we are holding this event.”