40-year bond
Performances by students from Utah university renew friendship
Agroup of students from Brigham Young University in the US state of Utah traveled to China in 1979 to present a cultural show. One of the first Western performing arts tours in China back then, the initiative led to regular exchanges between the school and Chinese cultural and educational institutes over the next 40 years.
“Many groups of educators, artists and students are working hard to continue these cooperative visits and opportunities for growth and new development,” Randy Boothe, a professor of music at BYU in Provo, Utah, tells China Daily.
As director of the university’s Young Ambassadors singing group, Boothe was among the teachers who accompanied the 20-student group that visited China in 1979. He says his first impression was how well they were received. After a trial performance at the National Minority Institute in Beijing, the visiting group performed at the Red Tower Theater.
One of the most exciting moments of the tour was when the group sang the popular Chinese song Mo Li Hua (Jasmine Flower) at the end of its first performance.
“The audience was so appreciative, and they started clapping along and singing … and we knew we were opening a door with the Chinese people in a way, in terms of our American music and dance, sharing some of what was happening in the United States from an artistic standpoint,” Boothe adds.
More China tours soon followed. The BYU group performed for more than 28,000 people in concert halls, factories and universities across China. In every city, big crowds came to watch. Some shows were broadcast on China Central Television. Many Chinese people learned about BYU that year, and for years it was the most recognized American university in China.
“In China, you have a saying about valuing old friendships. It was very clear from my first visit as we returned the very next year in 1980,” Boothe says.
“When we came back in 1983, that was an interesting year because there were some strains between the two governments at that time. Lots of famous tours from Chicago and New York to China were canceled. We were the only group allowed to visit China that summer because we were old friends. There was a feeling of trust.”
Since 1979, BYU performing groups have returned to China more than 30 times, while exchanges of various kinds have been strengthened.
Boothe was assisting with the grand opening of Epcot at Walt Disney World in Florida and, through his connections, the Shanghai Song and Dance Troupe was invited to perform at the event in Orlando in 1982. After the performance, the Chinese group stopped in Utah and stayed with the members of the Young Ambassadors group for about 10 days, and performed in major theaters in Salt Lake City and at the Marriott Center at BYU.
Stephen Jones, a professor of music composition at BYU, went to China with the Young Ambassadors for the first time in 2005. What he calls a “life-changing experience” led him to continue to strengthen the relationships and propose various collaborations with the China Performing Arts Agency.
Jones was among four composers from both China and the US to put on a concert in Beijing titled Sky Mountain
Light World, a collaboration between the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and the BYU Chamber Orchestra. BYU’s Chinese flagship program, which has a Chinese-language course, includes an overseas experience complete with regular language coursework at Nanjing University.
The BYU-Hawaii/Polynesian Cultural Center Asian Executive Management program in Hawaii has welcomed participants from China since the program began with the first six trainees in 1981.
“The long-term effect has got to be that there is greater understanding and greater appreciation, no matter what our governments may have to deal with at the moment, whether it is a question about trade, economy. The one constant that can remain is relationships.”
On May 17, a team of more than 200 BYU students traveled to China with the tour, Spectacular 2019, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of BYU’s first tour of China. The performance was staged in Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai.
“As I look back over the last 40 years of many visits to China — they are the highlights of my professional career. As an educator, I can’t imagine any better experience for my students than having had the opportunity to visit China. I became a firm believer that the friendship and trust between the people of the US and China built through exchanges over the past 40 years will last longer than we can imagine,” Boothe says.
In 1989, Boothe received the K. Robert Neeley Foundation Award for dedicating himself to “seeking universal understanding and fellowship through the performing arts”.
With music, dance and theater as mediums, friendship is his message around the world.
Booth says he and his wife, Susan, now grandparents to nine grandchildren aged between 2 and 11, will bring their grandchildren to China when they are older.
“Because they need to experience China like their grandpa has,” Boothe adds.