From Bordeaux, Paris, Rovence, France to Geneva, Switzerland... a Chinese girl born in 1995 took guzheng out of the country and played the sound of China in a foreign land.
As she strummed it freely, pieces of music poured out from her fingertips. Pedestrians of different skin colors and ages were moved by the music that sounded like flowing water. They stopped one after another, stopped talking, and listened quietly.
An old man tremblingly bent over and took out the guzheng brochure from the box and patiently flipped through it to learn more about this mysterious and moving oriental instrument.
There are also children who often hold up their chins and listen to the playing. After the performance, they ask "What instrument is this?" and they also learn the Chinese word "guzheng".
Her name is Peng Jingxuan, and she also has a more familiar identity: Bilibili UP host Pengpengpengpengpeng. She has more than 2.6 million fans at Bilibili and is officially certified as a "Bilibili well-known music UP host" by B station .
Peng Jingxuan is not only a professional guzheng player, but has also been awarded the title of "Chinese International Student Network Ambassador" by the French Higher Education Agency. He is an innovator who brings Chinese culture "overseas".
01
Street performances in Europe are very common. You can see piano, violin and guitar playing everywhere. It is a leisure way of musical communication.
Why can’t Chinese musical instruments occupy a place?
So Peng Jingxuan, a graduate student in musicology at the University of Bordeaux III in France, took her guzheng and set off.
She performed guzheng performances at the Grand Theater in Bordeaux and near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Most of the songs were theme songs from Chinese film and television dramas that were widely circulated.
Initially, Peng Jingxuan only performed offline. As some third-person perspective videos gradually attracted attention on social platforms, she also began to make street performance videos with her classmates, and began uploading them to Bilibili in September 2018.
One of the biggest highlights of Peng Jingxuan’s video is the embodiment of Chinese elements.
Before each performance, she spent two hours dressing up: wearing Hanfu and combing her hair in Chinese style, leaving a deep Chinese mark on the whole performance.
She dares to think and do, bringing endless surprises to folk music.
can not only play classic guzheng repertoire, but also adapted sister instruments pipa 's "Ambush from Flying Daggers " and erhu 's " Horse Racing "; Chinese pop music "Blue and White Porcelain", " Chiling"; two-dimensional songs "Quan Yu Tianxia", "Dala Benba"...
Not only that, Peng Jingxuan can also play the piano divine song "Croatian Rhapsody" on the guzheng and perform the classic English song "See" You Again" has also been affirmed by domestic and foreign audiences.
(Foreign netizens’ affirmation of Peng Jingxuan)
During her performance, many Westerners who had never heard this kind of timbre paid attention to this unique instrument and Chinese culture. "Being seen" and "heard" through his performance gave Peng Jingxuan more encouragement.
People's Daily, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and other mainstream media also reprinted her videos on weibo and other social platforms to like her.
02
"The language of music is the same. As long as it is beautiful music, it can move people's hearts regardless of the East or the West."
At first, Peng Jingxuan played on the streets just because she liked playing the guzheng and wanted foreigners to know more about the guzheng. However, as she persisted for a long time, her sense of responsibility became stronger. “What belongs to the nation belongs to the world.” She wanted more people to understand Chinese musical instruments and Chinese culture.
In the eyes of Westerners, our guzheng is somewhat similar to a horizontal harp. Many foreign audiences do not know what this instrument is and which country it comes from. Some even mistakenly think that this instrument comes from Japan or South Korea.
The piano box at Peng Jingxuan's feet is a "Guzheng Culture Corner". She specially produced a French version of the guzheng promotion brochure, introducing the past and present life of the guzheng for those who are interested to read.
Peng Jingxuan has not only played on the streets, but also in many concert halls. She has also participated in large-scale events such as the CCTV Spring Festival Gala and the United Nations World Mother Language Day.
03
In stereotypes, when it comes to Western musical instruments, some people think of a golden hall, elegant, majestic and high-end; but when it comes to folk music, the scene immediately changes to a street, miserable and shabby.
Even some parents tend to send their children to learn Western musical instruments.
After Peng Jingxuan’s video was released, some people on the Internet said that she was performing on the street and lowering the standard of Chinese musical instruments.
may have a good starting point, but shelving national musical instruments has blocked the spread of folk music.
We need to know that to do a good job in cross-cultural communication, we need to interpret it in a way that others can accept.
Who would spend money to go to a music hall to listen to a Chinese musical instrument concert if they have never been exposed to Chinese musical instruments? If our unique culture is not seen, Westerners may never go out of their way to understand it, and they will have no way of knowing it.
is generally not equal to vulgar and low-level.
Peng Jingxuan used her creative power to prove that the guzheng has ever-lasting vitality. Not only will it not lower the tone, but it will give many foreigners the opportunity to listen to the unique timbre of the guzheng.
With a guzheng and a speaker, Peng Jingxuan is bravely walking on the road of cultural confidence. Of course, she is not alone. There are many UP owners at Station B who spread folk music and traditional culture, such as Chen Yimiao who plays the erhu on the American stage, "Hunyuan Rysn" who shocks Station B with suona , and "Liu Qingyao" who tells stories with pipa...
The younger generation is inheriting national culture in various forms and media, and realizing its own stage.
