China News Agency, Tianjin, July 6th, title: Tenor Wang Hongwei: Folk music sounds, "all seas and springs"
Author Wang Zaiyu Shi Yunyu
At the end of the song, Wang Hongwei said to the overseas Chinese present, "My lover will have a baby in a few hours. After I finish singing this song, I will rush to the airport and go back to China to accompany her." The audience burst into applause.
It was during the Spring Festival in 2012. Wang Hongwei, a famous Chinese tenor singer, accompanied the team from the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council to the Lincoln Center in New York, USA to participate in the "Four Seas and Spring" performance.
His wife was about to give birth, and he received the deepest understanding and blessing from the audience.
Since 2009, when the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council launched the "Cultural China, Spring in the Four Seas" activity, Wang Hongwei has hardly been absent from the activity.
He has traveled all over Africa, Southeast Asia, North America and Europe, performing songs with local characteristics for overseas Chinese.
"Those overseas Chinese who are in a foreign country and far away from their homeland will ask me to come back after each performance and sing a few more folk songs to relieve their homesickness." Wang Hongwei, who was born in Xinjiang, has been immersed in the vastness of western China for many years. Passion for the land is conveyed through masterpieces such as "Song of the West".
"In fact, music is a very subtle thing, and it can convey emotions without too much explanation." Wang Hongwei recalled that one year he and his team rehearsed in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. When the instruments sounded, other orchestras stopped rehearsing. , came over and asked what instrument was played.
Knowing that it is the traditional Uyghur musical instrument Aijie in China, Western classical musicians have repeatedly praised the timbre of this instrument.
With the unremitting efforts of the overseas Chinese, Chinese folk music has been played successively in the Plaza in Madrid, the Lincoln Center in the United States, the Esplanade in Singapore, and the Musikverein in Vienna.
Having performed overseas for nearly 20 years, Wang Hongwei has also experienced the changes in the international status of Chinese musicians.
"In recent years, the local receptionist has paid more and more attention to the performance of Chinese musicians, and arranged to receive us with the highest courtesy. One spring in Spain, it was snowing heavily during the performance. The mayor of Madrid, members of Congress and many other dignitaries I just finished watching the show in the snow." Wang Hongwei believes that this is closely related to the improvement of China's national confidence and comprehensive national strength.
Over the past few decades, the sea has turned into a mulberry field.
What remains unchanged is the deep nostalgia and nostalgia of overseas Chinese for their hometown and homeland.
"The overseas Chinese living in foreign countries and far from their homeland, some left the motherland when they were young, and most of them are now parents. Their longing for the motherland is naturally integrated into their blood, and folk songs are only the hometown that is engraved in their bones and blood. Emotions activate and resonate.”
"Chinese folk songs are living cultural antiques and warm chronicles." Wang Hongwei, vice president of Tianjin Conservatory of Music, said that the reason why folk songs can be sung to this day is because the charm of national culture has been taking root in the soil of the people. passed down from generation to generation.
"In contemporary Chinese music education, students should not only have techniques, but also have the mission of the era of cultural inheritance."
At the end of the interview, Wang Hongwei sang a few lines of "Children Traveling Thousands of Miles", "Now it's time to leave home, only to understand the mother's worries."
He said that the overseas Chinese love this song very much. Whenever this part of the song is sung, many overseas Chinese will cry, because some overseas Chinese are their own mothers, while others have been away from their mothers for many years.
"Whether it's sadness or enthusiasm can be felt in music. It surpasses the expression of words and graphics, and can directly touch people's hearts." Wang Hongwei said.
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