On the evening of April 2, Beijing time, Chinese President Xi Jinping had a telephone conversation with U.S. President Biden at request. Both sides agreed to take further measures to expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two countries.

　　How do China and the United States communicate through music to send signals of friendship? What are the key ways for China's national culture to go abroad and embrace the world? In this regard, China News Service's "East-West Question·China-Foreign Dialogue" column invited Uzhina, a professor at the School of Music of the University for Nationalities of China, a national first-class actor, and an Ewenki singer, and Mark, an American professor at the University of Minzu of China, a doctor of sociology, and a country musician. ·Mark Levine, start the conversation.

　　Uzhina believes that music has no borders and can transcend language barriers. Among people-to-people exchanges, musical exchanges are the most direct. Just like the exchanges and mutual learning between China's multi-ethnic cultures, Eastern and Western cultures can also transcend different backgrounds and experience each other's cultural connotations through music.

　　In Mark Liwen's eyes, China is like "a thick sheet of music score." In the process of music creation, he personally felt the enthusiasm and tolerance of people of all ethnic groups in China. He also encouraged more foreign friends to come to China, listen to and experience Chinese culture, and become "cultural ambassadors" after returning to China to tell what they saw and heard.

Excerpts from the conversation are as follows:

China News Service reporter: Teacher Mark Liwen, China has a rich rural culture. As a rural musician and writer, you have traveled all over China. What do you think is unique about China's rural areas?

Mark Liwen:

I think what attracts me most is the experience of Chinese culture, and I find that Chinese culture is very diverse. In my country (the United States), many people are completely unaware of this. When they think of China, they think that Chinese people everywhere are the same. But in fact, China is a very remarkable and very diverse country. I want to tell these stories through speeches, books, songs, etc., so that the world can understand the diversity of this country. Diversity is the deepest impression that China has left on me.

Video: East-West Question·China Dialogue丨American professor: The diversity of Chinese culture fascinates me

Source: China News Network

China News Service reporter: How do the two teachers view the role of songs in cultural inheritance?

Uzhina:

Our Ewenki nation has its own language, and the three tribes (Solon, Tungus, and Shilu Ewenki) also have their own dialects, but we do not have writing, so I think the folk songs of the Ewenki people are indeed (in cultural inheritance) Played a very big role.

　　Folk songs are the source of culture and music. This first includes the national language, which includes our geography, the lives of our parents, education, ecological and environmental protection concepts, and gratitude to nature. A lot of things will stay in folk songs.

Mark Liwen:

Throughout history, in some cases, cultures without written language generally used songs and poems to convey stories from the culture. I think music is a very good form. Songs can tell people about history, pass on culture, and present the lifestyles of people from different backgrounds and countries. All of these combined can create something beyond the culture of the nation itself. It's kind of like I have a Chinese musical partner and we sing in English and Chinese. She played the erhu, I played the guitar, and the fusion of cultures created something new.

China News Service Reporter: Professor Mark Liwen once compared China to "a thick book of music scores." What do the two teachers think of this metaphor?

Mark Liwen:

I have a music stand in my apartment. On the music stand is a notebook with more than 80 songs I wrote. Open this notebook and you will find that it contains songs with different themes: some are about the scenery I saw in Lijiang, Sanya, Zhangjiajie, Dalian and other places, some commemorate the Beijing Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics, and some are about Wenchuan earthquake relief. The theme creation also commemorates the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Everything is covered.

Uzhina:

There are 56 ethnic groups in China, and the music is particularly diverse, including regional music (folk songs). Regional music is indeed a very thick sheet of music, and every place, every nation, every language, and the landscapes of various places have different characteristics, including the Ewenki people in our north. The style of every music, the language and melody of every nation, the descriptions of mountains, oceans, grasslands, deserts... There is no music score in the world that is richer, thicker, and more colorful than ours in China.

Reporter from China News Service: We usually say that music has no borders. Music can also be a bridge, so how do you think China and the United States should strengthen music exchanges?

Uzhina:

Music has no borders, so music has no language barriers. Good music cures mental stress. "Music without borders" means that I don't need to speak, I can infect you (emotions) by just humming. Musical communication is the most direct and recent.

　　I participated in the 4th Folk Art Festival in Santiago, Chile, South America, with the original ecological stage play "Aolugu Ya" of the Ewenki tribe. When we came to San Diego to perform, they really liked our style. Our worship of bears and nature, our songs of thanksgiving, our songs and dances of loving animals and nature, immediately infected them, and people all over the world are the same.

　　In fact, we didn’t speak a word, we just did the dance moves, and we were able to infect them. So I think this kind of exchange is really "borderless".

Video: East-West Question·China Dialogue丨Singer Uzhina: Music has no borders and emotions can be communicated.

Source: China News Network

Mark Liwen:

I once participated in a (celebration of) Yi festival at Minzu University of China (hereinafter referred to as "Minzu University"). I was sitting next to a student and asked her to translate for me a song sung by a singer on the stage. When she translated it to me, I felt a familiar feeling. Although I have never heard this song, and its lyrics are also in Yi language, the content of this song is basically the same as the famous American song "Country Road, Take Me Home", which talks about a person leaving his hometown to work in the city , but I miss the story of my hometown very much. Both songs are almost the same.

　　Many foreigners I know in China can play guzheng, erhu, suona and other different instruments. After they hear music played on these instruments, they want to learn more about and experience them.

　　We should also provide some opportunities for foreign students to see, experience, communicate, listen, and learn with their own eyes. These are all very necessary. That way when they return to their home countries, they become "cultural ambassadors" and talk about what they saw and heard.

China News Service reporter: Many of the students of the two professors are from different ethnic groups in China. What is it like for everyone to get along together?

Uzhina:

I have been at the National University of China for at least 30 years, and I have met students of various nationalities from different parts of the country. I particularly like it. Children from every place come to Beijing and come to us with different cultural backgrounds. When we communicate together, I feel there is a lot to learn from each other. The reference from Chinese and Western cultures is the same. We learn from each other and communicate with each other.

Video: East-West Question·China Dialogue丨Using music to build a bridge of cultural exchanges between China and the United States

Source: China News Network

Mark Liwen:

I have been teaching at China National University for 16 years. What touches me the most is that in the United States, people do not understand that China is a multi-ethnic country. When mentioning various ethnic groups, the American media often reports on the conflicts between them, but in China, the relationship between ethnic groups is not like this.

　　Looking around, the students in my class come from different nationalities. What are they doing, fighting? No, they are learning. What about after class? Maybe they are still studying together, maybe they are eating, playing or shopping together. They know that they are all Chinese and are proud of their national culture.

　　The best way for a person to understand China is to come and see it in person. See it with your own eyes, talk to people, and travel around so they find that wherever they go, the local people are very welcoming.

　　Not long ago, I went to Kashgar, where there are Uighurs, Kirgiz and Tajiks. People live and work together in harmony, and children get along well in school. You have to see these things for yourself. Seeing is better than hearing a hundred times.