Chinese conductor Fang Fei: Let the world fall in love with “Chinese sound”

He was the first Chinese conductor to perform at the U.S. Capitol, and his background frequently appeared in world-class music halls such as Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York. His music was widely accepted by Western mainstream society. This musical genius, who was admitted to the model group of China’s highest art group with extraordinary musical talent, is not only a performer, but also a music activist and orchestra manager; He presented a large number of Chinese music works to the American audience, such as “Ode to the Red Flag”, “My Motherland” and “Jasmine Flower”, which brought the audience a beautiful audio-visual feast. With his music, he opened a door for the world to understand China. He is Fang Fei.

“When playing (Ode to the Red Flag), I also told our video companions that in addition to showing the great rivers and mountains of the motherland, the Great Wall, and the Forbidden City, we also need to show the face of our current China, you must show our high-speed rail, our aviation, our CBD, our grand theater, this is the real, realistic, real China.” I must let the audience, including the American audience, including the Chinese audience to see a real China. Because I am an experiencer, when I was conducting, my mood was very proud, and the performance of the Ode to the Red Flag would bring tears to my eyes under this interpretation. A lot of people in the audience said to me that they saw tears in their eyes, a lot of people cried when they saw this.”

“In fact, I am not so great, we have reached this age, these young musicians are my children’s generation, in the art, I have a lot of respect for them.”

“We didn’t have cassette players before, [only] old records. There are some old records left in our college, which were sealed a long time ago. The old records are all out of tune and the sound is not clear, so we just began to understand some classical music. So now, you can’t understand our understanding of Western music at all. So if you think about it for us, people who grew up loving music, seeing that, it’s not shocking, it’s stupid. So, I think the biggest thing is that there has been a leap in musical insight, understanding, appreciation.”

“I am very lucky, in fact, my generation is very lucky, our generation has seen a huge change in China, this change has never been seen before, so it is very lucky to be able to witness this change.”

“Musician or activist, I don’t think I’m home, I’m just a practitioner of cultural exchange.” Because of my position, I am responsible for part of the work of this orchestra, so I have to do some activities in addition to the music itself, and the whole group needs to move forward, so I feel that it is not home, which means that I need to do more practice, contact more people, and deal with various aspects. So I’m not a music activist, I’m a music practitioner.”

Telling the Chinese story in the world language is what Fang Fei and many overseas cultural promoters are doing. They draw energy from national culture and highlight these genes, which are originally imprinted in the blood, in their works, becoming the strongest voice of China. This comes from the national sound, so that precious national music and rich cultural heritage to the world, let the world fall in love with “Chinese sound”!

Host/Editor: Xu Yangyao Shooting: Wang Haiyang, Jiao Zhenfei Editing: He Jianping Editor: Zhang Qi