Music bridges Chinese and US students at Shanxi University

Thirteen teachers and students from George School in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, visited Shanxi University in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, on Thursday to explore Chinese and Western music and build a bridge of cultural exchange.

"I was most interested in the pipa. I play the guitar, so I thought I could play it well, but I only realized after trying that there are a lot of differences, and the timbre is completely different, too," said Clay Marentette, a George School student.

In the afternoon, students from Shanxi University performed the folk song Jasmine Flower (Mo Li Hua) on traditional Chinese instruments. The moving melody drew the US teachers and students into a chorus, filling the hall with applause and laughter.

The George School students then put on a series of performances in turn, including popular piano and violin pieces. One student even performed ballet. They also tried their hand at the Chinese instruments.

"Music knows no borders. We played traditional instruments, such as the erhu, pipa, dizi, sheng, and suona, so that our American classmates could get to know China's native instruments," said Gao Zhijie, a student at the Academy of Music, Shanxi University. "Playing and singing together, we found a musical resonance that belongs to each of us," he said.

The visit is part of an initiative to bring 100,000 young Americans to China for exchanges and study over the coming five years. The event was co-hosted by the Foreign Affairs Office of the People's Government of Shanxi Province and China Daily Youth Channel, and co-organized by the Shanxi Provincial Education Department and the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League of China.

Li Jialu contributed to this story.