Fen Zho is but one example of the treasures we import when we bring overseas students to Australia. I first met her when I asked her fellow Chinese students to find me someone who could help me with captions for the photographs I had taken on my trip to Hunan province in 2004. She couldn't have been more helpful.
In
2006 I got involved in the organisation of a Festival of Chinese
Cinema and I discovered Fen's musical talent when she was suggested
for the entertainment during the opening night. I found myself
wondering what else she could do, apart from Honours in Commerce,
and how she got to this point. I know you are from Hunan because you gave me that help with my web pages on Hunan. Did your birthplace have any influence on your choice of music or choice of instrument? Not really. I took the lead from my father. He was very interested in traditional instruments and he chose the pipa for me.
Have you ever regretted that? No! No! ... You know actually it is called "the Chinese Lute – the king of the Chinese instruments." It is the one of the most famous instrument in China. Because it just has the four strings it requires a great deal of skill to get a full range of sounds. But if you are really good at it you can get many different sounds. On that basis you would need to be really skilful to play the erhu (Chinese two-string fiddle)! Yes! If you want to play erhu -you know a lot of people criticise the erhu because when they start it sounds so terrible – like peeling a chicken! (I empathised deeply with is point - in primary school I had spent a year in a classroom next to that used by the school violin teacher. Both the violin and the erhu, when played without skill, are truly instruments of torture) Do you only play traditional music or is there a contemporary repertoire for the pipa? Both. There are a lot of pieces for the pipa, including modern. The famous all-girl group, the 12 Women Band, played both modern and traditional pieces on traditional instruments. Their popularity demonstrated that the Chinese people still have an ear for traditional music. Yes
As an artist do you feel burdened by the weight of China's long history or does it provide you with more options. Also, do you play for recreation or was it always for practise or performance?. In my opinion China's long history has provided me more options; there were many different musical elements during the different dynasties which made their music demonstrate different images and styles. As an artist I really enjoyed these different forms.
As a professional musician I need to either play for practise (skill training) or performance, and recreation is also very important to play a modern piece. Actually, the music is just a score on the paper, the player always needs to put their feeling and emotion in it, so it is also a kind of recreation.
You have just graduated from this university with honours but not as a musician. What role will the pipa play in your future?
I think playing the pipa is a good way to communicate. I know that as an international student I have less chance to communicate with local people because I am from a different culture, but if we can share music there is more chance for cooperation.
Would you like to earn a living from playing and teaching?
Yes, if possible, but it would be difficult. I am in the professional association in China. I need to find people who are interested in Chinese traditional music and also to find ways to cooperate with Western musicians.
Inevitably
one looks, as a westerner, for some common thread in Chinese
culture - especially popular culture - and sadness seems to be
a common theme. It seems like a pessimistic culture but maybe
it merely seeks a balance between Yin and Yang. Because sometimes we feel we have a lot of happy memories but you cannot say we are happy and that's all. Sometimes we also have sad memories and we... how do you say... you want to enjoy this sad memory, you know, you want to review it again and again... and then it gives you the mood feeling and we are happy to explore that which gives you the sad feeling. We find it very interesting to read the tragedies of Shakespeare which are getting more famous in China. And the love stories sometimes have unhappy endings like the Chinese legend of the two butterflies which is a very sad story.
Tell
me about your instrument. Was it made for you or chosen with great
care? A famous instrument maker made this, and then my pipa teacher chose it for me. I was in music school since junior high school and took normal academic studies as well.
And you would like to be a cultural ambassador with your music? Yes. |
