Indie musician Yijia Tu has been reimagining classic western and eastern music with a modern twist.
Wearing a Chinese Han dress with black straight long hair down to her waist, and singing East Asian ethnic folk songs with fingers plucking strings from guitar to Guzheng, Yijia Tu, a 22-year-old musician from Chengdu China, has been recreating traditions of both Eastern and Western music in an unconventional way.
It seems that Yijia was born for and chosen by music. Her mum told her that she started mumbling with rhythm when she was one year old. Before she knew how to speak. Yijia began receiving classical piano training at the age of four. At nine years old she tried song-writing for the first time.
When she was a teenager, Yijia was very much into ancient Western music, such as Gregorian chant and medieval music. These styles have been of great influence on her musical practice. At the age of 16, she made her first stage appearance. Participating as a semi-finalist in the Chinese talent show “Sing My Song”. She became known as the “indie rock” prodigy. Singing her own composition “Flying Dandelion”.
Just a year later she launched her debut album 17 with Sony Records. It was in collaboration with Chinese and Internationally acclaimed musicians including Grammy winner Luca Bignardi, Liu Huan and the China Philharmonic Orchestra. She was nominated for Best Chinese Female New Artist and won the Media’s Choice Awards at the 2015 Chinese Music Awards (CMA).
In 2016, she moved to London. Here, she continued her pursuit of music at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). She began recomposing what was conventional in oriental and western music. Her goal was to connect to an audience in a modern global society.
“Ever since coming to the UK, I’ve been more aware of my cultural identity,” said Yijia. “I began to be more interested in traditional Chinese music, and started to experiment blending them with contemporary musical elements such as world music, indie, electronic and pop.
“There’s a quote by the composer Gustav Mahler that I really like,” she continued. “‘Tradition is about keeping the flame alive, not worshipping the ashes’.”
She has a great interest in world music and music that connects to traditional roots from all over the world. Therefore, Yijia has employed this principle in her own music practice.
“I feel like what I can contribute is to build a bridge between different traditions and musical styles from traditional to modern music…as I believe this is a way forward in an age of globalization and cosmopolitanism.”
In 2017 together with her classmate Peadar Connolly-Davey, a 21-year-old from Ireland, she formed a band called The Sages. They drew inspirations from different music elements throughout time and history. It mainly focuses on traditional East Asian and Chinese music, with an Irish twist.
The name of comes from The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove (竹林七贤). In ancient China a group of seven scholars, poets and musicians gave up their mundane life and secluded themselves in rural areas. The 贤 (wisdom) in its Chinese version was replaced with a homophone of 弦 (string). This indicates the musical nature of the group.
Yijia said, “As time goes by, we have to try and make traditional music still relevant to the modern world. So, for me, in order to do that, blending them with pop or western instruments seems like a natural thing to do.”
One of her styles of singing is Tibetan chanting mixed with Mongolian throat singing. Both are typical Chinese Ethnic singing skills practiced mostly by ethnic minorities in Tibet and Inner Mongolia. Delivered through her clear and powerful voice, which contrasts the gentle melody generated from strings. Her music demonstrates her enthusiasm for ethnomusicology and eagerness to express her cultural identity through the fusion of classical Chinese music elements.
“I feel like as a Chinese musician, a lot of the mainstream music in China is disconnected from our roots, which would make the sounds more like existing music genres rather than creating our own music style.
“I was inspired by world musicians such as Huun Huur Tu from Tuva, and Eivør from the Faroe Islands to express my musical identity that connects to my roots,” said Yijia.
Yijia clearly understands what music the young generation are expecting to listen to. Perhaps because she is a young musician in her early 20’s. This has contributed to her success. “By mixing different kinds of music together, it can engage a wide range of young listeners who have never listened to traditional music. As they find the music more accessible, relatable and relevant to what they are used to listening to.”
The uniqueness of adaptations of traditional folk music and original compositions by Yijia have proven to be a success. Music produced by the band has convinced audiences from the UK as well as the rest of the world. The Sages featured on the BBC’s Radio 3 Music Planet in January 2020. They also played live on the channel’s In Tunes show.
“I feel like apart from just playing music, we can hopefully keep tradition alive, and also open up people’s minds about cultures other than their own.
“It’s also really touching when we have people who came to talk to us after our performance, telling us that we’ve inspired them to also connect with their roots,” said Yijia. “It makes me feel like I am making a small contribution that can helps people raise some kind of awareness, apart from just enjoying the music.”
Her journey at SOAS came to an end this summer. However, Yijia is ready to kick off her master’s degree in music with places offered by both Oxford and Cambridge. While daily routine has been confined during the Covid-19 crisis, there is no lockdown in music. Like many other musicians, Yijia sees this as an opportunity to create music. She has been doing online gigs for charities from her room. In these gigs the spirit of having traditional rhythms heard in the mainstream music scene continues.
We live in a society that thrives on cultural exchange like never before. However, it seems to her the level of multiculturalism and diversity are not reflected in mainstream music. “Most mainstream music does not really have the representation of non-western cultures, and most of the music genres today derived from the West,” says Yijia. “I try to build a bridge that is neither solely Western/modern mainstream or traditional Chinese, as it seems more organic to me to express music in this way.”
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