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Zhoujiaban, or the Zhou Family Band, is an unconventional but extremely grounded approach at this year’s Water and Pear Blossoms World Music Festival, which usually sees a fusion of tradition and Western elements. In fact, the special family has kept to their musical legacy for seven generations.
BBC calls their music “tremendous energy,” the Guardian praises them as “China’s avant-garde,” and the Times regard them as “a joyful, exuberant set, quite novel to western ears.”
The Zhou Family Band perform on stage.
Headed by the fifth-generation musician Zhou Benming, the Zhou Family Band performs not only at local rituals but also national and international festivals, such as the Beijing Traditional Music Festival in 2015 and China Arts Festival in Xi’an in 2016. In July 2017, they embarked on a Europe tour that took them to five countries, performing at such festivals as WOMAD in the UK, Rudolstadt-Festival in Germany and Sfinks Mixed in Belgium.
“Chinese audience members may find our music familiar but many of them regard it as old-fashioned and an outdated form. But Western listeners are totally open to all the music and they accept the music at first listen and feel the vibrancy. Some European music critics say it is the first time that they've heard the spirit of the Chinese people. That is what we call the energy,” band leader Zhou Benming says.
The band plays traditional wind and percussion music that has accompanied the birth and death of people in central-eastern China for more than 600 years. Coming from Lingbi, Anhui Province, part of the Central Plain area which formed the cradle of Chinese civilization, the Zhou Family Band have been musicians for seven generations, and are bearers of a tradition that represents the cream of Chinese folk music – Bolin Laba, a national intangible cultural heritage of China.
The Zhou Family Band perform on stage.
Zhou Family Band usually performs at weddings, funerals, and rituals of worshiping ancestors and welcoming deities. They play suona shawm, sheng mouth organ, dizi flute, Chinese drums and cymbals, kaxi, which is a combination of voice and blown instrument playing by the same musician to imitate opera singing, and often blend theatrical stunts and music, which makes their performance more spectacular.
“The system of rites and music is the core of the Chinese nation. And no rite is bigger than life and death. We play on weddings which will bring new life, and funerals which see off and show respect to the departed. The two ceremonies deliver a supreme power,” Zhou Benming explains.
Zhou Jingzhi, founder of the Zhou Family Band, used to play in the royal court of the Qing Dynasty. After dynastic China came to an end, later generations of the family made their living by playing at local ceremonies.
The band has become so popular that sometimes people have to book them two years in advance for a ceremony. Now more than 100 members of the Zhou family and over 1000 students are active in playing at rituals in their hometown and the adjacent areas.
"Last year we premiered a musical and we are still trying different art forms such as film and TV drama. Now we have also established a school to let more people know about the time-honored art. We are proud of this traditional art and more people should be proud of it," Zhou Benming says.
It is exciting to see that groups like the Zhou Family Band are reviving traditional culture and music, and are spreading their sounds to the rest of the world.
(CGTN)
