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Although China has plenty of excellent examples in world music, it is rare to see a festival focused on the genre here, but a three-day festival during the Qingming Festival gave enthusiasts and musicians a chance to experience its rich diversity.
The genre of world music was popularized in the 1980s for non-Western traditional music, and has grown to include hybrid subgenres such as world fusion, global fusion, ethnic fusion and worldbeat.
A poster of the "Water and Pear Blossoms World Music Festival"
The performers at the “Water and Pear Blossoms World Music Festival” included twenty-six bands from different regions in China and from places as far as the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa and Morocco.
One of the performers, the Uygur singer and songwriter Jurat, plays avant-garde rock music. The band members’ different backgrounds give their songs more colors and possibilities.
“I sing in English and Uygur basically, and I try to deliver people’s inner world and dream-like fairy tales through my songs. The festival is a great opportunity for me not only to show my music, but also to learn from all these awesome musicians from home and abroad,” Jurat said.
The Turtle Island from Japan
Turtle Island is a big band in Japan. They blend rock elements into traditional Japanese ritual music, folklores from Japan, Korea and other Asian countries to create an overwhelming energy.
“The Turtle Island and Hanggai Band are Asian Brothers. Like Hanggai, we have our own world music festival in our home city Toyota called ’Soul Beat Asia.’ And we always play at each other's music festivals. We both deliver the traditional culture and music through the form of rock and roll and we both have powerful music," the band’s lead vocalist Yoshiki Mahayana said.
This is the second year of the festival, which was started by Chinese band Hanggai. In 2010, the Hanggai Music Festival was announced in Beijing, making it a world-music first in China.
The Hanggai Band from China
Hanggai’s band leader Ilchi has performed at many international music festivals of rock and roll, pop and world music. And he tries to bring the best experience to Chinese audiences.
"We have been dedicated to promoting traditional culture and music and their connections with the modern world. China is on a high speed development path, and so is the music market. More and more people are yearning for the grounded culture and music and we also have seen a lot of minority groups' music and art on TV shows," Ilchi said.
Music has no boundaries, people say. World music may be the epitome of this type of communion for people from different parts of the world.
(CGTN)
