A band from Northeast China's Jilin Province named Tangyin,has recently attracted millions of followers on Chia's social media Douyin for their improvised music performances combined Chiese traditional instruments such as Erhu and bamboo flute, with guitar and keyboards. Photo: Courtesy of Zhou Xiaoyu

Inside a tiny studio located in Northeast China's Jilin Province, a special Chinese band livestreamed their latest performance to an audience of millions through social media on Sunday evening. Listeners were obsessed with their unusual music style, a fusion of rhythms, with the sound of bamboo flute and traditional instruments Erhu and Guzheng as its main tone, in addition to guitar and keyboards, giving it a bit of a jazz vibe.

The band's name Tangyin literally means music from the Tang Dynasty. It now has over 2 million followers on China's short video platform Douyin where listeners wait every night for their livestream performance. But months before such huge exposure, the band was on the brink of falling apart for the lack of audience.

The motivation of viewers in the livestream also varies. Some are curious to have a look at this special band after hearing about them from friends, some eager to get picked by the band, which can improvise a piece of music based on the song's name in the comment section.

The collision between tradition and modernity, as well as Chinese and Western styles, has made their work appealing and people indulge in the band's freestyle adaptations of well-known tunes, including but not limited to Hong Kong's music of the 1980s, pop music, and one of the biggest radio hits, My Heart Will Go On.

Zhou Xiaoyu, the manager of the band, told the Global Times that he did not expect the group to have such a huge success at all. "But it is now obvious that people enjoy this combination," Zhou remarked.

It is especially after he noticed a rising interest and passion from the public, especially young people, toward classical Chinese products, from literature, to art and music.

On China's video platform Bilibili, an account named Ancient Instrument Clinic, begun as early as 2015 to upload works played using Chinese traditional instruments such as the Guzheng to recreate musical pieces.

Yet in 2020 among over 100 videos uploaded, two unexpected pieces, the world famous BWV 1007-1 Prelude, played with a Chinese Guzheng-like ancient string instrument, and Maksim's Flight of the Bumblebee, played with bamboo flute and Pipa, an ancient Chinese lute-like instrument, stood out, with the flute piece tallying nearly 200 thousand views.

"Other than the short videos, the innovative application of traditional music in film and television dramas and variety shows has stimulated the popularity of traditional music. It is always a good thing to watch more young people devote themselves in receiving and recreating our heritage in music," noted Liu Jie, associate professor of the School of Arts of the Renmin University of China.

Bring out the best part

In long line of Chinese dynasties, the ancient Chinese music forms have been circulating among the "tall palaces" like the imperial court of the Tang Dynasty, and during Ming and Qing dynasties, featuring local characteristics.

For example, scholars have regarded music in the Tang Dynasty as a multi-faced performing forms at the highest wealth with a variety of high-level musical instruments that have been recorded in history and unearthed from sites. Although there were a number of styles of music for varied occasions, they were mainly found at the imperial courts.

However, regardless the grandness or the extreme regional characteristics of ancient music, the addition of modern sounds focusing on people's everyday life have "overlapped just fine," as Zhou mentioned. It can be also found in Chinese variety shows.

In 2016, Huayin Laoqiang, one of the classic operas which was listed as China's intangible cultural heritage, was readapted by Chinese singer Tan Weiwei, who introduced a brand new team of folk music with modern rock and roll. The inclusion of rock and roll changed the "quiet-appreciation" style of Chinese traditional music and brought this hidden star from the northwestern part of China to modernity.

For Zhou, this is a more precise answer to music fusion. "The two are not apparently in a conflict, but considering most pieces of music we did were Chinese pop, we would tend to accentuate the rhythm of the traditional instruments."