Chinese Student Troupe Music Culture Exchange

The Chinese Student Art Troupe visited our campus last Thursday and engaged the American audience in a very engaging discussion about the Chinese music culture. From, Chinese operas, to Chinese rap, to Chinese folk music, the Chinese students were able to exemplify the diversity of their native music culture. The most fascinating characteristic of the students was the fact that none of the students were pursuing a degree in music, but rather were able to discuss the various music cultures of China through their actual involvement.

The first type of Chinese music portrayed was the Chinese opera, often known as the jingxi theater. One of the students was able to portray, from his actual involvement in the opera, how although generally all parts in operas are played by males, there are different inflections of the voice to designate which part is supposed to portray a female character and what part was supposed to portray a male character.

Secondly, there was a girl in the group who was able to present traditional Chinese music, both a solo and a duet performance to engage the audience in another facet of the Chinese music culture.

However, the most entertaining song for me, was the song that was performed by the main student leading the discussion for the Chinese troupe. He performed a song that would be categorized as a folk song. His song was specific to his specific region of China and displayed how although there may be music that is enjoyed by the country of China as a whole, there are still many, many distinct groups within China who hold onto very different music cultures. Overall, though, the Chinese student troupe successfully enhanced our classes knowledge and insight of the vast spectrum of music cultures that can be found in China.