Chinese cultural outreach widens with new performances in Washington

Amid the expanding scale of Chinese cultural products and services in going global, Chinese folk music is increasingly appearing on the world classical stage in new forms.

As part of the closing concert of the 2026 Washington International Young Artist Music Series at the Embassy of Bulgaria in Washington, D.C. on Oct 9, Chinese violinist Xiang Fang and pianist Chenchun Ma performed the world premiere of composer Wang Xinyang's work Two Chinese Pieces (2011-13) for violin and piano, featuring Dance of the Yao People and Hunan Flower Drum.

Presenting China's well-known folk music and theatrical materials in a Western chamber-music format, the performance offers a vivid example of Chinese cultural products and services going global.

In recent years, Chinese cultural products and services have accelerated their global outreach. According to the Report of the State Council on Improving the Quality of Cultural Products and Services, China's total import and export volume of cultural products reached $143.4 billion in 2025. Market entities engaged in taking Chinese cultural products and services overseas keep expanding, with their international influence continuing to climb.

The 2024 Report on the Development of National Cultural and Related Industries, released by the National Bureau of Statistics, said the operating revenue of China's cultural industries hit 19.14 trillion yuan ($2.85 trillion) in 2024, a year-on-year hike of 7.1 percent, with cultural services playing a prominent leading role.

The core source material for this premiere in Washington draws from Hunan local culture. Hunan flower-drum opera was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2008. In Hunan Flower Drum, composer Wang Xinyang incorporates materials from Liu Hai Cuts Firewood and the traditional Hunan children's rhyme Yue Liang Ba Ba — the rhyme Xiang Fang's mother taught her to recite when she was a small child learning Chinese characters in Changsha.

Dance of the Yao People draws on the famous orchestral work of the same name, depicting musical scenes tied to traditional communal celebrations of the Yao ethnic group.

Xiang Fang, a graduate of the Middle School Attached to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, studied violin under educator and composer Professor Zhao Wei. She later attended Oberlin Conservatory and earned her master's degree at Carnegie Mellon University under Cyrus Forough. She is currently a Doctor of Music candidate at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music. Her diverse musical training allows her to move fluently between the singing quality of Chinese opera and works shaped by other cultural traditions.

In August 2026, Xiang Fang joined Heyue Zhang, a piano faculty member at Nanjing Normal University, for three concerts in Nanjing under the title of Sourcier · Aspiration — Selected Contemporary Chinese Works for Violin and Piano. The repertoire included Wang Xinyang's 2022 composition Sourcier. In Naperville, Illinois, where she resides, she also hosts free community concerts through the Skydome Concert Series, bringing contemporary Chinese music to local audiences.

As more artists like Xiang Fang and Wang Xinyang bring the sounds of Chinese music to international stages, the dimension of China's cultural economy is being continuously enriched.

Please contact the writer at hanjingyan@chinadaily.com.cn