Cultural Exchange with the other side of the World

We were all in the Johnson Performance hall, first we, the Americans showed up at the usual 8:30 A.M. class time and sat down in the first two rows, followed shortly by the Chinese Students sitting on stage. Both groups said very little before prodding from professors from both sides caused the groups of students to start speaking up, asking and answering questions, exchanging cultures.

Aside from the Chinese students sitting on stage, and giving us a few samples of their music, there was very little to distinguish an audience and performers. The main instrument that was used by both sides was the guitar; some traditional Chinese music was played by the UIBE students. On the American side, a little Jazz was played.

The greatest difference between our two groups of students is that, the Chinese students could definitively define their music as Folk, while we, the UTD students, found it hard to find music that we listen to, or really are even aware of that is not considered Pop. There are 56 distinctly different cultures in China, making for a variety of regional Folk music, while in America, easy transport and the lack of restriction of the spread of information has allowed many of the different cultures to mingle, giving people a chance to decide on their own music culture.

One particular Chinese student brought up the fact that much western influence has entered China since the Government became less closed off from the world in 1998. This has lead to a surge of popular western forms entering China. This has brought about many changes in the Chinese music sphere, including the rise of Chui Jian, the Chinese Godfather of Rock.

There is a vast collage of Chinese Music cultures, to vast for us to experience all of them from the UIBE students of the course of an hour, but we were able to hear Peking Opera, Along with several other acapella examples, all of which were very beautiful to listen to, and a few samples of traditional Folk melodies played of the guitar.