a taiwanese couple has been promoting music for over 30 years: "it's so much fun, we can't stop"
2024-09-03
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wuhan, september 3, china news service, title: taiwanese couple promotes music for more than 30 years: "it's fun and we can't stop"
china news service reporter wu yili
recently, music producer li mengxiu has been busy producing the digital album of folk music masters for the "chinese musicians series". in his home in wuhan, there are several recording devices and hundreds of folk music albums. he is skilled in operating computer graphics software and designing album covers. after working for a long time, he looks out the window at the yangtze river.
li mengxiu was born in taiwan in 1955 and worked in the music industry. as his children were studying and working in mainland china, he and his wife yang ren came to wuhan, hubei to settle down in 2012.
taiwanese musicians li mengxiu and yang ren are at their home in hanyang, wuhan. photo by china news service reporter wu yili
at first, li mengxiu was engaged in pop music. he listened to "butterfly lovers" by chance, which started his musical transformation. "although it is a western orchestral instrument, it has distinct national characteristics. this triggered my idea of devoting all my efforts to promoting national music," he said.
this idea was also supported by yang ren. in 1989, they started recording the digital album of chinese musicians series, a collection of national music masters. they traveled across the taiwan straits, looking for famous musicians and visiting masters, and invited them to perform live and record.
li mengxiu and yang ren used the income from pop music to nourish folk music, using fashionable recording technology, mastering technology and sound. "at that time, it took six or seven days to record an album, and the orchestra had 50 to 100 people to accompany it. each album required about 1,000 people, and the lunch boxes for the staff could not be loaded into a truck." li mengxiu recalled.
yang ren is mainly responsible for the album's text arrangement, editing and translation. starting from the first album, she edited performers, conductors, orchestras, instrument introductions and music form analysis in chinese and english, and has written more than one million words in total.
"back then, the elderly pipa player lin shicheng handwrote more than 20,000 words of commentary for the album." yang ren said that whenever he thought of these hard-working predecessors, they felt that there was still a long way to go in promoting national music. even after more than 30 years, they are still "enjoying it and can't stop."
on august 21, taiwanese musician li mengxiu designed the cover of his digital album in his study. photo by wu yili, a reporter from china news service
year after year, li mengxiu and yang ren have produced more than 100 albums of masters of various genres, including more than 1,000 pieces of music. as time goes by and masters pass away one after another, these popular pieces of music can be passed down forever, and are favored by music lovers including those in japan, south korea and southeast asian countries. some people are even keen to collect the entire series of albums.
previously, these albums were produced in the form of physical discs. with the update of music carriers, they are now releasing the digital albums of the masters of folk music in the "chinese musicians series" on global streaming and short video platforms. some people believe that "this album is like an encyclopedia of folk music, providing detailed information for academic research."
"this is a sincere gift, dedicated to all music lovers." yang ren wrote in the album preface. the road to promoting folk music is still long. the couple regards it as a "roots-seeking journey" and they also hope that more young people will move forward together. (end)
