A Multigenerational Musical Journey | Yijia Tu | TED

Can I get a show of hands if you know what this instrument is. Great. Five people, that's what I'm here for. (Laughter) So this is a guzheng, an ancient Chinese zither that has over 2,000 years of history. But growing up in China, I played the two most popular instruments. Can you guess what they are? It's the guitar and the piano, yeah. (Laughter) Not this. So I wrote a song on the guitar that ended up on one of the biggest music shows of the time, called Zhōngguó Hǎo Gēqǔ. And at 16, my life changed overnight. I entered this parallel universe as the Hannah Montana version of myself as a high school kid. I saw my face on news headlines. I heard my music played in public, which was a weird experience, and I was working with music legends I grew up admiring, who helped my debut album win the prestigious Huá Yǔ Bǎng Zhōng Bǎng, also known as the Chinese Music Awards. However, as a Chinese musician, my music was very "westernized. " I didn't sound Chinese, and in a way, I'm not sure if I really wanted to. See, with traditional music, I didn't really think it was cool. I have to admit, in my language, there's this word for something that's not cool or backwards, called “tu. ” But “tu” literally means the earth or soil that we stand on. On the other hand, you have this word called “yangtzi,” which means the opposite, something very trendy and cool and avant garde. But “yangtzi” literally means Western. And over time, I realized that this isn't just a Chinese issue, but a global one. Music traditions are dying in the hands of our generation. But how can we preserve a tradition if we don't feel a personal connection to it? So I felt inspired to learn the traditional instrument and folk music to reconnect with my roots. But instead of playing traditional music traditionally, it's important for me to be creative with it. So I'm going to show you how I do that. I'm going to play you a song that's a combination of a traditional folk song, as well as my own composition. I think you can guess which part is the traditional, which one is not. (Music) (Singing)

(Applause) So there's this quote attributed to the composer Gustav Mahler that I really like. That tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire. And music can transcend not just the barriers of language and culture but also time and space. For me, music can build a bridge between the East and the West, the past and the present, and between you and me. And I've witnessed how music can reach beyond the limits of not just our human memory but even our very own consciousness. When my grandmother developed Alzheimer's, we could no longer communicate through words. However, there was this lullaby that she used to sing to me when I was a child. It’s a lullaby that her mother used to sing to her, so it’s been passed down my family for over four generations. And whenever I sing the melody, she would recognize the melody and sing along with me, which was really sweet. And even though my grandmother has recently passed away, whenever I sing this lullaby, I still feel deeply connected with her. It's almost like she's still singing along with me. Perhaps somewhere in the space that only exists through music. [Lullaby] [Holding and swinging my little baby] [Baby needs to go to sleep] [Gently rocking my baby to sleep] [You feel asleep, you wake up] [When you wake up there will be cake] [Gently rocking my baby to sleep] (Singing) (Music ends) (Applause) Thank you. (Applause)