According to the unique music and cultural characteristics of 15 ethnic minorities in Yunnan, creating an album and a music documentary for each ethnic group is Li Weizhen's ongoing music plan. Born in a small village of Hani in the border county of Yunnan, this musician has a special love for ethnic minority music, and in his view, music is the most important way to inherit minority culture.
Born in an ethnic minority tribe, Li Weizhen, who has been able to sing and dance since he was a child, chose the road of art examination in high school, and became the first Yunnan native to appear on the stage of "The Voice of China" in 2012, which is well known to the audience, which is a turning point in his musical road. After that, he began to sign record labels and take over commercial performances. A few years later, he made a new choice – to become an independent musician, not to sign with any record label, and to play on his own, from music creation to promotion. "Just to keep it pure and do the music you want to make." Li Weizhen said.
"What I want to do is the music of national integration, turning the national into the world." Li Weizhen believes that Yunnan is a fertile land for the development of cultural content, with the advantages of content creation, at the same time, the development of national culture should be based on national characteristics to innovate, to have an international musical expression, musical context that everyone can appreciate. That is, the integration of national music with Western rock music, electronic music, etc. "Music wants to truly achieve inheritance, while retaining the essence of national music and melody, it must have a diversified and youthful form of expression, and excavate and expand the connotation and extension of national music through various forms, so that young people like it." He said.
Five years ago, Li Weizhen had the idea of creating albums and documentaries for Yunnan's endemic ethnic minorities, and last year he put it into action and set up his own music brand "Hear Yunnan", which he intends to complete within five years. He confessed: "The biggest difficulty is the problem of funding. "For a music brand with a limited scale, the investment of human, material and financial resources is a problem." If five years can't be completed, then do it for ten years, no matter how long, as long as I can still do it, I must complete this thing. Faced with the problem of financial difficulties, Li Weizhen wanted to use the span of time to defeat it.
"Nature gives birth to music, and music interprets the beauty of nature." Li Weizhen was invited to compose the theme song "One Home" for COP15, and he served as the executive producer and lead singer. "I have integrated the Haba of the Hani people into the music, and the Haba is an ancient tune that reflects the Hani reverence for nature since ancient times, which in my opinion is also a manifestation of biodiversity." Li Weizhen not only inherits national songs, but also tells national stories and cultures in the form of music unique to his own nation.
Pocket Spring City intern reporter: Zhu Lihong
Editor-in-charge: Su Hao
Editor: Zhou Jianjun
Final Judge: Qian Hongbing