The square in front of the Grand Theater of Bordeaux, France, is bustling with people, and many street artists choose to perform here.
On this day, the pedestrians in the square stopped and gathered together to watch the veiled Chinese girls playing the piano.
A guzheng, a Hanfu, like the image in a classical novel. She looked very different from everything around her, but the sound of the strings between her fingers reshaped the order of the crowd.
Whether it is the alpine flowing water in classical music, the national style of "Horse Racing", the pleasure of enmity in martial arts film and television dramas, the interlude in the two-dimensional animation, or the "Croatian Rhapsody", she has "folded" into those strings. Each unfolding gives a new impression, both lyrical and joyful. When you play to the fullest, there are often people dancing to the music.
The veiled girl, named Peng Jingxuan, is from Huaihua, Hunan Province, 25 years old, studying at the University of Bordeaux III in France. The Grand Theatre of Bordeaux is her most frequented venue, and because of the epidemic, she wore a mask and added a veil.
In February this year, Peng Jingxuan (headline number: @bump peng bump peng) began to publish her video of her street performance on today's headlines and watermelon videos, and only half a year passed, attracting the attention and love of more than 8 million people.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > in the population</h1>
After graduating from university, Peng Jingxuan chose to go to France for graduate school, majoring in music theory.
In the summer of 2018, she and her mother said that she wanted to take the guzheng to France, because whenever she went out, she often saw French artists performing in the streets, violin, guitar, singing, dancing... But I rarely saw Chinese instruments, and I never saw Chinese perform. She wanted to try to do a show on the street.
Guzheng was bought for her by her mother when she was in elementary school, and she has followed her for more than ten years, which can be said to be her baby. The longer the guzheng is played, the clearer the tone and the more precious it is. Therefore, Peng Jingxuan also made a great determination to decide to transport the guzheng to France.
The first time she performed on the street, she brought a guzheng, a piano stand, a folding stool, a speaker, and a brochure promoting the guzheng, and chose a white dress from the closet, and her hair was half-tied.
That time, she played several popular songs with Chinese style, such as "Blue and White Porcelain", "Horse Racing", "Alam Khan", and several traditional songs, such as "Mountain Flowing Water", "Fishing Boat Singing Evening" and so on. Classmates went with her, on the way she was a little worried, "I don't know how the effect is, do they like it or not, no one listens?" ”
The show lasted for half an hour and the response was good. In France, there is a tradition of paying for street performances. People kept throwing money into the case, and people stood next to her for a group photo while she played the piano. Her dangling heart was only then let go.
Later, every half a month, she would go to play near the Bordeaux Theater for an hour, and her classmates would be there to help her shoot videos.
In the video, she is dressed in Hanfu, her long hair is flowing, and she is emotionally playing a familiar Chinese song, while the audience is a blonde foreigner with blue eyes, wearing a suit, jeans and leather jacket, who looks at her with surprised, strange eyes, like a boudoir woman who does not eat fireworks in the world, crossing from ancient times.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > associated with guzheng</h1>
Peng Jingxuan's family music has a strong atmosphere, but such an attractive melody is not easy to practice. Talent and sweat are indispensable.
Her uncle, La Erhu, is the orchestra's erhu principal, and her mother loves to sing, always singing folk songs such as "Good Day", "Hot Girl" and "Little Back Basket" at home. And her mother's sincere love for music and perseverance also had a subtle impact on the young Peng Jingxuan.
She also has a different affection for traditional Chinese art.
When she was a child watching "Huan Zhu Ge Ge", she liked to watch Ziwei play the guzheng the most, and she thought that the guzheng was good and good-looking. One day her mother took her to an instrument shop and wanted to buy her an instrument, and her little finger pointed to a guzheng. Then, from the age of 7, she became acquainted with the guzheng and has been playing until now.
When she was in school, Peng Jingxuan liked to participate in various festivals of literary and art performances, such as June 1 Children's Day performances, New Year's Day performances, summer camp literary and art competitions, she did not fall behind. Every day, Peng Jingxuan thundered without moving to practice the guzheng for two hours, when practicing, her mother will always be around to accompany her, as long as she feels bored and bored, her mother will sing to her to listen to the score, so that the original boring practice life becomes warm and interesting.
In the second year of junior high school, she passed the tenth level of guzheng. After graduating from junior high school, she was fourteen years old and determined to become a professional guzheng player. She wants to go to the Guzheng Affiliated Middle School of Wuhan Conservatory of Music.
Later, she went to Wuhan alone and lived in the dormitory of the attached middle school of the Conservatory of Music. Get up at eight o'clock every morning, go to the piano room at eight o'clock to practice, practice until twelve o'clock to eat lunch, go back to the dormitory to rest for a while, continue practicing at two o'clock in the afternoon, eat dinner at six o'clock, return to the piano room after dinner, practice until nine o'clock, and go back to sleep. Dormitories, piano rooms, and canteens are three points and one line, and they almost do not leave the school.
In college, every year Peng Jingxuan will do more than a dozen performances, after class, she teaches children to play the piano in the piano shop, the income is good, after graduation, she could have joined the folk orchestra, but later decided to study abroad, increase her music theory literacy, but also want to find another life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > music crosses borders</h1>
To tell the truth, the popularity on the Internet was completely unexpected by Peng Jingxuan, after all, she originally just wanted to practice her guts on the street. But more attention also gave Peng Jingxuan an opportunity to let more people know about guzheng and Chinese music.
In France, few people know about this instrument, they think that the guzheng originated in Japan, and even when Peng Jingxuan began to wear Hanfu, they thought it was a kimono.
On the subway, there are often children pulling Peng Jingxuan for a group photo, and adults will also ask curiously, she told each other that guzheng is a Chinese plucked stringed instrument, which has a history of more than 2,000 years and 500 years, and is also known as "Oriental Piano".
Guzheng had no English translation or French translation, so she patiently taught the other party to pronounce, "guzheng." Later, she simply put up a sign during the performance, marking the writing in Chinese, French, English, and pinyin.
Peng Jingxuan later found that street playing was more suitable for fast-paced songs. Among her performances, the most popular tunes are "On the Beach" and "Horse Racing". "Horse Racing" turned out to be a erhu tune with a wild rhythm, and every time this song was performed, people would dance with it. Domestic audiences also like it, and the video of playing "Horse Racing" has been played more than 20 million times on the watermelon video. There is also "Red Ling", which is mixed with the singing and drama of Kunqu opera, and the superposition of guzheng, which is very popular with foreigners.
Once, after listening to her "Pipa", an old French lady said that this song gave her a feeling of a small bridge flowing water, a song lane, "Very good, thank you, the sound of the guzheng is like water." The old lady said so. At that moment, Peng Jingxuan felt that music crossed borders.
Last year, she planned a "tour with a guzheng" for herself, planning to perform in various European countries. She went to Paris, played under the Eiffel Tower, went to Switzerland, and played a game by Lake Geneva, and the response was very warm, applauding her. A Swiss composer interested in Chinese culture watched her video on the Internet, invited her to perform in concert halls, and invited her to their wedding.
During this time of popularity, Peng Jingxuan has been living in France, she feels that her life has not changed much, she does not define herself as an Internet celebrity, "at most it is a guzheng pop-up circle", she said, "I have always played the piano with my head down, no one knows me when walking on the road, and it has little impact on me." Maybe more people know or like guzheng, if because of the red can contact the stars I like, I am still quite happy. ”
At present, Peng Jingxuan has successfully passed the defense and is about to graduate. She wants to try to apply for a doctorate, and she also wants to wait for the epidemic to pass, and continue to travel around Europe with a guzheng to show Chinese music to more foreigners. She wanted her life to be like street performances, less complicated and more happy.