Musician improvises Nanyin opera to help keep it alive

Wang Xinxin can still recall her childhood in a small village of Quanzhou in Fujian province more than three decades ago. There was no electricity, no tap water and no television. The only entertainment was the chorus of the Chinese art of Nanguan, or Nanyin, a traditional opera sung in the southern Fujian dialect, which has existed for more than 1,000 years.

"Almost all the people in the village could sing and play a Nanyin musical instrument. The locals played and sang it daily as a form of relaxation and to entertain themselves. I didn't know the existence of any other kind of music in the world then," says Wang.

For some young people, Nanyin music is slow and boring. The lyrics are about sad love stories and whining women.