Mission: Save vanishing music of vinyl records

Technicians work in the laboratory. Feng Yongbin / China Daily

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An antique collector and investor, Xiong is interested in "old stuff". About five years ago, when he saw piles of old vinyl records stored on shelves in a basement room of a library: broken, mildewed, covered by layers of dust, and long forgotten, Xiong was shocked and sad.

"I didn't know how many records there were in the room. Some of them were tagged with performers' names while some were not. The value of those vinyl records is in the artists' performances. If they cannot be played any more, we will lose those priceless sounds forever," recalls Xiong.

It was then that he decided to make restoring old music his business.

He sold some of his antiques and even his house to start a company to restore old sounds - an idea that was in its infancy in China then.

So far, Xiong's team has restored more than 20,000 songs and musical works from renowned Chinese musicians, including those of the late composers Xian Xinghai (1905-1945), Nie Er (1912-1935), and established guzheng (Chinese plucked zither) player Yang Xiuming, who is now 80 years old.

"It's not just nostalgia," says Li Kun, a 26-year-old sound engineer in Xiong's company.

"There are many stories behind every record. We want to let people know how vinyl is supposed to sound like and what great art we had, but which we have forgotten today."

Aaron Baumgartner, 30, a German who came to China to finish his master's degree in intercultural studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University, has worked as an intern at Xiong's company the past year.

"My role is to research how musical heritage is conserved and protected abroad and what methods and technologies are involved," Baumgartner says.

"I am convinced that the Chinese awareness of musical heritage protection is growing rapidly and hopefully keeps pace with the Chinese economy."

China Record Corporation, the oldest and largest national record company, started a project to digitalize old Chinese vinyl records two years ago, People's Daily reported. Nearly 180,000 recordings are lined up to be saved, including the speeches by two of New China's founding fathers, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai.

"My dream is to build an online database that has all the Chinese musical works from the past century," Xiong says.

"I hope the Chinese audience, especially the younger generation, can appreciate the history."