Folk time

Musicians from the China National Symphony Orchestra stage performances and savor the local lifestyle in Yunnan province.[Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

"After each trip, we digest what we absorb. But one trip isn't enough," says Li.

In 2015, Guan led musicians to the same villages of Yunnan he visited in 1983. The same year, the national orchestra established three bases in the province, which now offer a platform for more composers to stay, collect and research folk music.

In 2016, besides collecting musical material in Yunnan, more than 120 musicians of the national orchestra performed under the baton of Guan at the Honghe Grand Theater, in Mengzi city in Yunnan, presenting their adaptation of traditional Hani music.

Composer Huang Kairan, who joined the Yunnan trips last year and this year, says: "Before we saw the terraced fields, the singing of the Hani people came along clearly. Their singing was melodic. Though we couldn't understand the lyrics, we were impressed by the music and the sound of their instruments."

After the trip, Huang wrote a 10-minute piece, titled Somewhere in There, which was performed by him and his colleagues at the Honghe Grand Theater.

"I borrowed the percussion beats and adapted a Hani children's ballad into a piece for chamber music," says the 28-year-old.