Every second month, during the afternoon of its second Saturday, musician Cheng Yu dresses in traditional Chinese attire and takes a guqin and pipa to a special gathering she started in London 20 years ago.

Cheng is a pipa and guqin virtuoso who trained at Xi'an Conservatory of Music in the 1980s before playing the pipa at the China National Traditional Orchestra. She later studied for her master's and doctoral degrees in ethnomusicology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, or SOAS, in the 1990s.

She has been active ever since in educating people and performing Chinese music in the United Kingdom.

To Cheng, sharing and promoting Chinese traditional instruments and music to Westerners brings her the utmost joy and fulfillment.

"This is something that I enjoy doing," Cheng said. "It enables them to appreciate a culture that is very unique and different from theirs."

The gathering Cheng initiated, called yaji in Chinese, is a tradition among the Chinese literati that goes back more than 1,000 years, to when ancient scholars and artists first got together to drink tea, write poems, appreciate art, and enjoy music.

The bi-monthly yaji in London is now organized by the London Youlan Qin Society and focuses on traditional Chinese music, with attendees playing various pieces of music on Chinese instruments, including the guqin, pipa, and flute, and with musicians sharing their understanding of the music.

Elegant Gatherings

The guqin, or qin, a seven-stringed Chinese zither, is one of China's oldest instruments, with a history dating back some 3,000 years. In 2003, UNESCO proclaimed China's ancient guqin music a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity.

Over the years, the yaji gatherings in London have drawn professional musicians, scholars, office workers, and amateur appreciators of Chinese culture, among others, with attendees coming from all over the United Kingdom, and sometimes from other countries in Europe.

"In 2003, I established the London Youlan Qin Society and invited a guqin master, Gong Yi from Shanghai, to teach classes and give concerts in London, and since then, we have been holding yaji on various themes. It is like an informal salon in the West that provides a forum for guqin and Chinese music lovers to perform, and discuss music as well as its associated philosophical and cultural aspects," Cheng said.

In early July, the society marked its 20th anniversary with the 124th yaji gathering in the Djam Lecture Theatre at SOAS.

Charlie Thomas, who traveled from Birmingham to London for the gathering as he had five times before, said: "It's not just Chinese people who come. I met a German lady who also liked guqin and I started talking with her. People here are so welcoming, and they have different backgrounds but share similar interests in guqin."

Thomas has studied guqin with Cheng for about a year.

"Compared with violin, the sound of guqin is very meditative and more calming," he said, adding that playing the guqin helped him calm down and solved a sleeping problem he had.

Guqin, go, calligraphy, and painting were regarded in ancient China as the four arts that a person must study to become a learned scholar, because they cultivate one's mind and disposition in different aspects.

Musical Roots

Born into a musical family in Beijing, Cheng first studied the pipa, the Chinese plucked lute, with her father at age 7, and she then got to study with guqin master Li Xiangting when she was at the Xi'an Conservatory of Music.

"My father is a pipa master, and I still remember receiving the pipa on my 7th birthday as a gift," said Cheng."My grandfather plays guqin, so I was interested in learning both."

In 1987, Cheng graduated with distinction in pipa and guqin performance before playing in the China National Traditional Orchestra in Beijing. She moved to London in 1990 and studied ethnomusicology at SOAS, and later taught both the guqin and pipa at the school.

In the early 2000s, Cheng conducted research to recreate the five-string pipa, which was lost in the 8th century in China, with the current pipa only having four strings. The work won her major awards from Women in Music, the Arts Council of England, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Throughout the years, Cheng has always been active in performing at various concerts and on special occasions and in collaborating with musicians from different genres and countries. She also co-founded UK Chinese Ensemble, which performs throughout the UK and Europe, in occasions such as the Chinese Spring Festival when tens of thousands of people gather at Trafalgar Square to watch the annual grand show.

Blending Genres

Cheng's most recent collaboration was with Manchester's Psappha Ensemble in its 'Composing for …'project early this year, during which six young composers worked with Cheng to create new compositions for the pipa. The six pieces were released on July 28.

"I felt very proud that I was the only woman musician in this year's project, and the pipa is the only non-Western instrument. It's a challenging and exciting experience for me,"Cheng said.

"During workshops, I explained the features of pipa, and showed the composers how it is played, and worked with them to create music that combines elements of contemporary and classical, Chinese and Western."

Currently, Cheng has been busy preparing for the 2023 London International Chinese Music Festival, which is scheduled to take place from Aug 20 to Aug 27 and that will combine a series of concerts, academic exchanges, and a summer school on traditional Chinese musical instruments.

"Three decades flew by since I first came to London, and I have taught hundreds of students — a lot of them were foreigners who show great appreciation toward Chinese civilization," Cheng said.

"I enjoy what I am doing. I simply feel the joy when watching them progress in their skills and understanding of Chinese music."

Pipa and guqin virtuoso Cheng Yu. [China Daily]

Cheng and the Silk Breeze ensemble perform her composition Dream Butterfly on a five-stringed pipa at East London's Rich Mix Theatre in August 2021. [China Daily]

UK Chinese Ensemble members pose in front of London's Tower Bridge after a performance in 2022. [China Daily]

(Source: China Daily)