A multigenerational musical journey | Yijia Tu

0:06You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. Can you imagine playing an instrument that has 2 ,000 years of history behind it? Would you honor the tradition by playing music of old or look to add to its history with new music? Maybe both? This question is one that Chinese zither player, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Yi Jia Tu often asks. In this beautiful talk and performance, she shares what led her to this incredible instrument and how for her, blending traditional and modern music bridges past and present and the differences among us.

0:54So this is a gu zhen, an ancient Chinese zither that has over 2 ,000 years of history. But growing up in China, I played the two most popular instruments. Can you guess what they are? It's the guitar and the piano. Yeah, not this. So I wrote a song on the guitar that ended up on one of the biggest music shows of the time, called 中国好歌曲。 And at 16, my life changed overnight. I entered this parallel universe as the Hannah Montana version of myself as a high school kid. I saw my face on news headlines, I heard my music played in public, which was a weird experience. And I was working with music legends I grew up admiring who helped my debut album, won the prestigious Huayu Bang Zhongbang, also known as the Chinese Music Awards.

1:43However, as a Chinese musician, my music was very westernized. I didn't sound Chinese, and in a way, I'm not sure if I really wanted to. You see, with traditional music, I didn't really think it was cool. I have to admit, in my language, there's this word for something that's not cool or backwards is called 土, but 土 literally means the earth or soil that we stand on. On the other hand, you have this word called 洋气, which means the opposite, something very trendy and cool and avant-garde, but 洋气 literally means western. And over time, I realized that this isn't just a Chinese issue, but a global one.

2:29Music traditions are dying in the hands of our generation, but how can we preserve a tradition if we don't feel a personal connection to it? So I felt inspired to learn the traditional instruments and folk music to reconnect with my roots but instead of playing traditional music traditionally it's important for me to be creative with it so I'm going to show you how I do that I'm going to play you a song that's a combination of a traditional folk song as well as my own composition. I think you can guess which part is the traditional and which one is not.

3:31Thank you.

4:09Thank you.

4:32A love is anyone home

4:45I've been gone for too long

4:56I just call to spread all Oh, that we are now found

5:39Aum,

5:50מכ순 오�

6:07Descob

6:23Thank you.

6:27Thank you. So there's this quote attributed to the composer Gustav Machler that I really like. Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. And music can transcend not just the barriers of language and culture, but also time and space. For me, music can build a bridge between the East and the West, the past and the present, and between you and me. And I've witnessed how music can reach beyond the limits of not just our human memory, but even our very own consciousness. When my grandmother developed Alzheimer's, we could no longer communicate through words. However, there was this lullaby that she used to sing to me when I was a child.

7:18It's a lullaby that her mother used to sing to her, so it's been passed down to my family for over four generations. And whenever I sing the melody, she will recognize the melody and sing along with me, which is really sweet. And even though my grandmother has recently passed away, whenever I sing this lullaby, I still feel deeply connected with her. It's almost like she's still singing along with me, perhaps somewhere in a space that only exists through music.

8:20Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh

8:36摇摇我的宝贝水浆

8:44睡着了 熬睡醒了

8:51醒来吃瓜糕

9:01摇摇我的宝贝水 黑掉

9:48S��-China

10:11Thank you.

10:22That was Eja Tu speaking at TED 2025. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at ted.com slash curationguidelines. And that's it for today's show. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, Alejandra Salazar, and Tonsika Sarmanivon. It was mixed by Christopher Faze Bogan. Additional support from Emma Taubner and Daniela Ballarezzo. I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening.