Quotes

Beautiful melodies are timeless, boundless, and appeal to all hearts. I think of a melody as a vibration that is emitted naturally from the body.

I have been working with 'water' for a very long time. I think human beings are profoundly connected with water. Humans hear the sound of water even before birth. It might be the very first sound one hears in his life. Human health, human culture, human origins and human futures cannot be separated from water. I was born and grew up on the banks of the Liuyang River in Hunan province. Water has always been music to me. My earliest contact with music was water as a musical instrument. [It] is about my belief, my talent and my inspiration.

[on composing his opera 'Tea: A Mirror of the Soul'] When I was in the southern regions of China, which of course is the home of tea, I had the opportunity to interview an eminent nun. She always presents to her first-time guests an empty tea bowl, and on such occasions she herself puts [one]to her lips, as if to drain it of its contents. In this very action her spiritual world view becomes vividly apparent. In 'The Book of Tea' itself, the author Lu Yu writes about water, wind, fire and earthenware. I wanted to assimilate all these elements into my work because they are all essential to the aesthetics of tea.