Cultural contrasts fuel musician's creative fire

Leading Chinese concert pianist Chen Junyan has said the artistic and philosophical differences between East and West and the sparks they create when they meet are what fuel her career and keep the creative process going.

Speaking at China Daily's Vision China event in central London, Chen, born in Shanghai and trained at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music before attending London's Royal Academy of Music, shared her personal and artistic journey from her birthplace to her adopted home. The contrasting traditions have transformed her into the in-demand performer she is today.

She explains how her musical education in the United Kingdom "added wings to my Chinese musical education".

"It did not replace what came before. It allowed me to use my abilities differently," she says.

"The discipline and command of the instrument I developed in China gave me a foundation from a very young age. My education in Britain encouraged me to question, experiment, collaborate, and develop my ideas. The two cultures and styles complemented one another perfectly."

In 2024, after completing her studies at the Royal Academy of Music, Chen entered the Leeds International Piano Competition, where she won two individual prizes and finished as overall runner-up, the best-ever performance by a Chinese participant, which has, in recent years, become an increasingly large cohort.

Since then, she has performed across Germany and the United Kingdom, released recordings, and collaborated with a range of musicians.

"When I build a concert program, I often start with an idea rather than a conventional category," she explained.

"At first, the pieces may appear to have nothing to say to each other, but they go together like a five-course meal. Each has its own flavor. Some things contrast completely; others bring out something unexpected in what came before. Hopefully, by the end, you understand each element differently by appreciating the whole. You spot the similarities across centuries and the shared rhythms that defy geography and history but ask surprisingly similar questions."

Sometimes, she continued, it can be playing music in an unfamiliar setting that gives it new life and opens up understanding.

She cited one particular performance in London that mixed Western classical music inspired by visions of an imagined Asia with traditional music and even standup comedy from the region, with the contrast highlighting previously unseen details.

"What made this particularly fascinating was that some of the Western music in the program was itself imagining Asia … these works from Western musical history show how Asia was seen, imagined, and represented at different moments in history.

"Now, generations later, East and Southeast Asian artists are standing on a London stage, replying through music old and new, through reinterpretation, and even through jokes," she said.

"For me, that is cultural exchange. It doesn't mean that everybody has to agree or discover we are all the same. We aren't."

She added: "Eastern and Western arts have developed different aesthetics, philosophies and forms of expression, which is precisely why those differences are so valuable — they open up new horizons. What interests me is what those differences allow us to discover."

julian@mail.chinadailyuk.com