Yo-Yo Ma and Amy Tan share childhood stories at the first panel discussion of the US-China Forum on the Arts and Culture, in Beijing. Photos by Zou Hong / China Daily

Exclusive | Yo-Yo Ma

He is one of the world's top musicians, but Yo-Yo Ma approaches fame with a rare humility that spurs both his imagination and creativity. He shares his vision with Cang Lide.

As one of the main speakers at the US-China Forum on the Arts and Culture in Beijing on Thursday, two words from Yo-Yo Ma's short speech stood out: imagination and creativity.

Later, in the VIP room next to the Little Theater of the National Center of the Performing Arts, Ma elaborates on the theme and gets so carried away that he waves away a reminder that our 15-minute interview is running over time.

Yo-Yo Ma's career is a testament to his continuing search for cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition, and connections that stimulate the imagination.

Speaking of the links between imagination, creativity and tradition, he likens his Silk Road Project to a string of visits to homes of friends with different cultural traditions.

He established the project in 1998, "To promote the study of the cultural, artistic and intellectual traditions along the ancient Silk Road trade route that stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean".

"One of the artistic principles is that anything you want to do with an art form, you have to start from inside - your inner heart," Ma says.

"For instance, you invite me to your house or your tradition of thousands of years, and I'm your guest. When you show me how you live and what you care about, I say, 'Oh, let me try that'. There are so many traditions along the Silk Road.

"By doing this over and over again, suddenly we feel we have so many houses. It's a process of learning and growth when we begin to appreciate each other's houses and traditions.

"With the respect of different traditions, we become more sensitive and make changes individually or as a group and we feel more human, and become more complete as human beings."

How does Ma cope with the infringement of technology into so many aspects of life, including arts and culture?

"Culture cannot compete with the changes and development of technology. But in culture, there's always a tension between the old and new.

"It can be a healthy tension, or creative tension. Old and new don't always like to live in the same house. But you can always live with the two, and not reject either. That's really when culture becomes interesting.

"For me, there's no tradition that exists without successful invention. Every tradition is invented, so a country should not only learn from other countries, but it should go deeper into its own, and with each tradition, the deeper you go, you'll find elements of the whole world in it.

"The fear of losing your identity is always there but we have to fight that fear. When a culture evolves, you always remain very individual in the world."

In that sense, Ma's Silk Road Project is a response to the needs of the present world, crossing cultures, nations, stimulating imagination and creativity.

Yo-Yo Ma works with many Chinese musicians in his Silk Road Ensemble and has nothing but praise for them.

"Fantastic!" he says, mentioning the names of guqin (a seven-stringed plucked instrument) musician Chen Leiji, who he calls the "king of instruments", Wu Tong and composer Zhao Jiping.

"It is wonderful to meet new friends and old friends together here."

Tonight, Yo-Yo Ma appears together with a stellar cast of artistes for A Musical Dialogue. Among those on stage will be Meryl Streep, Chen Leiji, Wu Tong, Du Cong, Damian Woetzel, Liu Lin, Brooklyn Rider, Charles "Lil Buck" Riley, and students from the China Central Conservatoire.

It is indeed a gathering of friends, from both sides of the Pacific.

(China Daily 11/18/2011 page18)