Bridge Builders: Belt and Road (COPY)

Jean-François Maljean: Music Builds the Bridge, Exchanges Enrich the Cultures

By Ai Yan, Gary Parkinson

Where words leave off, music begins.
Heinrich Heine

"Where words leave off, music begins." The phrase written by 19th-century German poet Heinrich Heine rang down the ages to everyone who went through the COVID-19 pandemic.

When travel was suspended, performances canceled and people confined in solitude at home, music soothed, healed and reconnected even beyond borders.

Jean-François Maljean knows better than most about the strength of music. A song composed by the Belgian musician uplifted and encouraged the hearts of millions of people thousands of miles away in 2020 during the lockdown in Wuhan city, China.

For those in this faraway country, he is mostly known by his Chinese name: Shang Malong.

Jean-François Maljean plays piano at his home studio in Belgium. /CGTN Europe

A birdview of the city of Wuhan on January 1, 2021.

A Journey Started in Music

"I'm a musician… I would say forever," is how Maljean introduces himself to CGTN, and he has good reason to say so. Born into a family of music enthusiasts, he started to learn playing piano at six years old, and music became his lifetime career.

Displaying talent from the beginning, Maljean studied classical music in Verviers, Liège and Brussels before his love of jazz led him to the U.S. and specifically Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music.

He was always interested in the fusion of musical genres, but it wasn't until he started his career in China around 2000 that he suddenly found a completely different world of music.

Even today, when describing his first impression of China, he says he was astonished by the differences – how vibrant and various life could be, with everything thriving in this new-found land: "It's like many countries linked together," he says.

His love of music again took him on a journey, to the most diverse parts of Guizhou Province, where various ethnic groups live. There he encountered Dong music.

Dong Chorus, a New Inspiration and a New Chapter

They have beautiful and very original melodies that passed through the community during the centuries.
Jean-François Maljean

The Dong ethnic group is scattered across a wide range of southern Chinese regions, such as Guizhou, Guangxi and Hunan – and to the Dong people, singing is a natural instinct. Their traditional music – the Grand Song of the Dong, or the Dong Chorus – was added in 2009 to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

It's a traditional music passed down from generation to generation through the centuries. It's mainly singing, without instrumental accompaniment. The Dong people sing about life and death, their history and beliefs, their happiness and sorrows.

Maljean learned about Dong music after he started his career in China, and a friend recommended the Songs of the Dong to him. He enjoyed it so much that it later inspired him in the production of several albums.

The albums are only the beginning of a new chapter in his life. He traveled to Guizhou and explored the life of the Dong people as well as their music. He performed with them and learned about their chorus. After getting to know more about the culture and the music, he decided that he wanted to introduce it to a wider world, to Europe.

"Most of the Dong music is vocal music, so of course I use it as one of the most important elements," he says, explaining how he adapted the traditional ethnic music to make it more easily understandable by the Western audience.

"They have beautiful and very original melodies that passed through the community during the centuries. What interested me was to put chords underneath and try to harmonize it to make it more Western."

He sometimes extracts a part which, according to his knowledge of occidental music, is more commercial and recognizable for the Western world, and harmonizes it with instrumental accompaniment.

Maljean was successful with his experiment. He has been invited to perform for many different occasions in China, cooperating with Chinese musicians, and of course the Dong people. Invitations came from his home continent, too.

"We perform with Dong people in Paris, and we brought them to Prague, Budapest, Geneva. And the people were very enthusiastic," he says.

Chime of the Dawn Bell:

A Song for Wuhan

The most important idea that I wanted to convey is solidarity, is solidarity with the people in Wuhan. You might feel alone, but the world stands with you, united, united and brave.
Jean-François Maljean

In early 2020, an unexpected epidemic forced Wuhan, a city of more than 1.3 million, to press the pause button. The pandemic was unprecedented for people around the world, but living in the city to bear the first shock, the people of Wuhan have sacrificed a lot.

During this darkest moment, Maljean composed the song The Chime of the Dawn Bell, which became an instant hit on Chinese social media.

Doctors are discussing the condition of patients during the lockdown in Wuhan City, Hubei Province. /CFP Photo

Doctors are discussing the condition of patients during the lockdown in Wuhan City, Hubei Province. /CFP Photo

It was the first song presented by a foreign musician showing support to Wuhan, and many said their eyes filled with tears while listening to it.

Asked about the original intention of composing the song, Maljean says it was "very spontaneous. We did it with our hearts, trying to understand what was happening there.

"The most important idea that I wanted to convey is solidarity. You might feel alone, but the world stands with you, united and brave."

The song's showcasing of the Chinese instrument bianzhong is also impressive. Bianzhong, also known as the Chime Bells, is one of China's most ancient instruments, dating back thousands of years. It is a set of bronze bells usually used in ritual or court performances.

Jean-François Maljean is talking about composition with his friend Silvano Macaluso in Belgium. /Jean-François Maljean

Jean-François Maljean is talking about composition with his friend Silvano Macaluso in Belgium. /Jean-François Maljean

Maljean has long been fascinated by China's ancient music, including the pentatonic scales. He was given a miniature of the Chime Bells as present in 2019, just before the pandemic; being interested in the sounds, he studied the instrument by learning about its history and how it was used – so when composing the song, he thought about it immediately.

"The sounds of the Chime Bells are amazing, it matches perfectly with the period of time, and it gives the sense of hope," he explains.

The song "Chime of the Dawn Bell" was performed in London, UK. /CGTN

The song "Chime of the Dawn Bell" was performed in London, UK. /CGTN

The song was played everywhere on social media, and people left their comments expressing their sentiments and gratitude for the Belgian musician.

"The music has strength, and I believe the dawn will come for Wuhan. Keep on China, we will win the battle," it is one of the thousands of comments under the song on Weibo, China's Facebook-like social media platform.

"I think the idea was safely received by Wuhan and they were encouraged," Maljean says, understatedly.

Music Builds the Bridge,

Exchanges Enrich the Cultures

We can all be bridge builders, but we have to respect each other's cultures, we have to travel and to tell.
Jean-François Maljean

Although beginning with music, Maljean's interests in China have now become much more extended into various areas.

Having traveled to China several times a year, he's already been to a large portion of the country. He visited metropolises such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Shenzhen, and he toured around the vast landscapes in Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan and Qinghai.

He knows well the ethnic music not only of the Dong people, but also of the Uygur, Inner Mongolia, Miao and Yi ethnic groups. They brought him rich sources of inspiration and, typically, extended his creative palette: he cooperates not only with musicians in classic and pop music, but also with artists in Kunqu Opera, a genre that has over 600 years of history.

Maljean believes there is no boundary for art, but also that an open heart is needed to see the diversity.

"After traveling there 10 or 20 times, you'll have part of your heart Chinese. Then you'll understand everything," he says. "Over the years, I have observed a lot of kindness from the people. They are very interested in meeting me and playing me their music, introducing me about their cultures."

He prefers to travel, to talk to the people, to learn and to teach face-to-face, even in a world bonded mainly by the internet. To him, traversing continents and oceans to meet one another is still irreplaceable – so it's no surprise that he was quickly back touring China after travel restrictions were lifted earlier this year.

"We can all be bridge builders, but we have to respect each other's cultures, we have to travel and to tell," he says. "Our cultures are different, our languages are different, but we can enrich each other's culture through exchanges."