If you're a music lover who enjoys listening to unusual instruments, you need to check out Peng Jingxuan. She is a Chinese student who moved to France to study. While there, she went on a mission to spread Chinese culture and made videos of herself playing a classic Chinese zither or guzheng. If you've never heard this instrument played before, it makes a unique sound. It's almost as if a piano, violin and harp are playing all at the same time. As a result, it adds a whole new depth to every song, even ones you have heard many times.
In one of Jingxuan's videos, she is playing on a street in the beautiful city of Bordeaux. It seems amazing that so many people walk past her because the music she is playing is absolutely beautiful. More than that, though, Jingxuan herself looks gorgeous. As part of her mission to spread Chinese culture, she is wearing a traditional silk dress based on the style worn during the Han dynasty.
The ensemble is completed by a beautifully elegant hairstyle and face covering. Considering this very traditional look, you'd expect the song she plays to be a traditional Chinese folk song. Instead, surprisingly, she plays the Charlie Puth/Wiz Khalifa hit See You Again.
Because this piece is instrumental, the beauty of the tune shines through. In addition, the complex sound produced by the guzheng adds extra depth to this lovely yet sad song. This fantastic east meets west performance begs for Jingxuan to play other modern songs on her zither. However, it would also be fascinating to hear traditional Chinese tunes too.
We can imagine that this reaction is exactly what Jingxuan was hoping for when she began uploading her performances to YouTube. If we judge her performances by views and subscribers, she is extremely successful. The See You Again video has been viewed 9.7 million times, and Jingxuan's channel has 551,000 subscribers.
Let's hope that her performances, as well as her degree in musicology, lead Jingxuan to a lot of success in the future. Any musician as talented as she is deserves to go far.
If you want to see more from this brilliant musician you can subscribe to her YouTube channel to watch more videos or follow her on Instagram for the latest updates.