URUMQI, Xinjiang, China — Over 5,000 people filled the new multipurpose Xinjiang University Gymnasium on May 10 to hear the BYU-Hawaii Concert Choir give its first public performance in this far-western Chinese city.
The 62-voice choir, under the direction of BYU-Hawaii music professor Michael Belnap, embarked Laie on May 9 for a three-week concert tour that will include performances in Xi'an, Beijing, Tianjin and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
BYU-Hawaii dance instructor and alumna Nina Mu Foster, a Uyghur originally from Urumqi, and Wei Minzhi, a well-known actress in China who's a current BYUH freshman, emceed the program. Other Chinese-speaking members of the choir, including Will Ellis, a senior preprofessional major from Laie who served a mission in Taiwan, also introduced some of the numbers.
During the concert, the choir sang a variety of classical and popular literature. The audience responded heartily to segments that included a Samoan slap dance and Hawaiian hula, and especially enjoyed two Chinese folk songs and another in Uyghur — the Turkic-related language of the ethnic minority who comprise just under 50% of the population of Urumqi and over 70% of the people in the Xinjiang Province.
After the choir completed its repertoire, Uyghur students at Xinjiang University presented a number of their lively dances, and then posed for pictures with the BYU-Hawaii choir members [see photo below].
University and government officials welcomed BYUH President Eric B. Shumway and his wife, Carolyn, and Polynesian Cultural Center Vice President of Human Resources John Muaina and his wife, Luella, as well as several other VIPs and staff who are accompanying the tour, to the concert.
"We are celebrating 25 years of close friendship with the Chinese people," President Shumway said. "A little more than 25 years ago BYU-Hawaii and the PCC established the Asian Executive Management internship program. Since then, hundreds of Chinese have been educated in Laie and returned to China. We would now like to greet our alumni, meet people in the government, education and business, and reaffirm our commitment to our friendship in the future."
"This tour celebrates all of those connections and reaffirms our friendship. We're very grateful for those connections and friendships over the years, which have been mutually beneficial. The mission of BYU-Hawaii is to create a context for peace, and we believe our association with China is also central to the mission."
Based on the inaugural audience's response, the tour has made a good start. "This was a brilliant performance, and our students performed magnificently. There were some wonderful, high moments," President Shumway observed. "The feeling of joy was indescribable out there."
He also said the hosting university and other leaders "explained to me that this was a very high-level performance — probably the first that many of these young people have seen or heard. They were pleasantly stunned by the response."
The next morning in a group devotional, President Shumway told the choir members, "You performed [in the large facility] in a very intimate fashion. You were very beautiful, professional and dignified; and I wanted to say how pleased everybody was with how you validate your counterparts at Xinjiang University, how quickly you connected and made friends. One of you said, after being together for only 30 minutes, 'I'm having a hard time leaving.' I just wanted to thank you for that."
Of the choir's cultural exchange visit to Urumqi High School earlier in the day, President Shumway said, "Those kids never had more validation. You were just perfect. Of course, they were not just performing for us, they were performing for their leaders in Xinjiang Province. To see us together was very important to them."
"Some of the people told me after how much they appreciated the song we sang in Uyghur," said BYU-Hawaii's Dr. Peter Chan, who is accompanying the tour with his wife, Joyce, as a Chinese cultural advisor and interpreter. "He said you have traveled thousands of miles from Hawaii to sing a Uyghur song for them, something he never expected. He was so touched by your ability to do that."
Joyce Chan, a Chinese alumna whose family has lived in Singapore for four generations, pointed out she knew all of the folk songs, "they're that popular"; and Lauren Ellis, a choir member and junior EXS major from Laie who saw some of the people singing along with the Uyghur number, said, "It felt so good to feel those connections."
Chan also noted that some of the Urumqi High School students came to the concert after school, waiting for hours to get in. "They were crying because initially they couldn't get in," she reported.
"This was a brilliant performance," President Shumway said. "The feeling of joy out there was indescribable, and our students were wonderful."
— Photos by Mike Foley
