Zhang Qian

zhqcindy@163.com

The ongoing Belt & Road Shenzhen International Music Festival has drawn massive reports from local and national media outlets. Media organizations outside of China have also turned their eyes to the festival and contributed articles regarding this musical and cultural event.

A group of foreign journalists were invited to report on the music festival by its organizing committee and led by China Reports, a Beijing-based magazine featuring in-depth Chinese political and economic affairs.

The journalists attended the opening ceremony of the music festival Saturday night and toured Lianhua Hill Park, one of Shenzhen’s landmarks, the next day. They told the Shenzhen Daily that both the international music festival and the city itself impressed them.

Impressed by the coastal city’s good environment, Duncan Gordon finds that Shenzhen is a green city with many plants and clean air. Being a special correspondent at the Beijing Bureau of Classique News, a French classical music magazine, Gordon praised the opening concert of the Belt & Road music festival as a top-level performance.

“The opening ceremony was very interesting and it’s good to see all these musicians from different countries performing together,” said Gordon. “The one special Belt & Road orchestra put together for the opening concert was really good.”

The British journalist with the French magazine said that he saw the great combination of musicians from different countries playing in one orchestra and added that the special orchestra composed of players from 17 Belt and Road countries was interesting.

Gordon’s view was echoed by another Beijing-based special correspondent, Belov Maksim, with Information Telegraphic Agency of Russia-TASS. Maksim said that it was new to see such an innovative concert where traditional Asian music elements were combined with classical European symphonies.

“Classical music in Europe is normally described as serious and can hardly be changed, but the opening concert showed us how music elements from other cultures can be added to make the classical symphonies more interesting and it can be a good combination.”

Maksim said that in his article he would introduce Shenzhen and the music festival to Russian readers.

Amit Deshmukh, an Indian freelancer now working as a reporter on Chinese events and news, said that he felt like he was sitting in a global village when he listened to the sitar solo performed by top Indian musician, Gaurav Mazumdar, during the opening concert.

“I now understand that the Belt and Road Initiative can work in many fields like music and lifestyle other than business only,” said Deshmukh.

Shenzhen, as China’s Special Economic Zone set up in the early 1980s, had been known for its rapid economic growth, but it’s gradually attaching more importance to culture, said Nagy Lin, the publisher and editor-in-chief with the World and China, a magazine headquartered in Europe.

“When we talk about achievements made by Shenzhen in previous years, we are talking about the economic growth here, but this time I am really amazed to see the city has so many far-reaching activities in sports, culture and other fields,” said the Hungarian citizen.

The publisher suggested that Shenzhen’s government continue to hold these activities in order to build up its global brand. “I believe that marketization is vital to making these events sustainable, and I am sure Shenzhen people can organize greater events in the following years with the efforts they made for the economic success in the past few decades,” said Lin.

The Belt & Road Shenzhen International Music Festival has also attracted other foreign media such as Columbia Broadcasting System, Marketwatch, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and so forth.