"I had no time to play in my childhood."

— Ju Yinxuan, a guqin player who won the first prize in the youth group of Huain Cup International Chinese Instrument Competition in San Francisco, the United States

    Martin Li

    martin.mouse@163.com

    ALTHOUGH she is a local girl of only 17 years old, Ju Yinxuan has been playing the guqin for 10 years, which is a traditional Chinese zither with a history of more than 4,000 years.

    It has been played since ancient times and has traditionally been favored by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement,

    She won the first prize in the youth group of Huain Cup International Chinese Instrument Competition in San Francisco, the United States, in January 2013. The Chinese Musicians Association of America, formerly known as the California Youth Chinese Symphony, organized the competition.

    She also joined an art delegation organized by the Ministry of Culture to perform in three American cities in 2011.

    A 10-year journey

    Called Juzi by her parents, the girl started learning to play the guqin at the age of seven under the instruction of Chen Leiji, a well-known musician in China. Chen played the traditional instrument at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, impressing audiences from home and abroad.

    It was hard for the little girl to play the guqin in the beginning.

    “I needed to press strings with my left fingers, so my left fingers kept peeling in my first year,” Juzi recalled. “I plucked strings with my right fingernails, which were very soft and often fell off. It was very painful.”

    Juzi’s mother always stayed with her when she was practicing the instrument. The mother kept encouraging the girl.

    The TV in the girl’s room was taken away. She was allowed to play on the computer as a reward for her hard practice.

    “I had no time to play in my childhood,” she said.

    “There was no excellent guqin teacher [in Shenzhen], so my mother sent me to Beijing to study it. I took flights alone to Beijing in each long holiday during my third and fourth year in primary school. I studied and lived in the teacher’s home for several days each time, and then I came back to Shenzhen to practice at home,” she said.

    At about eight years old, Juzi thought of giving up guqin and got into dispute with her mother. She said her most hated question was “‘you play the guqin? I thought Western musical instruments were more fashionable.’ However, I later understood that music interlinked,” she said.

    Juzi’s skill kept improving thanks to her hard work.

    After entering senior high school, Juzi received instruction from Zhao Jiazhen, a professor of the Beijing-based Central Conservatory of Music (CCM).

    She asked for a long leave from school to stay in Beijing to learn the instrument.

    “I wanted to study at CCM, so I had to practice harder,” she said.

    Winning prize

    Recommended by her teacher, Juzi went to San Francisco to take part in the Huain Cup International Chinese Instrument Competition. Most of the competitors were older than her.

    “I got up at 7 a.m. on the day of the competition. I was not nervous while waiting backstage. However, when time approached for my performance, I got nervous. A fellow apprentice of mine forgot her melody on stage and was seriously reprimanded by our teacher, so I was afraid of forgetting the melody,” she recalled.

    Wearing white, traditional Chinese clothing, Juzi took the stage.

    “I was too nervous to look at the judges,” she said.

    However, the young girl’s skillful performance earned her first prize in the competition.

    Artist dream

    It is hard to believe that a girl who plays an ancient instrument also likes karaoke and street dancing.

    “I used to be a member of Brother Crew, a street dance troupe in Shenzhen. I danced with team members after school. I felt happy when dancing with others. It’s a pity that the troupe disbanded,” said Juzi.

    Like most young girls, Juzi likes singing, shopping, seeing movies and eating.

    “I dream of becoming a versatile artist in the future. It’s my childhood dream to sing and act,” she said.

    Besides guqin, Juzi has also studied ballet, Latin dance, folk dance and singing.

    She is a member of the choir at Shenzhen Senior High School.