Jazz singer Zhan Xiaoli sets Chinese poetry and literary classics to music

Zhan Xiaoli, 38, was a pop singer when she stumbled across a few CDs by artists she did not recognise in the stacks of foreign music at Yabaolu market in Beijing one day about 16 years ago. They were jazz recordings. She took them home and was captivated. Not long afterwards she took a leap of faith and moved to Vienna to study the genre. She furthered her knowledge with a stint in New York, but decided to return home to China and make a name for herself. In true jazz tradition, Zhan has created something original - setting the words of Chinese poetry and classical literature to jazz, as performed by her five-piece band. So far, she says her shows at the Penghao Theatre in Beijing have been well received.

I like writing songs and original music. I learned jazz singing when I was in Europe, but I thought I should come up with a new form of performance if I wanted my music to resonate with Chinese audiences. Jazz is not very well known by Chinese people, but they are familiar with Chinese poetry. As with classical literature, it is concise and succinct, which I like very much.

First of all, it has to move me. The pieces I have chosen carry messages that provide me with inspiration and make me think. I then think how to match the words with the right style of jazz, taking the aesthetic principles of Chinese poetry into account. Of the eight songs I am using in my performance, I like the two using modern poet Gu Cheng and Bei Dao's poetry as lyrics. The one using excerpts from the [ ] is also very meaningful to me. These writings are popular among Chinese people, but people will react differently when listening. That's interesting.