AI can never beat triumphant human spirit, Yo-Yo Ma tells Hong Kong students before launching into impromptu Bach recital
- World-renowned cellist takes questions from students at Chinese University event during rare visit to Hong Kong to give two performances at Cultural Centre
- ‘I prefer to live a more complicated bicultural, tricultural life because I see the benefits of each,’ he says on growing up with Chinese, French and American cultures
Artificial intelligence (AI) can never beat the ability of the human spirit triumphing over circumstances and a thinking mind nourished by youthful curiosity will help lead to success, the renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma told university students in Hong Kong.
“What is it all about?” and “Why?”, the 68-year-old cellist urged the hundreds of students gathered at the Chinese University event on Tuesday to constantly ask during their formative college years.
“Don’t give up on any of those questions, because what you put into your minds at that age, that’s your bank account to withdraw from intellectually and emotionally for the rest of your life. Whatever you put in, treasure that. If they’re questions, great. If you don’t have the answers, fine.”
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Asked by a student about AI, Ma stressed the technology was no substitute for the human spirit, citing his experience performing one of Beethoven’s most “sunny, noble and majestic” pieces, the Piano Concerto No 5 in E-flat Major, Op 73 Emperor.
The famed German composer is believed to have written the piece amid the Napoleonic Wars (1799–1815), while living in Vienna, Austria.
“Beethoven wrote that piece of music amid sorrow and tears as Napoleon bombarded Vienna,” Ma said. “That’s the human spirit – at his lowest point, he was able to conjure up something unbelievably optimistic.
“AI could, let’s say, produce the same piece of music, write the same Shakespeare play or Dream of the Red Chamber – whatever you want. But without the context, you can’t go to that level of appreciation.”
Ma also discussed the importance of his intercultural upbringing, having been born in Paris to Chinese parents and moving to the United States at age seven, and said those experiences had informed his adult life, including his studies in anthropology at Harvard University in the 1970s.
“For me, anthropology looks at values. The equivalent of the DNA of a culture is its values,” the cellist said, adding he had received contradictory social messages growing up since French, Chinese and American cultures each included claims that they were the greatest.
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“I decided I didn’t want to choose,” he said. “I preferred to live a more complicated bicultural, tricultural life because I see the benefits of each.”
The cellist drew the event to a close with a performance of J.S. Bach’s famous Cello Suite No 1 in G Major.
Ma, who has earned 19 Grammy Awards over his career, gave a recital with pianist Kathryn Stott on Monday which included Shostakovich’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor, Op 40.
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He also will play alongside the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra on Wednesday, featuring Dvorak’s Cello Concerto.
The public events are Ma’s first in Hong Kong since 2016 and have seen tickets quickly sold out, with scalpers offering spots for as much as HK$20,000 (US$2,500) a seat.
