From the heart of Beijing to the edges of the global stage, you are at Roundtable.
I'm Ye Honglin.
U.S.
President Donald Trump is paying a state visit to China from May 13 to 15.
While the world eyes on the significant meeting beyond the headlines, connections between the two peoples have actually never stopped.
Earlier this year, the Wiffenpuff's A Cabella Choir of Yale University took a tour across China.
Roundtable's Yushan talked to three members of the team about their journey experience and the people-to-people exchange stories they wish to share.
And here is another edition of Generation Global.
Today I'm sitting with three very amazing singers from the Wiffin Poof A Capella Choir of Yale University.
Here's what I learned about you guys.
I know that each year, 14 of the senior students from Yale University are being selected to join the Wiffenpuff a cappella choir.
And this is also one of the world's oldest and most well-known choir that's founded ever since 1909.
So, without further ado, let's hear who our guests are and have them do a little bit of self introduction with us.
Hi, my name is Yi Xiao.
I am a tenor two from Beijing, China.
In the Whiffin' Poofs, I am the assistant musical director and the China tour manager.
Hi, my name is Eunice.
I'm a tenor one from San Ramon, California, and I'm the musical director of the Whiffin' Poofs.
Hi, everyone.
My name is Ben.
I'm a tenor two from La Jolla, California.
I'm the group's head winter tour manager, and I'm on our publicity team.
Yeah, and I've read about all the news report about the fantastic tour you guys have had in the past two weeks.
That's like suffering from jet lag of 12 hours amid everything else, visiting Chongqing and Chengdu and Dongzhai, as in the Dong village in southwest China's Guizhou and then you got to the eastern side, to Shanghai, and then get up north here to Tianjin, Zhangjiajie and Beijing.
I heard you're also going to Xi'an.
So, among all of these stops you've had, does any one particular experience or one particular city you've been to that strikes you the most or impress you the most?
Well, I think definitely the Dong village is my favorite memory.
I think that is the moment where I really felt how music can transcend language and transcend a lot of boundaries and bring everybody together.
The Dong village is located in the Qiandongnan area of Guizhou province, a really easy place to go to, so to speak, especially we only have 15 days in China and nine different cities to go to.
But it is a place that has a huge cultural significance.
We are the oldest collegiate acapella group in the US, and we sing mostly pop songs, jazz songs.
And the Grandone Choir is one of the world's oldest natural, unaccompanied singing groups as well.
So that really brought us together in the first place.
A story that I really want to tell is after the performance.
Right after the performance, a lot was going on.
We just finished a big dance together.
And then some people were tired, wanted to go back to the hotel.
Some people were doing other interviews.
I was personally doing an interview, so I wasn't able to really communicate a lot of instructions to the group, right?
And the Dong village had the least amount of people who were able to speak English and communicate instructions to the group.
So at that point it was sort of at a stage where the English speakers we were on stage without instructions.
But then this happened.
A lot of the local Dong village people, they just lit up a bonfire together.
And they're like, come over, come over, come with us, come with us. in Chinese.
And a lot of the members in the women's groups just followed them all the way to the bonfire and we started singing songs to each other.
They sang a song, we sang a song, back and forth.
And that moment was really special because we didn't communicate with the same kind of language.
But it was the hospitality and passion of the Dong village people that connected through music that really brought us together and had a really memorable night just exchanging music.
And that memory showed me how much similar we are with each other, although we speak different languages, we have different cultures But at the end of the day we're all human that loves music and loves each other's culture altogether.
So that's definitely my favorite memory.
That's awesome.
I had the chance of visiting Guizhou Province just myself last year too as part of a business trip.
And I remember every time when you get too involved in the local community how they welcome you is put on a red egg on your neck.
That was very unexpected.
I'm not sure how you guys feel about that.
Like for the first time, i mean, i loved my egg, i kept my egg very, very safe.
It's coming back with me um home um, it was just so incredible.
I think that that night was just so surreal.
I remember thinking to myself I will never have an experience like this, ever again.
It was just so once in a lifetime and I feel so grateful that I was able to share that moment.
We really felt so connected to each other and we exchanged.
We don't speak the same language at all, but we were still able to connect and I will always consider them friends.
Yeah, that's a feast of all different kinds of sound that I saw from the video.
You guys were singing while crescendoing into their singing.
And then there's also the clipping of the silver decoration that they were wearing.
So all together just brings you this feast of sound and singing and music all together.
So will you say that this is what, like the Dong village stop of your trip, is what strikes you the most so far.
I would say that definitely has to be up there.
I also loved going to Zhangjiajie.
I thought also growing up in the U.S., we have the national park system.
And I've always loved traveling to those with my family.
We've always gone hiking and backpacking there.
But I really loved kind of seeing a version of that here in China.
I absolutely loved walking through the Avatar Mountains.
I've always it's been. and a huge bucket list item to visit that.
But I think that it was extra special because we had just traveled to the Dong village, where we learned about how music and nature are really interconnected.
And then we were able to apply that in Zhangjiajie and we were able to sing in the beautiful mountains, the beautiful landscape.
We sang on the escalator down the mountain and it was just so surreal and special.
Let my feet be at your feet.
And I think it was really extra important to the group because we had just learned about how, in China, music and history are really intertwined.
And we were really able to kind of play a small part of that in Zhang Da Jie.
Nice.
All right.
What about you Eunice?
Yeah, so one of the most memorable parts of this tour for me has been singing with other university choruses, So you've had a chance to visit about three or four different universities at this point, And I think just the fact that you know We're obviously college students in America and so meeting other students, our age young people here in China, and not only sharing a stage with them but also even sharing the same songs as them, and has been very special for me.
Yeah, now I just want to zoom in a little bit to your Dong village experience, because that is one-of-a-kind kind of performance you were giving, while also experiencing the local life.
I did a little bit of research here.
So the Dong grandson, Dong Zu Da Ge, it's like very ethnic to the Dong ethnic group here in southwest China's Guizhou province.
It's got a history all the way from spring and autumn and the Warring States period from 2500 years ago.
In the meantime, when we look at a cappella, it's primed during the 15th century.
If I'm remembering correctly, it's back in the European countries where it literally means the word a cappella literally means from a chapel style, meaning that it's probably have a very deep religious kind of background.
I could see another kind of mind there.
Whoa, that's not fair.
So it might seem like two very different styles of singing and music and genres in general, but somehow you guys managed to blend it so perfectly.
And also it was such an immersive experience to see both choirs you guys and the local choir singing underneath that.
I don't even know how to describe it.
It's an archy kind of stone bridge with the echoes and with the beats and rhythm blending into each other.
What was it like to sing together?
Absolutely.
So I think, like you said, we originate from two very different styles of music.
I do think, though, that we share this love of just the pure harmony of voice without instruments.
And so in that, we're able to share a lot of commonalities with one another.
And so I think, first of all, I think singing in such a beautiful outdoor venue is very rare.
We often sing in indoor venues.
And so the fact that we were just able to sing out into the nature with that beautiful backdrop that you mentioned was just so special.
And I think that, yeah, like you said, we were just able to blend with them.
And it was such an incredible experience.
That was really cool.
And also, I'm wondering how does the local style of singing kind of inspire you guys?
How do you feel about their style of singing?
Does it impress you in a different way as something you've never heard before?
I think one of the elements of doing music together with local artists, the Grandone Choir, as well as all of the other choruses that we cooperated with, is that it's not just merely an artistic performance.
It's also an unfolding of a historical tapestry because so many of those songs they have a lot of historical meaning in those.
And it's through music where we really learn a culture in a much deeper level.
For example, in the Grand Dong Choir they have a song that mimics the sound of birds, and a lot of different voice parts are singing together.
And originally, our group was interested in that specific sound.
We're like, that's so impressive.
So then, after communicating with them about what exactly is the song about because we want to learn more about the song we learned that the song is talking about harvest.
It's talking about the birds chirping during harvest.
And then furthermore, we learned how much the local community worships nature and worships animal as a lot of their deities.
So it's learning a lot of culture through the actual song itself.
And the same goes for our songs as well.
One of the songs that a lot of people, especially in college campuses, love is a song called The Midnight Train of Georgia.
It has three members dancing during the song.
So a lot of people really, really love that.
And a lot of people will ask us what exactly does the song talk about because they liked the dance.
And so in turn, we're going to explain what the song is about.
It's not just about a train that goes to Georgia.
It's about an artist pursuing a career in LA.
And furthermore, we get to explain what the entertainment business in the US looks like.
What is it like in Hollywood?
What is the musical theater culture in America on Broadway, etc.?
Because that's also a really, really American culture, right?
It's a core to America.
So it goes both ways that a lot of the times we're really interested in each other's music.
But through music we get to learn so much more about the culture and have such a deep immersion into the culture.
That's a really, really meaningful thing that music can bring to different cultures together.
And what about you, Ben?
Yeah.
So I think that singing at the Dung Village really brought me back and reminded me of the original Whiff and Poof story, which is back in 1909.
The Whiff and Poofs were really started as a band of merry songsters who just wanted to get together and use music as a way to have fun and to connect in a way that was just rooted in joy.
And I think coming to the Dong village really reminded me of that and really just showed me how, When you sing together and when you love what you do especially at that fireplace moment I was just really reminded of wow, the Wiffenpuffs and also the people of the Dong village are really brought together by their love of music and their use of music for just happiness.
And I think it's really powerful.
Speaking of Winfapoof, I know that you guys are all from the tenor too.
Is that a vocal part or how do I describe it?
Because I know really nothing about a cappella and how it's formed.
And I know that it's 14 of you singing together.
So yeah, maybe for people like me out there, listeners and audiences who not necessarily know how a cappella is sang, Maybe give us a little tip like how is it like very structurally different from the dome grand songs?
Yeah, so our group is structured in four voice parts.
So we are split into tenor one, tenor two, baritone, and bass.
And so all of our arrangements are split into those four parts.
And so we have our two tenor twos.
I'm a tenor one myself.
And so the 14 of us are split like that.
And I think that that four-part harmony is also rooted in the American barbershop tradition.
So the way that we were founded, in a small quartet of people, very tight harmonies, And that's where our tradition has grown out of.
I think the Dong Grand Song Choir.
What really impressed me about them was that they have a large tradition of singing in unison with one another.
And I think that, you know, we're only 14 people.
When you see a choir on that level and that scale, with you know 150, 200 singers, and they're all singing exactly the same.
It's so impressive and it just shows you how in tune they are with one another and just how much music has been immersed in their everyday life for them to be so in tune with one another.
Yeah, it's really impressive to see.
You know one thing about the Don't Grant song is that ever since you're a kid, you can already be part of it.
And, like you said Eunice, it's like hundreds of people singing all together, and each of them seem to know exactly how their voice can blend, like perfectly well, with other people's.
So yeah, I'm always wondering what that really sounds like in person when I listen to them in person, and I'll try to get a chance to go visit.
I think it's in Zhaoxing in Guizhou province.
So yeah, that's really impressive and in the meantime, I understand that you know the Guizhou people.
They speak their own dialect And as you travel to different parts of China, I'm sure probably you guys have already experienced that in Chongqing people speak a different dialect.
And then up here in North, many of us speak just Mandarin Chinese, but we also have our own local dialects.
All of that forms this language differentiation where you guys probably don't necessarily understand all the time.
So that's the natural language barrier that cannot be overlooked.
But are there moments when you're singing you feel like it's gone, like it's that moment when language doesn't matter anymore.
Is there such a moment?
I think one of my most memorable moments on our on-stage performance is always when we sing the chinese song brightest star in the night sky.
It's a song that was personally really important to me as i rode my bike to middle school.
Every day I listened to that song on my way.
And I also know the song inspired a lot of young people of my generation as well, because the song talks about ups and downs of life, being lost and always holding on to hope, and that's also why we chose to sing this song as one of our three Chinese songs to the audience.
And whenever we sing it, I always invite the audience to sing together with us and I think every single time so many people join in.
At first, audiences might be a little bit timid.
They're like, we're watching a performance.
Should I sing or should I not?
The first two sentences are like three or four people, but once other people see that there's somebody else singing, usually it's the whole room that eventually joins in.
And at that moment, it really just feels like we come from a school in the United States.
We're singing in a school in China.
We have the whole ocean in between us and so many miles in between.
We're all connected by.
We're all young people, we all experience the same things, we have a lot of common interests, we have a lot of common experiences and we're all connected through a common experience as human beings.
And this kind of song can transcend language and really bring all of us together by our shared experiences.
That's so nice.
I've had the chance well, a short period of experience, where I sang with a choir and we used to perform in what's the name St.
Paul's Cathedral in London for once, and that was quite an experience.
Me myself.
I couldn't sing soprano, so I was just chiming in as an alto, but not professional, you know.
So I was singing, but inside the cathedral you can hear your voice kind of hitting the top of your head while immersing so nicely with all the male and female singers' voices all together and soaring up all the way to the top of St.
Paul's Cathedral.
It shook you even though we were singing.
I believe it was either Italian or Latin, neither language I understand, by the way, so I couldn't understand a word.
I was singing, but it just strikes you so sacredly in a way that you even want to cry sometimes.
I'm not sure if it's the same feeling sometimes when you sing.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that's a really accurate way to describe singing with other people.
I think it's so special for us also as 14 people who spend the entire year together, that we become really close.
And so I think also singing with people that you're really close friends with adds to that level of, you know, just bringing people together.
And in China we've had the opportunity to sing in such beautiful acoustic spaces and beautiful venues.
And so you really get that experience of just hearing your voice travel to all these people in the audience and then with one another as well.
Yeah, and I'll say on the song that Yixiao was just talking about, oftentimes we're joined by university choir students as they sing that with us.
So while it is already super special to be singing that song as a group, we're often joined by I don't know 30 to 60 additional voices, which just makes it even more special.
It just connects us from, as Yixiao said, from across the sea, but also just to each other, as we hear our voices just ringing out throughout the halls.
I guess in the Dong village, in the caves.
It really is very powerful to experience.
And I don't know, it's sometimes emotional experiences just to be able to sing those songs.
That's so nice, and I think you mentioned that when you were performing in the universities.
I know you've been to quite a few universities so far the Southwest University, the Peking University, also very recently after you got to Beijing, and also Yeah, there's a few others that I cannot name at this point.
But how does the Chinese students impress you while you were singing together?
Because I know that you were also collaborating with the local choirs in the university too, right?
Yeah.
So how does that feel? working together with the students there.
I think each university really has their distinct style as well.
For example, we were in Nankai University and they didn't just Cooperate with us in terms of choral singing, They opened the whole performance with a Peking Opera performance.
That was about 15 minutes and that was really, really.
We were in awe of the whole performance.
It was also like college kids wearing all of these really well decorated clothing and having the face masks on, and the Peking Opera fans and the horse thing.
I personally learned Peking Opera as a kid.
And it is a kind of singing that's so different from all the other kinds of singing.
It's different from bel canto singing.
It's different from acapella.
It's also different from the grand dongsang kind of singing.
But being able to see that and see how diverse it is across different sections in China, different regions in China, is really, really awesome.
We were able to see Peking Opera in the Beijing area, in Tianjin, in Nankai University.
In other schools, we also saw local dances as well.
When we were at Southwest University, there were local art groups as well in the university, representing the specific region's dance.
So I think that really goes to show that China as a huge country is not just merely represented by like, one kind of culture or one kind of art.
We got to go to these different universities in different regions Southwest Central South University, Nankai and Peking University and we're going to go to Xi'an to cooperate with Xi'an Jiao Tong University.
So all across the country we were able to see a diverse range of what Chinese culture has to offer and how, in college, so many young people are embodying that culture as well and preserving that diverse culture.
I think that's definitely super impressive to see that diversity come alive in front of our eyes.
That's lovely.
Is the performance and also watching others' performance the main part of your exchanges with the university students or if there's anything else?
Yeah, so for the most part, we've been doing these rehearsals, performances with other students.
We also have the chance to eat meals with them, and so eating dinner with students and just talking about their experience in college and what their experience singing in college has been like has been really interesting.
I'll also say that we have not just cooperated with university students.
We've also had the chance to meet elementary students and sing with them, as well as middle school students, high school students.
And so meeting singers from all across the different ages here in China and sharing with them that they should continue singing when they get to college and continue singing and keep music in their life.
It's a message that we really, you know, live by.
And so it's been really special to share that with the students here.
Yeah.
And I'm sure those younger kids.
They must be thrilled to see you guys perform acapella, because Sometimes it only needs one show or one role model to really inspire what they want to do and to have them realize what they love to do sometimes.
I hope that they can follow suit even though that it's just a temporary or a one-time show for them.
I think that's an incredible point, because I'm sure that the three of us and all the rest of the Whiff and Poohs had an experience like that when we were growing up.
My parents loved the music and they raised me to love music, but I think what really got me into singing was watching older students and adults singing to inspire me.
Musical inspiration is so important and I think I wouldn't be here without role models in music who really kind of guided my path to the Whiffin' Poofs ultimately, and I just feel so grateful that we as Whiffin' Poofs, are able to provide that for students not just across the US but across the world.
Yeah, it's really important because this year also marks the well.
Actually, this tour that you guys are making also marks the 40th anniversary of the Whiffenpoo's first visit to China.
I know that there's been one too in 2024.
The Whiff and Poofs are a Yale senior only group.
So each year, every year elects a new iteration of Whiff and Poofs.
So the Whiff and Poofs that you see in 2024 are entirely different from the Whiffs of 2025 and entirely different from them classified.
So at each year, it's a new group of 14 members.
What does it mean to you personally to be part of this milestone, to be here after 40 years that this a cappella choir is founded?
Yeah, I think people-to-people exchange has always been a core mission of the Whiff and Poofs, and people-to-people exchange has always brought so much deep cultural connections with one another.
I think 40 years ago in 1985, the Whiff and Poofs were one of the first American college art groups to ever visit China.
True.
And 40 years have passed.
So much has changed throughout the years.
Technology has developed.
New friendships have been formed, etc.
But one thing remains forever true, which is the cultural connection from people to people.
Exchange has always been so important because, a lot of the times, we can learn about a culture by reading books or looking at online information or taking a class in college, right.
And a lot of times that gives you a really deep understanding of the culture.
But that's learning the culture.
Whereas people-to-people exchange really lets you live the culture.
I think before talking about Wiffenpuffs coming to China, I want to share a little story of myself in America doing my tour with the Wiffenpuffs.
Something that I really enjoy is doing hometown tours.
So throughout our six months of touring throughout the year, we try to go to everybody's hometown.
So we meet their parents, their teachers, their friends.
We might even live in their houses and stuff.
And one of my core memories of tour is not like seeing the Chicago Bean or seeing the Hollywood sign like the big tourist attractions in the US.
But one of my favorite memories was eating like a backyard taco dinner made by Ben's parents in San Diego.
And why is that memorable?
Because I've seen so much of that on television that you know a backyard American grill kind of dinner is so important to American culture, right?
Like you have a hot dog grill or a barbecue grill, and almost every family has one of those and has that experience, right?
But I'm not really able to experience that in college as a student, right?
Because I belong to an institution.
I go to foods at my school's dining hall and all of that, right?
But it's through really going on tour, I get to live the American cultural experience.
And that has been... really, really inspiring for me.
So how I planned this tour as well is really just to not only just let us learn Chinese culture and interact with Chinese students, but also live the Chinese experience.
For example, I think some of the things that maybe stood out to the group was not just really seeing the high rises that comes to life at night with all the neon lights, or actually see the Avertine Mountains in real sight.
But also seeing portable charters everywhere that you can rent with ease when your phone is dying, or see the uncles and aunties just dance at night on the public squares.
It's a kind of life.
It's not just learning the culture, but it's living the culture.
And I think 40 years ago the WIFs were one of the first ever US university art groups to come here and embark on that cultural exchange.
I think 40 years later that mission has remained unchanged, but to a deeper level.
Not just to open the doors to let two cultures understand each other, but to be able to let two cultures immerse with each other and really get to experience the lived experience.
I think you just took all the possible words I can ever recite to conclude this part of the speech.
So yeah, really well said.
Because, like you mentioned earlier, China is such a vast land that each part, when people outside of our country think about us, it's like oh China, many different versions and facets of China that make us together, that come to this land that we're sitting on right now, that calls China.
So as you walk around and experience more, the deeper you get to know that oh, it's really about the local culture, it's really about the local people, it's really about how you know things are made difference and also made more convenient for people who live here.
So that's one big thing.
And I think for Eunice and Ben, I'm not sure if it's the same impression.
First of all, allow me to ask, is this your first time coming to China?
This is my first time in China.
And two years ago, I took a trip to China with Yixiao.
So how do you guys feel the difference from previous trip and also the first impression that you've got so far?
Yeah, so I mean, my first time coming here to China, I was really excited to experience it.
I had heard a lot from Yixiao, from other members of our group who have been to China before.
And I think one thing that really strikes me is just the incredible opportunity we've had to experience so many different parts of China, not just one city or, like you say, we often think about China as just one country but just being able to experience all the incredible culture, trying to see how the different regions have different food styles and interacting with university students in different areas.
It's just been an incredible experience with such a vastly diverse range of experiences.
I just feel lucky that this is my first time here and I've just been able to do so much.
Yeah, I feel so grateful to be back in China.
This trip we've traveled to many more cities than the last time I was here.
So I've really been able to see the diversity of this country and how China has so many different cultures, each so beautiful and so interesting, and each rooted in incredible musical history.
And I think that I've absolutely felt so grateful to be able to experience a little bit more than last time as well.
But, that being said, I've loved returning to the cities that I went to two years ago because, For example,
Well, I think, Beijing.
I was here two years ago and I feel so grateful, but also I've had such a great time coming back and seeing the city again.
I think.
Well, I was telling Yixiao this earlier, but I'm here a little bit later in the springtime, so there are so many flowers blooming that weren't there last time and the sky is a little bluer.
And it's just so gorgeous.
But going back to similar sites and the same sites that I was at before is also a lot of fun, just because I remember them and I can kind of navigate them.
So I feel grateful that I can.
I don't have to rely as much on Yixiao to walk around all these places, because I kind of remember them as well.
But I think that what Yixiao was saying is you're not just learning about the culture and the experience of these countries, but you're actually getting to live in it.
I just think being able to feel a little bit more confident with WeChat and all of the online sources that China has, that just makes life so much easier here.
And really feeling confident in those resources has just been an incredible part of my second time here.
Yeah, and I learned from our chat earlier that you constantly have new blood coming in, meaning that senior members may just quit or no longer serve as part of the member.
Is that how it's arranged for you guys?
So actually our whole group is everyone in the current year only is in the group for one year.
So you join and you know it's a one year commitment.
And then at the end of our year, we pick next year's group.
And so everyone's in the same year, we're all in between our third and fourth years at Yale.
So you actually don't have younger members and older members, we're all just seniors.
I understand.
It almost impressed me that you guys are passing the torch on and on and on to different generations of acapella performers.
So this time it's you guys here in China, and how.
This might sounds like a big question, but feel free to answer from your own understanding.
So how does this role that you're playing carrying the torch right now from Wiffenpuffs and performing here in China impresses you as a cross-cultural communicator?
Yeah, I mean, I think that I'm reminded of you know you said that it's our 40th year anniversary of the Wiffenpuffs first coming to China and I think On that 40th anniversary this year, I'm really reminded of this long-standing tradition that this group has had.
Every single year, the Wiffenpuffs have passed down the tradition to the year beneath them.
And to the fact that 40 years have passed but we're still here in China.
We're singing the Wiffenpuff song here, sharing some of the same songs that those members might have sang.
So many years have gone by, but I think we find it really special that we get to steward this tradition and not just keep things exactly the same as they were 40 years ago, but also find our own ways to change the tradition and change it to how we would like to carry it forward.
And so the fact that it's something that is ever-changing and fluid is also something that I think we really take a lot of pride in.
And I think a really special part about this experience is the way it connects not only the 14 members of the current year but also to the many years in the future, but also all the years in the past.
I mean.
One of my favorite parts about the Whiff and Poof experience is when we sing the Whiff and Poof song.
We invite any alums to come and sing with us.
And we have...
We have alums get up and sing the WFMP song from last year, but also from 60 years ago, and it really brings us together and I think this experience of traveling the world and experiencing different cultures is just so once in a lifetime.
I think it's really encapsulated by this trip to China.
I don't think we'll ever be doing anything like this ever again and learning from these cultures and experiencing them firsthand and I think that's really why so many whiff and poofs feel so connected to the experience and therefore to other whiff and poofs of many generations because we get to share this opportunity to not only learn about different cultures but share some of ours as well.
Well, I think, in terms of cultural exchange, it's always so magical to be able to talk with people from all around the world, not just by the whiff and poofs, but even at Yale.
Yale University has such a diverse international student body.
Even at Yale University, being able to talk to people that comes from another country in of itself is a huge cultural exchange, because I think one of the main things about cultural exchange is that it's not just the big historic culture or the things that you can look online, but a lot of times cultural exchange happen from day-to-day interactions.
For example, what I learned in the US is a lot of times when we have meals together, it's not like China.
We eat at a round table most of the time, and we share a table of food, right?
In the US most of the times we each get our own dish and after the dish maybe one person pays for it.
But then right afterwards we calculate like all right, so what's my price after tax, after TIF, and we send the money to whoever paid the bill immediately right afterwards.
We kind of do that too.
Yeah, but I think in China one of the things that I realized was a lot of times we either split the bill or a lot of times people pay for it and they wouldn't let you pay for it.
And because in some regions it's seen as if you want to split the bill, that actually means that you're cutting off this relationship, um and and so you letting the other person pay the bill means that you will pay the bill next time, meaning that you're indicating you will have a next interaction.
So actually letting the other person pay the whole bill is a sign of you're indicating you want this friendship to continue, And that's something that I learned just by eating with my friends in the US and learning how that paying culture work.
And in turn, I was able to talk more about how food culture is in China, what the roundtable culture is like and how it's different in different regions.
So a lot of the cultural exchange doesn't just come from visiting a place, going to museums or looking at the things.
Obviously, those are really important.
But it's also through those day-to-day, daily details that really shows how different cultures are different, from a small thing to have a peek into the whole culture.
And that's why, even at school, I really enjoyed talking to people from all around the world as well from those day-to-day interactions to learn about a whole culture.
Well, since all of you are singers, may I wrap up with one very quick and kind of personal question to you guys.
Among all the songs that you've performed, is there one song that really strikes your heart?
That's your favorite.
Either it's, you know, the songs that you know very well, or if maybe it's a Chinese song?
Is there one song that you really love?
And maybe, just maybe, if you can hum or sing it to us as a demonstration.
Or maybe even the three of you can sing together if you want to, of course.
That's a hard decision.
Yixiao mentioned it earlier.
The English title is The Brightest Star in the Night Sky.
I think that one is super, super special for a lot of different reasons.
But for one, Yixiao and I sing a little solo part together as, I guess, a duet.
And I think in acapella, in the whiff and poof style of singing, we do a lot of just solo singing and you get up and you sing by yourself with the rest of the group singing behind you.
But I think that this China tour has really brought out a lot of duets and trios.
Yeah, I saw like two coming up and then go back, and then two other singers come up.
That's really interesting.
I've never seen any performance like that before.
And I think it's really unique to this tour and I think it is a great kind of symbol of the cultural kind of exchange and the partnership that we're doing and the big duet numbers and trio numbers that we're doing.
But I just think that Yuxiao already said this.
But When the audience sings along, it's just so special.
And we were talking about feeling emotional during performances.
I think that Nothing will kind of tug at my heart more than when you're singing a song and a whole audience is singing back at you.
I think that that definitely does not happen in the U.S.
I think the closest version we have of that is the Whiff and Poof song, which touches a lot of audiences, especially older audiences.
But here in China it just has blown me away how everyone is willing to sing along and share the experience with you.
So that's my favorite.
Yeah, so is that agreed by Eunice and Yixiao too?
Definitely.
I think, one of my most memorable songs.
In addition to that, because I think it's just nothing.
Like Ben said, nothing beats an audience that sings together with you.
That's a wonderful experience.
That's so true.
Usually the whole theater is pitch black.
It's dark.
And during that song, all the audiences open their flashlights to like have a nice guy.
And then on stage, we can just see so many like shining stars and that's really beautiful.
But also I think a song that also is really really meaningful for me is usually what we sing for encore and usually what we cooperate with other choirs as well which is fill the world with love 让世界充满爱 because I think That really captures the mission of the We've Improved Tour, and as you said, the importance of cultural exchange.
In the song, there's a sentence that is 我们珍存同样的爱, we have and we cherish the same kind of love.
And that is literally the definition of our tour and our cultural exchanges that has been happening through our, our connection with all of the college students, the middle school, primary school students, the local artists that we've been doing.
We've been realizing that all of us have the same kind of love.
You know, love for good food, love for one another, good people, good company, good music and the love and curiosity for one another's culture and the love for each other as mankind, as just everybody living on planet Earth.
And that kind of feeling is universal and that kind of feeling is also captured in that song that we sing.
So I think every time when we sing the lyric, we all cherish the same kind of love.
It's really, really meaningful to me as well to be able to sing that.
Shall we have a quick vote then?
Fill the world with love or the brightest star in the sky?
I vote for both.
That's difficult.
I'm going to vote for brightest star.
Yeah, sure.
So, behold everybody, the brightest star in the sky performed by Ben and Yixiao.
Let's do the duet.
Let's do the duet.
Thank you.
Bravo!
Wow!
You've been listening to Roundtable Special Series Generation Global Navigating a Changing World.
