Return and Revitalize

When Xiong Zhe is on stage playing the cello, it’s hard to imagine that his daily job is to analyze the molecular structure of ceramic relics of different ages at a research institute, almost equivalent to genetic testing and creating a gene bank.

The 31-year-old is head of the cultural relic restoration department of Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum in Jiangxi Province, as well as founder of the Jingdezhen Four Seasons Porcelain band.

Xiong and his fellow band members do not use porcelain as the raw material to produce entire instruments, but they do use it to reproduce parts of the instruments—while adding Western instruments like the contrabass to the band.

“It is a kind of fusion,” Xiong said. “People always describe in Chinese, meaning ‘the flowing music for gods and goddesses’,” he told . “Chinese porcelain has a characteristically bright timbre. If you add a bass, the effect will be perfect, and the traditional folk music will take on a new sound.”