In Shanghai's Grand Theater, a fashionable, mainly young audience applauds enthusiastically as Guo Yong takes center stage.He holds a large bushy tree branch with leaves.Blowing on one of the leaves, he produces a sound like the singing of birds as he plays a traditional Buyi folk song.Some other musicians are also playing the traditional instruments from various ethnic groups in China. It's the first time such music has ever been performed in the Grand Theater.But all this is the efforts of Zhu Zheqin, a Cantoneseborn singer, who has made it her mission to help preserve China's traditional ethnic music. In 2009, after being appointed a United Nations Development Program ambassador, Zhu traveled through some of China's remotest regions in an attempt to document the traditional music of various minority groups.In the course of the fourmonth trip, she recorded more than a thousand songs.But she noticed that many of the best musicians were old, and some of the music was at risk of dying out. "I was shocked by the beauty of what I heard--it was so good," she says."But it needed support.I hope to let people see the beauty of these things in the contemporary times." So Zhu decided to introduce some of the musicians to a wider audience.By doing this, she hopes to rekindle  the interest of the younger generation."Young people don't like this music much; they prefer pop music and love songs.They think these songs are something their grandma sings.This kind of repackaging gives young people a new door into their heritage." Zhu believes China needs to look again at its own roots."China today is basically all Western art; in our conservatories   Western classical music is the top," she says."For China to really contribute to the world, we need to go on our own path.So what can represent China today?" The answer, she suggests, is to move from "made in China" to "created in China". What is Zhu Zheqin's idea about Chinese traditional music?
It is completely out of date. Only old musicians play it well. It needs changes to attract young people. It is quickly dying out.