When it comes to erhu, the image of A Bing wearing round sunglasses and pulling "Erquan Reflecting the Moon" most often comes to mind, but recently a handsome 25-year-old boy broke many people's inherent impression of erhu. Zhou Zijun is from Chongqing, with a handsome face and delicate features, and his thick and smooth medium-length hair looks more literary. He often wears a black jacket and a simple white T-shirt, and plays popular songs with erhu calmly. He is beautiful, fashionable and easy to understand. In addition to releasing performance videos, Zhou Zijun also broadcasts teaching online. In the live broadcast room, he changed the image of "quiet and beautiful man" in the impression of netizens, and "lectures" students in tricks. The professional and funny teaching method makes many young people fall in love with Erhu. On the afternoon of August 30, the reporter of the Yangtze Evening News Ziniu News contacted Zhou Zijun, and listened to him share the story behind the popularity of the erhu, "Actually, the erhu can be played very cool, I hope I can show more young people the multi-faceted folk music. sex."

With the support of the family, became attached to the erhu

A melodious song "Into the South of the Yangtze River" rang out from the ear, and the beautiful picture of the misty and rainy Jiangnan appeared in front of people's eyes. A young man dressed in black with long hair pulled the erhu, closed his eyes tightly, and immersed himself in the beautiful music. On August 30, Zhou Zijun, a 25-year-old young man from Chongqing, made a hot search on Weibo. He received tens of millions of likes for his more than 100 erhu videos. Not only were many netizens urging them to update, but a large number of young people followed him to learn folk music. . Many netizens left a message: "The sound of erhu turned out to be like this, which refreshed the sound in my memory."

Zhou Zijun is playing Erhu

The reporter learned that Zhou Zijun adapted a popular song into an erhu song in May 2021. "I posted the video of the performance on the Internet, and I want to show my work, so that everyone can see that the erhu can be played like this."

Recalling the experience of learning erhu, Zhou Zijun was filled with emotion. When he was in elementary school, his retired grandmother often played erhu at home. He liked it so much that he just stood by and listened. Whenever he heard something emotional, he would whistle to the rhythm of his grandmother playing the erhu. After my grandmother found out that my grandson was talented in music, she asked him to study with the erhu teacher. They discussed together how to learn erhu better, and when they did not understand something, they would ask the teacher for advice.

During the learning process, Zhou Zijun liked this instrument more and more, and even practiced it to the point of forgetting to eat and sleep. In order to allow her son to learn professional erhu skills, Zhou Zijun's mother also invited a professional erhu teacher in Beijing to give him guidance. After a long period of hard work, Zhou Zijun was successfully admitted to the Middle School Affiliated to China Conservatory of Music with this passion. The following year, Zhou Zijun participated in the Asian competition of Erhu Professional Junior Group A and won the award.

Zhou Zijun participated in the Erhu Professional Junior Group A Asian Competition

In 2017, the 20-year-old Zhou Zijun returned to his hometown of Chongqing. While starting the stage of self-studying pop music, he continued to polish his erhu performance skills. At the same time, he became a "skilled worker". He worked as a waiter and resident singer in a bar. The singer has also entered a music company and participated in some arrangement, recording and teaching work.

Combining erhu and pop music, more than 100 videos have received millions of likes

On the short video platform, Zhou Zijun has released more than 100 works such as "The Wind Rises", "Pipa Xing", "Autumn Intense" and "Exploring the Window", and has accumulated more than 12 million likes. In the works, Zhou Zijun often wears black clothes and has flowing medium-length hair, like a magical boy, playing the adapted version of popular songs beautifully and fashionably. On February 8 this year, he received millions of likes for his song "Qin Master", and more than 70,000 netizens commented, making more young people fall in love with Erhu. Many netizens left a message: "After listening to the Erhu version of "Qin Master", it's like my heart has been purified."

Zhou Zijun is playing Erhu

Talking about the reasons for his popularity on the Internet, Zhou Zijun said with a smile, maybe the conflict in the video picture is relatively large, "In the music circle, people may think that folk music is not so fashionable. Especially when it comes to erhu, many people will think of the uncle. Play "Erquan Reflecting the Moon" in the park. If you take away the erhu, from my clothes and behavior, it is difficult for everyone to imagine that I am a folk music person. This sense of conflict will be magnified on the short video platform, maybe It's more appealing.”

It is not an easy task for Zhou Zijun to adapt popular music into a version suitable for erhu performance. He told reporters that the sound range of erhu is relatively narrow, and the effective sound range is only two and a half octaves, while the sound range of many popular songs is relatively high, generally spanning three to four octaves. is not possible. "Erhu can't control all music. This is something that gives me a headache. Some songs have three and a half octaves, and there is an extra octave. I can't pull it even if I want to. There is no way to achieve it." Zhou Zijun Say.

There are also many netizens who provide Zhou Zijun with songs for creation, but he can't pull it out with the erhu at all. In order to make better works, he not only had to find tunes that could be played by the erhu, but also needed to change the key. "In the two and a half octaves of the erhu, there are some that everyone wants to listen to, and some that everyone doesn't want to listen to. , what I try is to try to play the scales that everyone likes, this is a process of re-editing, no less than re-creating a piece of music by myself.”

Zhou Zijun plays outdoors and looks like a painting

With the encouragement of netizens, I continue to insist to make young people fall in love with Erhu

Zhou Zijun adapted popular songs into works suitable for erhu performance. Unexpectedly, after a month or two, it attracted the attention of some netizens, and music bloggers took the initiative to follow him, and privately messaged him that he approved this way of musical expression. Zhou Zijun is very happy to be praised by his peers. He thinks this kind of recognition is the most inspiring. "They are very friendly and give me more motivation and courage to do this."

Seeing so many young people discovering the other side of the erhu, Zhou Zijun is very happy, "This is also the original intention of me to publish the performance video on the Internet at first, I just want to break everyone's stereotype of the erhu, and I hope my power can be contagious. People of the same age." Zhou Zijun sighed that when he was learning erhu, he hoped that such a person would exist. He could tell others that folk music is also cool and handsome, and it can keep up with the aesthetics of the times.

Zhou Zijun in life

In addition to releasing performance videos, in 2022, Zhou Zijun will also start playing and teaching erhu live on Douyin. An English teacher followed him to learn erhu in the live broadcast room. The tricks of "training" attracted tens of thousands of onlookers. His professional and interesting teaching , let netizens find the fun of learning traditional musical instruments.

"I think making music is not just a matter of talking. It requires a lot of actions to let more young people participate." Now Zhou Zijun is preparing a music studio with friends, and will be responsible for erhu in the future. Besides, he can also use other elements to express his understanding of Chinese-style music in addition to the erhu.