Summary Report: People: Wei

Summary Report on trip to Beijing, China (21 May 1997 - 10 June 1997)

Meeting People: Wei Tingge

Wei Tingge,
Musicologist at the
Music Research Center.

I had acquired two anthologies of Chinese piano music edited by Wei Tingge while in Beijing, and so was quite looking forward to meeting this musicologist in person. His are some of the first comprehensive and objective compilations of skillfully written contemporary Chinese piano music since 1979.

The last such anthology of Chinese piano music (published in 1979 by the People's Music Publishing House) was compiled by the Musician's Society of China and contained only works between 1949 and 1979. It is highly doubtful that the selections in the 1949-1979 anthology were comprehensive or objective, and certainly, many more exceptional compositions have been written since then. The other competing recent collection of Chinese piano music, also published by the People's Music Publishing House, was edited, in typical bureaucratic style, by the entire piano faculty of the Central Conservatory.

A researcher at the Music Research Center of the Chinese Arts Research Institute, Mr. Wei looked young and energetic for his fifty odd years. He had the dark swarthy looks of a southerner and irreverent shoulder-length hair uncommon amongst men in China. He was very concerned that I knew clearly that his first love was playing the piano.

A cynic and skeptic, I found I had a challenging time convincing Mr. Wei that I was not one of the many rich and pampered qianjin1 from Taiwan or Hong Kong, living in the lap of luxury. At the end of our meeting and lunch, he was somewhat convinced that I possess decent pianistic skills and was a serious scholar. We traded criticisms about various music compositions, pianists and competitions. He even walked me to my bus stop and waited until I boarded.