From Beijing to Seattle: Musical Journey of Tsinghua’s Alumni

(by Yutong Wen)On the evening of 26th April, students and teachers enjoyed a nostalgic music show at Main Building in celebration of Tsinghua’s 104th Birthday. Organized by Tsinghua’s alumni of the 1990s, who all share passionate love for music and common academic backgrounds in the United States, this informal concert featured Xz-Travel Band, Singing While Walking Band and folk song writer Ye Jiaxiu from Taiwan.

The show was made up of two interrelated parts—Music in Our Past and for Our Future. A nostalgic sight cast to the 1980s cheered the audiences up and the Xiaohui Huang, alumnus of 1979 majoring computer sciences, gave the opening speech as a chief organizer. He wished the audience imagine their show as a train trip from Seattle to Beijing, via Taiwan, finally arriving in Tsinghua Yuan, their shared destination. Audiences followed their musical footsteps and relived their nostalgia and youthful past with well-known songs like A Small Country Road, She will be Loved and My Buddy on the Upper Bunk. 

With a warming up of Hometown, the later section reached climax with a powerful song Beijing Beijing. Xz-travel played and shared their writing inspirations with the audiences. Ye Jiaxiu also played several celebrated songs from Taiwan, such as Descendents of Loong and Grandma’s Penghuwan. Singers as well as alumni talked about their unforgettable memories on campus, their favorite food of Tsinghua’s Dining Hall, and recurrent dream of taking exam on subject that they have not prepared at all. For them, the campus of Tsinghua was a place of fresh starts but now it has become one of their beloved destinations.