By Lisa Carducci

When I reminded him of our appointment the day before, he seemed a little confused. Had he forgotten? Had he taken another engagement? He reassured me, "I am a little busy but I will not postpone our appointment. Can you be there at 10:30?" I was there, but he was not. I waited patiently till he entered the hall of the World Plaza Hotel at a fast pace, without even glancing around at the people awaiting others. I recognized him: the perfect image that I had made of him in my mind and the resemblance to Wang Luobin. What do these two Han men have in common? They both dedicated their lives to the development and propagation of the Xinjiang music.

Lisa(L) and Zhou Ji(R) [Foreign Languages Press]

Zhou Ji is 64 years old. Despite his one-hour delay due to multiple simultaneous occupations, he did not express any trouble being the subject of an interview and asked me to follow him. I believed that he was taking me to a quieter room, but to my great surprise, when he opened the door of the hall, I saw about 50 persons – men, women and children – in theatrical costumes, musical instruments in hand, sitting or standing, repeating their parts. A great show was under preparation for the evening and Zhou Ji was at the same time cultural advisor, director of the artists, and master of ceremonies.

We sat at a table and I started to ask questions less about himself than on Muqam which has been his research subject for 40 years. He answered with an absolute focus, stopping sometimes to give instructions or to solve a problem on which one came to consult him.

Muqam is an Arabic word meaning classical music or oral tradition. In Xinjiang, the "Twelve Muqam" refer to the major "systems" specific to the places where there is a form of Muqam. This music and its interpretation vary according to places and include a large part of improvisation although the basic texts and music are written. Thus there are Kashgar Muqam, Hotan, Aksu, Ili, Hami, Daolang Muqam, etc. However, the territory of this particular art exceeds the Chinese borders and it can be found elsewhere in Asia, Middle East, Europe and Africa in countries and regions such as India, Cashmere, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Turkey, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Egypt, Syria, Algeria, and Tunisia: 19 in all, each one in its own language and each one under a different name. The word Muqam indicates only Xinjiang Muqam. Nobody knows where and when Muqam started. It is in China that we find the longest: a complete "opera" lasts several hours or even days.

I better understand Muqam after having listened to Professor Zhou's explanations. There are three types of Muqam. Qiongnagemam constitutes a show of one hour. It used to be presented in private houses of affluent people. The actors use dance and music as their means of expression. It is the most difficult part, and only a singer who can interpret it can be called a specialist, because the text is in "chaktai" (archaic Uyghur). Was it transmitted from mouth to ear? "No," answered Zhou. "The texts had been written in the 14th or 15th century by a foreigner of Central Asia."

The second part, or Dastan, is made of stories that one tells, stories that have no link between them. The scenes occur at the hairdresser, at a meal, at the market. The third category, Maxirep (pronounce Meshrep), consists of song and dance. It is presented during official festivals as well as family festivities. Maxirep follows the calendar: it has bonds with work, climate, harvest, society, and the rural life especially. Maxirep is even the name of an activity: there is a maxirep for a wedding, one for a friend's visit, and one for the New Year's Day, and so on. Maxirep reveals the Uyghurs' hearts: it expresses feelings, interpersonal relationships, way of solving problems, and moral education.

The general repetition starts immediately after this "lesson." To pass from folk art to professional art is far from easy. It is however the challenge that Zhou Ji has won. Even the composition of the program for this show is proof of it: the three categories of Muqam will take the stage in turn.

For instance, at the very beginning of Qiongnagemam, the music of only one wind instrument can be heard; little by little, the drums are added; then a single dancer, followed by two; women join, then three children. Rhythm intensifies, marked by dance and percussion mainly. In Dastan, there is a question between two men coveting the same woman, while Maxirep shows, among the peasants who dance in their fields, a camel and a goose "inhabited" by dancers. In addition, some Tajik and Kirgiz artists take part in the huge event called "Silk Road 2007."

Born in Jiangsu, Zhou Ji arrived in Xinjiang at the age of 17. In addition to studying the Uyghur language, he who already had a training in music started to study rewap, a typical Uyghur instrument. I asked Zhou to repeat this name several times so that I could reproduce the phonetic pronunciation. What I heard, in fact, was something between rewap and ravop.

Today, the Muqam specialist is known in the whole country and he has won the appreciation of the Xinjiang government. He is deputy director, vice-president, professor, lecturer, representative, invited researcher, doctoral adviser, etc., in various high-level institutions and associations of Chinese traditional music, folk music, ethnic music, and Xinjiang music in the whole territory of China, including Hong Kong. Needless to say Zhou Ji often travels back and forth between Xinjiang and the national capital.

The master has published 12 works and three others are under preparation; he has written articles about music and dance of the country's western region and also songs. Zhou has mastered the Uyghur language. He has been asked more than once to translate Muqam texts into Chinese, but he refused, saying that “music and language are inseparable forms and an untranslatable whole."