The creative figure of Dilber Yunus in the context of the vocal art of China in the XX–XXI centuries
Authors: Qin Jiang 
Published: September 2023

Statement of the problem. The processes of globalization are increasingly affecting the existence of human culture, leading to fundamental changes in cultural exchanges in the East-West system. Starting in the XVIII century, a significant number of European composers turned to oriental topics: from the choice of certain subjects and citations of musical material to a new perception of musical art as such. Simultaneously, there was also a reverse process of borrowing the achievements of European culture by representatives of the artistic community of the eastern region, including through the implementation of the Western system of music education. In our opinion, the performing arts deserve special attention here, as they actualize «other people’s texts» and influence composers’ creativity, audience preferences, and, ultimately, changes in public artistic views. For example, China has given rise to a whole galaxy of outstanding masters of «Chinese bel canto, » whose work is proof of the productivity of cultural exchanges and, at the same time, a very interesting material for scientific research. The purpose of this article is– to draw up a creative portrait of Dilber Yunus in the context of the vocal art of China in the XX – XXI centuries. Results and conclusion. The vocal art of China has its origins in folk songs, the specific organization of the musical texture of which is determined by the phonetics of the spoken language. There are 56 nationalities and almost 100 dialects in China, which has led to a wide variety of song palettes. However, this did not prevent the development of a single standard of vocal sound, which crystallized in the phenomenon of the Beijing Opera at the very time when the process of forming the bel canto style in Western European art was completed. For almost a century after that, these two systems existed without intersecting. However, from the end of the XIX century, when the Chinese government relaxed the policy of closed borders, cultural exchanges became possible. From that time on, the process of transformation of Chinese vocal art began, which, among other things, was due to globalization, and therefore the measure of a singer’s professional success is his or her demand for European opera productions. This article will try to make a creative portrait of one of the most famous contemporary Chinese singers, coloratura soprano Dilber Yunus. She was born on October 2, 1958, in the city of Kashgar in western China, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Dilber began her career with the Xinjiang Song and Dance Ensemble, created to preserve and popularize the folk art of ethnic minorities. In 1980, the singer entered the vocal department of the Beijing Central Conservatory in the class of the outstanding professor Shen Xiang / &#27784;&#28248;. In her fourth year of study, Dilber Yunus won one of the most reputable international competitions for young singers, founded in 1984 in honor of Mirjam Helin. This victory determined the singer’s fate, as she fulfilled the dream of many Chinese.