I thought everything I do is too avant-garde. Any instrument can sound soulful. The reason I use the pipa is because I met a pipa player . All Chinese instruments can be soulful, depending on the direction of the musician. What matters is taste.
Chinese musicians can achieve so many different kinds of style.
That s the special thing about China s tradition of musicians. If you ask them to play Tchaikovsky or Rackmaninov, they can play it. They can play folk, they can play whatever. I worked with all of these musicians the first time I came to the States six or seven years earlier. Wu Mann was also there.