In a sense we have to be politicians ourselves. There were nice people, even on the diplomatic side, who assisted us. But just by habit, they wanted to control everything that was going to take place, and we didn't go to China to be controlled. So during the first days of the festival we had to state our principles and unless they accepted those principles we were not going to play. Not just musicians are involved in it, so there is always the potential that we could begin a sort of mass movement.
Politicians do see a danger in people liking each other rather than disliking each other.
What we are doing is breaking down barriers. Every time someone says that classical music is too highbrow, too difficult, too far away from their experience, we say they should come and listen to the pre-concert talk so they can realize that what we deal with are very basic human emotions, emotions that are in everybody. And they don't have to be educated to appreciate what comes across. In that way it resembles playing school concerts for children. People come to these concerts out of curiosity.