Tuning into tradition

"Traditional Chinese music is very expressive. Besides the music, those instruments are also visually appealing to the audience," says Li.

The process of making a video involves selecting a song, a shooting location and costumes for the musicians, who either dress like people from ancient China or put on contemporary clothes.

Besides popular songs, the team also produced works for special occasions, such as traditional festivals and the 24 solar terms on the Chinese calendar.

Li adds that more young people are showing an interest and passion for traditional culture, which inspires her team to come up with more video ideas, such as telling historical stories, introducing museums and cultural relics by fusing them with the latest technology, like artificial intelligence.

"People in the traditional music world are constantly trying to come up with new ways to promote the genre. The idea of the Crazy Folk videos is to help open people's minds to traditional music. With each new video, you never know which song will be performed, by which musical instruments or in which city," says pipa player Li Yang, one of the musicians who participated in the Crazy Folk videos.

One of her favorites features the song Faraway, adapted from the pop song by Jay Chou. The video was released on Sept 10, marking the Mid-Autumn Festival, the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, a traditional Chinese festival.