I have gained a lot of experience in this 6 day 5 night trip. Our tour guides and teachers brought us to many places like Ximending, Yehliu Geological Park and the night market – shilling ye shi. I am first, very grateful towards my teachers, who have trained us well and give us this really great opportunity to go somewhere else other than in Singapore to learn and experience new cultures and new things. On the first day of the exchange trip, we were brought to the Municipal Fuxing Senior High School. There, the performers played their hearts out just for us, the guests. From the first day, I learnt that respect for the person who is playing is very important. Sometimes, when I hear people talking during their performance, as an audience, even I would get angry. From their performance, I can sense the passion and hard work the students in the high school put into learning and perfecting the guzheng. This taught me to respect my instrument and my teammates as well. Without respect, we would be unable to play a piece well as we are an ensemble and we must work in harmony to play something that others can appreciate. After their performance, it was our turn to perform for them. Knowing that the audiences are people who are very well versed in this instrument, it gave us more stress. My friends got up to play but instead of having the chosen 6 to perform, we were only able to choose 3 players up as there were only 3 guzhengs available. Without the whole team to back them up, they were very uncomfortable and kept playing wrong notes. From there, I learnt the importance of having a team and that we should not take things for granted as sometimes, things may not just go our way.

On the third day, we had a chance to experience farm stay at the Toucheng Farm. There, we were grouped together and were asked to do activities together to bind us closer. Finally at night, we were taught how to make the heavenly light. This needed us to work in big groups as the lantern was very big. But in the end, with everybody working together and playing our individual parts, we were able to complete it and writing down our wishes was fun as well! After this activity, I realized that to get the work done faster, we must wok together as a team. The workers in the touching farm were helpful and friendly as well, and they did not hesitate to lend us a helping hand when we needed help.

The most memorable trip where we had to work together as a big family to accomplish an activity was at the Yehliu Geological Park. We were made to climb flights of stairs to get to the waterfall and many of us were giving up as it was really tiring!!! Those that were lagging behind were encouraged by those who were way up front. I could sense a bond that was unbreakable forming within us. In the end, all of us made it to the summit and the scenery was really unbelievable. Everybody agreed that it was totally worth the hard climb up.

At the Tang Ming Guzheng Association, (the second exchange program we had) there were even more fascinating things to learn about Taiwan’s culture! The only association in Taiwan that uses the Japanese guzheng is the Tang Ming Guzheng Association! The Japanese guzheng is not like any normal guzheng. It is able to play classical pieces like Mozart! The Japanese guzheng can be played on sides, the left-hand side and the right hand side. The number of strings on the left-hand side is two times more than the strings on the right hand side. The tune of the guzheng can be easily adjusted just by sliding a little piece of compartment at the ends. This is really unlike any other guzhengs we have seen in our lives. During the talk time session with the big ‘jie jies’ at the Tang Ming Guzheng Association, I was able to learn even more things about how they practice their guzhengs in Taiwan. Instead of using numerals for scores, their scores are all note-like. Just like our normal piano scores. And from what they say, using the note-like scores is easier as they need to tune the guzheng while playing at the same time! Something I’m sure I’m unable to accomplish!

On the last day of the trip, we went to the Chinese Culture University Department of Chinese Music. There, we finally got a glimpse of guys playing the guzheng. It was really an eye-opener as we usually see girls with their elaborate costumes but this time round, it was the guys who caught our attention. Our guzheng team performed well this time as we had the backing up and encouragement of all our friends. This shows that, with teamwork, we are able to accomplish even our greatest fears! During the performance of the university students, I saw many other instruments blended in together with the guzheng as well. Instruments like the cello, double-bass, and there was even a drum set! This taught me that the guzheng can actually be very versatile if the player wants it to. Lastly, this whole exchange trip has taught me the most important thing- one must understand the history of the song to play it well. To play a song well, we must know what it wants to let the audience hear and feel. The movements and expressions of the song would then come naturally.

Lastly, I would like our guzheng team to work hard together to get a gold with honors back for WEST SPRING SECONDARY! Some of us may not be chosen to take part in the SYF next year but we will still learn from our mistakes and make use of what we learnt in this Taiwan trip to push our performances to a higher level. Music is what we players create. It is not all about what our instrument gives us.