A Voice Across the World: Hokkien Music & Culture Concert Gives New Voice to a Thousand-Year-Old Tradition Heritage

Sold-out Huizhou premiere marks the first YUELAIMEI Hokkien-language song concert staged in mainland China outside the language's place of origin

HUIZHOU, China, Aug. 31, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- On the evening of August 21, the Hokkien Music & Culture Global Tour • 2026 Original Hokkien Song Concert took the stage at the Opera House of the Huizhou Culture and Art Center in Guangdong, China. Tickets sold out the moment they went on sale, filling all 1,300-plus seats in the hall. The performance was streamed live to audiences worldwide.

Hokkien is one of the 60 major world languages recognized by the United Nations. It originated in the southern Fujian Province and the eastern Guangdong Province in China. Hokkien speakers are a maritime people, distinct in culture from the land-based traditions of China's other communities. The language carries a thousand years of seafaring, exploration, and migration. Through the ports of Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Xiamen, and Zhanglin in Shantou, Hokkien culture took root across Fujian and Guangdong, linked both sides of Taiwan, China, and spread far overseas. Today, the language faces a generational break in transmission among young people. With several hundred thousand Hokkien speakers living in Huizhou, efforts to revitalize the mother tongue carry real urgency here.

From Boston to Huizhou

The event was initiated by Hokkien Music & Culture, founded by Jiayu (Kitty) Huang, whose family home is in Huizhou. Raised by elders who insisted she keep her mother tongue, she went on to study in Massachusetts from a young age, training in composition and music production under noted professors from the New England Conservatory and Berklee College of Music. She began writing and producing music in sixth grade and has since contributed to several hundred works; in tenth grade, she received an Honorable Mention from the Massachusetts Composition Competition. She completed her undergraduate studies at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, where she founded and led the university's only Chinese traditional music ensemble. An advocate for Hokkien language preservation as a public-interest cause, she established Hokkien Music & Culture in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles in 2023 to promote and pass on Hokkien culture through music.

Hokkien Music & Culture's work spans music composition, record releases, and cultural promotion. The company regularly organizes Hokkien-language preservation events, including songwriting and literary competitions, concerts, cultural symposia, and academic paper awards. It also publishes and promotes Hokkien songs and literature with the aim of developing new talent in both fields. Since 2024, Hokkien Music & Culture has run a global Hokkien songwriting competition and a worldwide concert tour out of Los Angeles, drawing on charitable support to protect and grow the mother tongue.

Three Generations on One Stage

The concert brought together scholars of Hokkien culture from China and abroad, veteran musicians, and inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, with performers spanning three generations. Zhang Shenghuan, associate professor at the School of Music of Jimei University, wove Gaojia Opera vocal technique into her songs. Xiamen TV host Chen Xiaoyuan and UFO Records signed artist Zheng Lili performed several Hokkien classics songs. Huizhou's own heritage traditions were represented by Zhang Xiying, vice chair of the municipal musicians' association, who folded elements of Huidong fishermen's songs into her Hokkien performance. Shantou musician Jiang Shengxin, Teochew singer Du Weikun, Xiamen vocalists Zeng Zhichao and Chen Shuna, and Shantou singer Lin Yini shared the stage with the Huizhou Mengshen Chorus, passing the songs of home from one generation of musicians to the next.

The program balanced new original work with beloved standards. Winning entries from the 2024 and 2025 editions of the Global Hokkien Songwriting Competition were performed, including "Over Rivers and Mountains to Baizhang Stream," "A New Shirt," "Kapok," and "Take It Easy" — new melodies telling Hokkien stories. Familiar classics such as "Don't Lose Heart," "Old Love Lingers On," "Sea Waves," and "Words After Drinking" were presented in fresh arrangements. The Mengshen Chorus performed "Longing for the Spring Breeze" and "When the Flower Leaves the Branch," showcasing the warmth and quiet strength of the Hokkien songbook and drawing a strong emotional response from the audience.

Organizers and Academic Support

The concert was presented by Hokkien Music & Culture, with the Huizhou Dongjiang Hokkien Culture Research Association and Yifan Yinghua Culture Communication (Xiamen) Co., Ltd. as co-organizers. Hokkien Music & Culture (USA) and the Chinese Musicians Association of Boston supported international outreach. The evening was hosted in three languages—Hokkien, Mandarin, and English—and streamed live worldwide, carrying Hokkien culture beyond geographic borders. Scholars of the Hokkien language include Zhou Changji of Xiamen University and Dong Zhongsi of National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, and Gan Yu'en of Jinan University served as cultural advisors, lending academic weight to the preservation effort.

Reception

The concert was a resounding success. It is understood to be the first Hokkien-language song concert ever staged in mainland China outside the language's place of origin, and major media outlets gave it extensive coverage. Zhou Changji, professor at Xiamen University and a leading authority on Hokkien culture in China, attended the performance. He said it was the most stirring Hokkien song concert he had seen in his life, praising the high caliber of the performers and the deeply moving response from the audience—proof, he said, of how much the mother tongue still means to the people who came.

Looking Ahead

Following two editions of the Global Hokkien Songwriting Competition in 2024 and 2025 and the 2025–2026 Hokkien Music & Culture Original Hokkien Song Global Tour, with stops in Boston, USA, and Huizhou, China, the company will continue to invest in Hokkien music creation and expand its channels of distribution at home and abroad, bringing new life to a thousand-year-old culture in a new era.

About Hokkien Music & Culture

Founded in Los Angeles in 2023, Hokkien Music & Culture works in music composition, record releases, and cultural promotion, with a mission to preserve and revitalize the Hokkien language through songwriting competitions, concerts, publications, and academic programs.

SOURCE Hokkien Music & Culture