Editor's note: Rudyard Kipling once said  "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet." Is the cultural gap between China and the U.S. impossible to navigate? What does fusion mean for musical creation and business? During the #CIIE2020, CGTN's Zou Yue presents a new series "In Shanghai: Where China meets the U.S." This is the last episode, From fusion to thriving.”

Guitar, keyboard, base, drum… welcome to the world of jazz.

Jazz guitarist Zhang Xiongguan said he started playing when in high school.

"Like every kid in high school, I liked pop music, rock music," Zhang told me after a show at the Jazz at Lincoln Center. It is the only overseas branch of the New York-based jazz club.

"And I didn't actually hear any jazz before I was introduced to my professor at the Shanghai Conservatory," he said. "Jazz to me, it's so fresh. It's like nothing I've heard from rock or pop music before."

Jazz arrived in China in the early 1920s and came out a great success. The east China metropolis even established its own jazz band, with all members Chinese. 

The evolution of jazz in China experienced ups and downs that ran parallel with the country's social, economic and political evolution through the years.

Now, the music is witnessing a rebirth in the Chinese city where it was first introduced.

"When I was a student here, about 15 years ago, there was already local Chinese musicians playing jazz all around the city. And they're still playing now. But the younger generation is coming up," Zhang said.

Professor Murray James Morrison came to China in 2007 and now teaches jazz at NYU Shanghai. A saxophonist himself, he is impressed by the development of jazz in the city.

"The growth that I've witnessed in the last 13 years is nothing short of incredible. Like its year-over-year improvements, and it's multi-culture improvements."

"The scene here, I think in Shanghai, maybe for most out of the cities in China with like a bustling jazz scene, is extremely eclectic," Morrison added.

For Zhang Xiongguan, the city that he lives in means inspiration.

"When it comes to composing, I think it really matters where you came from, where you live, and the background you have. And the audience you have in the city you live in," said the young musician.

Professor Morrison said cities like Shanghai also provide musicians opportunities to work with talents from other places.

"It's Chinese musicians working with other musicians in cities like Shanghai and Beijing and elsewhere, and just working really hard on their craft," he said. "So it's a kind of like cultural fusion, like jazz was since the beginning."

Jazz involves a blending of different cultural elements, but it is no more than an interplay of musical notes.

Also in Shanghai, there is a much larger experiment of fusion – of people, money and ideas. It happens here in Disneyland, the first American theme park on the Chinese mainland.

"We decided that we were going to focus on what we call authentically Disney and distinctly Chinese. For example, the castle that's behind us, it's the tallest castle in the world, but at the tallest peak of it, there is a peony flower at the top," Joe Schott, president and general manager of Shanghai Disney Resort, told me.

"A peony flower, that's a Chinese flower," I replied.

"That's right. The second spire down has a magnolia flower (city flower of Shanghai) to celebrate Shanghai," said Schott, an American who started to work at Disney when he was 18.

Disney's efforts have paid off.

It received its 10 millionth guest within 11 months of opening in 2016.

"I think this is the good outcome of China-American relations. And also this is a good example of Chinese culture and American culture working together, to bring the people the colorful world," said Lin Songtian, president of Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

Localization also enabled Disney to better weather the storm caused by COVID-19.

The Shanghai resort reopened in May, the first among Disney's parks.

Schott said the introduction of mobile services facilitated that process. According to Statista, China has been the world's largest smartphone market since 2012. Official data show China has more than 1.6 billion mobile subscribers, that's larger than the country's entire population of 1.4 billion.

Schott told me he was impressed by the fast-pace and innovation that he has watched in China.

"We introduced a new function electronically, on a digital app… 80 percent adoption, overnight, one day, adopted from manual process to electronical process, amazing!" he said. "We knew people were going to have to be much more mobile savvy at the end of this. So we had to introduce some new technology to allow us to register people before they came to the park to stagger arrivals."

"Do you think you will be able to come back to the good old days, or will it probably be reshaped by COVID?" I asked.

"I think we've learned a lot during the course of that. I spoke earlier about the technology and how people have grown dependent, even more so, on their mobile device. So leaning into that and making sure that we have services that are available that way to ease the friction and the process is really key to our success in the future as well," Schott said.

He said his park is still running at half capacity, but he is also looking at the Zootopia attraction under construction. For him, the happiest moment is the lighting show, but it is not the light and fireworks, but the gathering of crowds and the smiles on people's faces.

Be it jazz or Disneyland, it is about fusion. People and ideas can only thrive in the context of coming together. This is the story of Shanghai. And it can be the story of the entire world.

Scriptwriter: Zou Yue

Editing & design: Feng Ran, Li Linxi

Video editor: Feng Ran, Li Linxi, Yan Meiyi

Senior producer: Ge Jing

Managing director: Mei Yan

Supervisor: Fan Yun

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)