Editor's note: Chasing Muqam is a CGTN Digital documentary series that explores the legacy of Muqam, a traditional Uygur art form that blends song, music and dance. Nadim Diab travels across Xinjiang to meet the people carrying this tradition forward – listening, learning, and ultimately attempting to capture the soul of Muqam in a performance.

CGTN's Nadim Diab is in Shache, a desert town in southern Xinjiang and the birthplace of the Twelve Muqam. Eager to learn more, he heads to a weekly gathering of local artists, whose energy is as relentless as the music itself. Among them, he discovers that expressing Muqam doesn't come from technique, but from an unexpected place: the heart.