Aspiring composer Xu Lingqing: 'I want to write music'

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China has become a land of opportunity for aspiring professionals in the art world thanks to rapid growth in China's cultural sector and better intellectual property rights protection. Aspiring composer Xu Lingqing is such an example.

"I started to write my own piano pieces when I was around 12. I wrote my first orchestral piece for my school orchestra, and it was performed when I was 14, in ninth grade,” said Xu.

She has always been musical. She spent most of her student life in the US, and now she's a full-time composer in Shanghai. "I see a lot of improvement in a lot of content produced in China. From 10 years ago until now, there's a lot of improvement. Really really exciting to see more Chinese pieces of work not only going abroad but going to audiences for them to enjoy,” said Xu.

Xu did not receive a formal music education. Despite her enthusiasm for music, her parents, both scientists, wanted her to choose the same career path as they did. “I was actually very frustrated. I was a very nice daughter,” said Xu.

Xu grew up in the state of Indiana in the US where she started to receive local music awards when she was young. /Photo ‍provided by Xu Lingqing

After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she worked as a medical engineer in America and later on as a management consultant in Shanghai. Neither job proved to be fulfilling. "I want to write music. I think I've always been good at it,” said Xu.

After more than eight years of working in the corporate world, she made a giant leap in her career path in 2017. "I really think this is a really good industry to get into at this time because of the past few years. I think also in the future decades the cultural industry in China will grow a lot. Also it's growing at a much faster pace than in Europe and in the US," said Xu.

The latest government work report from the National People's Congress says that China's cultural sector grew an annual 13 percent in the past five years.

"In China and the US, it's becoming more and more similar for where composers are needed. Because of copyright laws in the US, basically most companies, most people need to get original compositions," said Xu.

"In China nowadays people also frequently hire composers for all these purposes. People are more aware of the copyright laws in China, so a lot of businesses use original work,” said Xu. The composer hopes she will eventually score for feature films one day. "A lot of dreams for the future. Hopefully I can find a path to get there,” said Xu.