40 Elites in 40 Years: I sing in China

World
Europe

03:28

The opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games gave the whole world a new understanding of China and shocked one young Romanian man: Mugur Petru Ciubancan. For Mugur, the opening ceremony was the beginning of his intense interest in China.

He began to take the initiative to understand China's 5,000-year history, as well as the Peking Opera, Chinese medicine, tea, and food. In addition, he gave himself a typical Chinese name – Weihua.

When China's reform and opening-up entered the late 1980s, popular music took off in China. The prevalence of recorders, albums and CDs, and the popularity of music from Hong Kong and Taiwan changed the country's music scene. In 2001, Mugur, interested in the music in China, came to the country and ended up staying for nearly 15 years.

Mugur started to study music as a child. He took this talent to Beijing and won the Gold Prize and the Potential Star Award at the 6th Talent Competition for Foreigners held by Beijing Television Station in 2001.

To grow as a musician, he began to explore other parts of Chinese culture. Mugur taught himself Chinese Pinyin and even learned to speak Chinese without a teacher.

He always proudly told Chinese people: "Romania is the second country to establish diplomatic relations with China. China is our good friend!" When he returned to his motherland, he would introduce everything he knew about China to his compatriots.

During one of his concerts in Romania, more than half of his repertoire was composed of Chinese songs, because there were 6,000 Chinese fans at his show. At the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, he became the cultural ambassador of Romania. On November 21, 2011, Mugur received an award by the Romanian Embassy in China for promoting Sino-Romanian friendship.

The year 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up. Mugur said: "I know that in the past China was learning from other countries, but now other countries are actually learning from China. I have been in China for almost 15 years, and I wish to have the opportunity to do more meaningful things in China."