Wuxi, designated as a UNESCO Creative City of Music, is raising its voice on the global stage to champion cultural outreach and urban promotion through the power of its unique Jiangnan melodies.

Building on this momentum of global cultural outreach, Wuxi in Jiangsu province will showcase its commitment to international exchange with the upcoming 2026 International Month and International Cherry Blossom Week in late March. This annual initiative — centered on the core themes of economy, consumption and friendship — features a diverse roster of events including multinational corporate exchanges, international cultural and tourism promotions, and sister-city dialogues.

Having attracted participants from more than 30 countries and regions in recent years, the International Month has established itself as a key platform for elevating the city's global profile and facilitating mutual learning among civilizations.

The "going global" of culture and art is a resonating name card that Wuxi presents to the world. In February, the Wuxi Chinese Orchestra completed a 16-day Spring of Chinese Music European concert tour, which marked the orchestra's debut in Europe with its full ensemble of more than 80 musicians. It performed seven concerts across seven cities in the countries of Belgium, Germany, Austria and Hungary.

As a project supported by the 2025 National Arts Fund and a key initiative of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's 2026 Happy Chinese New Year program, the tour was organized by the China Center for International Cultural Exchange and Tourism Promotion and the Wuxi Chinese Orchestra as part of Chinese New Year celebrations.

This tour not only marked the orchestra's largest-ever overseas undertaking but represented Wuxi, composing a vibrant new movement of cultural exchange and mutual understanding between China and the world.

"This tour gave me the strongest feeling that music knows no borders and culture resonates across them," said Wang Yijing, the principal bamboo flute player of the Wuxi Chinese Orchestra. "Every time we performed on stage, I could constantly sense the audience listening with their whole hearts. We interpreted our national culture with music from the East and they embraced it with the warmest applause."

Huang Yang, head of the Wuxi Chinese Orchestra, noted that in every city the orchestra visited, it consistently received high praise from audiences following each performance.

"Along the way, there were touching moments and exhilarating experiences, but the greatest joy was seeing our traditional music embraced by so many friends from around the world," Huang said.

At the debut performance in the Centre for Fine Arts in Belgium, all 2,000 seats were filled, with red lanterns and Chinese knots creating a rich festive atmosphere for Chinese New Year, according to the orchestra.

Classic pieces such as Spring Festival Overture, A Dream of Taihu and Spring Morning, along with other works featuring the distinctive style of the Jiangnan region, immersed the audience in the unique charm of Eastern music.

When the melody of Horse Race filled the hall, the familiar tune moved many overseas Chinese to tears, while European listeners spontaneously began clapping to the rhythm.

In Germany, at Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie concert hall on the first day of this year's Chinese New Year, the orchestra conveyed New Year blessings through their music, earning four standing ovations from the audience. In the concert hall in Stuttgart — originally a 600-year-old farmhouse and stable — the architecture of the West and the music of the East combined to create a unique artistic harmony.

A German audience member, deeply moved by the performance in Hamburg, made a special trip to Stuttgart's concert hall, returning with friends just to lose themselves once more in the "sounds of Taihu Lake".

Another senior attendee shared their emotion at the venue, saying that he had visited Wuxi as early as the 1980s. Now hearing traditional music from Wuxi, the beautiful melodies instantly brought back fond memories of his time in the Jiangnan region, filling him with a deep sense of warmth and familiarity.

After bringing its German tour to a conclusion at the Tonhalle Duesseldorf concert hall, the Wuxi Chinese Orchestra continued its journey, performing new musical chapters amid the foothills of the Austrian Alps and in the country's capital of music.

The performance at the Tyrolean Festival Hall, coinciding with the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Austria, served as a spiritual bridge, adding a masterstroke to the cultural exchange between the two nations.

In the Vienna Musikverein concert hall, the ensemble not only presented classic Chinese orchestral works but curated a "Dreams of Jiangnan" cultural salon, allowing the Austrian audience to experience the charm of China's intangible cultural heritage firsthand beyond the music.

After the performance, Chinese Ambassador to Austria Qi Mei said the Austrian audience's understanding of the emotions conveyed through the music perfectly illustrated how "the more national it is, the more it belongs to the world".

"As a Chinese person who works abroad year-round, I often say I don't miss home. But at this very moment, immersed in the music of our country, especially when the familiar Spring Festival Overture began, I realized I was just being stubborn — I do miss home and I was fighting back tears. I believe music is a bridge; it fosters greater understanding among people worldwide and spreads goodwill," said an overseas Chinese audience member surnamed Wen.

At the performance in the Vienna Musikverein, Daniel Serafin, chairman of the Austrian Chinese Musicians Association, participated in the "Elegant Rhythms of Jiangnan, Harmonious Resonance of Traditional Music" cultural salon, learning to use brush and ink to write the Chinese character fu, which symbolizes good fortune and blessings.

"On this Chinese New Year, I wish Wuxi even greater happiness and continuous flourishing. I look forward to more friends from Wuxi visiting Austria, and I also hope that more Austrians will have the opportunity to visit and explore Wuxi," said Serafin.

Cultural outreach thrives on both performance and exchange. The Wuxi Chinese Orchestra's European tour extended its influence far beyond the stage. In central Brussels, musicians performed The Adventures of Tintin with Jiangnan Sizhu, a style of traditional Chinese instrumental music from the Jiangnan region, before comic murals, captivating passers-by. In German cities like Stuttgart, the orchestra's piece A Dream of Taihu introduced Wuxi city and its lake, creating a new cultural symbol for European audiences.

At the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Chinese and European musicians held improvisational "dialogues" with their instruments, blending Eastern expressiveness with Western formalism and deepening friendship. In Austria's Tyrol, the orchestra performed alongside local musicians amid Alpine scenery, allowing the sounds of Jiangnan to resonate across the mountains.

This tour was not only an artistic showcase but an international dissemination of the city's identity. Using traditional music as a bridge, the Wuxi Chinese Orchestra brought the sounds of Jiangnan Sizhu, along with the essence of Taihu Lake, into mainstream European artistic circles.

It garnered high praise from Chinese diplomatic missions in Europe, local media and audiences, creating a powerful, cascading message for Wuxi's traditional music, Jiangnan culture and the voice of China.