Muqam is facing a threat to its existence, but efforts to revive it are in progress. Chen Nan reports.

It was a brilliant evening. Onstage, with the dutar and the tanbur (both traditional Uygur plucked-stringed instruments), Abduweli Sataer and Alipu Sedike, two musicians from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, showcased unusual sounds in the concert hall of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

"My heart was stolen by a girl. She broke my heart," sing the duo in Uygur with the audience clapping to the beat.