Luo Ning, a Chinese jazz pianist who recently performed with South African musicians at the opening ceremony of the Chinese Cultural Festival in Cape Town.[Photo provided to China Daily]

However, jazz is developing nowadays thanks to the Internet. Chinese jazz musicians who are passionate about the music are working hard, and influential jazz musicians are coming to China to perform.

"Luo has a solid background of classical music and has developed his own imagination as a jazz pianist," Liu says.

"Many people in China claim to be jazz musicians but they are not. They just imitate the sound, rhythm and feeling of jazz but they don't know what jazz is."

Calling Liu his mentor, Luo smiles shyly and recalls that he, along with the South African musicians, just rehearsed once before the final performance.

"The communication was very smooth. They knew what I wanted to say with music and so did I," says Luo.

He also told Liu that he will fly to New York to record his new album, The Encounter of Light and Shadow, on which he will be joined by American jazz musicians like drummer Dave Weckl and trumpeter Randy Brecker.

Now in his 30s, the Urumqi-born pianist started learning classical piano at 4. With his father teaching music at a local art center, Luo, along with his sister and brother, grew up listening to classical piano and violin.

"My father recalls that I could play a song I heard from a movie without any training. I guess it was the instrument that chose me," Luo says.

Although fascinated with the music of composers like Rachmaninoff and Beethoven, Luo gradually displayed his talent at adapting classical music works into his own compositions.

After graduation from Xinjiang Arts University, Luo came to Beijing in 1996 to pursue his jazz dream. Soon, introduced by a friend, Luo met Liu and started performing at Liu's bar.