By: Hongkun Luo

In the spring of 2025, a captivating new music premiere took place at St Mary le Strand Church in London. The piece, Butterfly’s Dream, was composed by Ray Lin and inspired by the ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi’s Butterfly’s Dream. This classical Chinese philosophical allegory articulates the fluid interchange between reality and dream, essence and transformation, self and other—resonating with the musical pursuit of self-fluidity and the dynamic construction of identity. It was performed by Guzheng artist Mengdie Ji, currently based in the UK. Two months later, the work had its international premiere at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, New York.

As a performer of the traditional Chinese Guzheng, Mengdie Ji took on more than just the solo part in this cross-cultural chamber work—she became a vital narrative voice. She placed the Guzheng in an unfamiliar musical landscape, alongside flute, B♭ clarinet, piano, and cello. This unique orchestration created a distinct sense of tension and interplay. Through precise control and nuanced emotional expression, Ji not only addressed the philosophical themes of illusion and reality but also revealed the Guzheng’s expressive potential in contemporary contexts.

Probing the Edges of Boundaries

Ray Lin’s Butterfly’s Dream is far more than a cultural collage. It is a deliberate, critical act of musical construction. The composer builds an ambiguous, shifting sound world between dream and wakefulness, East and West, reality and memory. This sense of fluidity and uncertainty is not only reflected in the work’s structure—with blurred transitions and fleeting melodic lines—but also embedded in its technical demands on the performers.

“For the Guzheng, this is both liberating and challenging,” says Mengdie Ji.  

The Guzheng is placed in an ‘exotic space’ that requires constant experimentation. Ji Mengdie experienced this first-hand during rehearsals in London, where she held in-depth discussions with the composer – for the wakizashi touches and fingerings – and experimented with how to incorporate the Guzheng into the logic of chamber music while retaining its unique sound.

In the performance, Ji uses rolling finger techniques to reflect a delicate, trembling quality—reminiscent of fluttering butterfly wings. Artificial harmonics and bending vibrato bring an elfin, ethereal presence, while the combination of soft tremolos and glissandi reflects the emotional fluctuations and drifting consciousness of a dream state. Through these techniques, the Guzheng became not only a vehicle for the melody, but also an integral element in the sonic architecture of the ‘dream’.

Photo Courtesy: Melody Ji

The Performer as Cultural Mediator

Mengdie Ji’s performances are more than just a demonstration of technical skill or a presentation of musical scores; her interpretations are an active cross-cultural exploration. On the international scene, non-Western classical instruments are often burdened with ethnic culture labels. Then how does the Guzheng speak in an unfamiliar musical language? How is its sound heard, misread, transformed, or re-imagined?

In Ji’s hands, these questions found tangible answers. Her choices—tone color, phrasing, timing of each glissando or damping—collectively reshaped what the Guzheng could mean in this new context. Her interpretive choices—tone color, phrasing, the timing of each glissando or damping—did not merely reflect technical mastery, but actively reimagined what the Guzheng could signify within this contemporary, cross-cultural context.

Each technique choice and phrase is shaped with precise musical intent. Through subtle finger control, Ji modulates the timbre from silvery-bell-like crispness to thick resonance, subtly mirroring the flow of consciousness and shifting emotional intensity in the dream state..

In several sections of the piece, she employed rolling finger (摇指) techniques to create a continuous, fluttering acoustic – aurally rendering the fragile flapping of a butterfly’s wings. These flutters were not static effects, but dynamically shaped, growing and fading in sync with the ensemble’s harmonic tension. In contrast, the artificial harmonics (泛音) used by Ji produced a distant, ethereal timbre that seemed to blur the boundary between sound and silence, presence and memory, and which beautifully echoes the philosophical tone of the work.

Her application of bending vibrato (吟揉) was particularly prominent in the slower, more introspective sections. This expressive technique does not merely decorate the notes, but breathes life into the sound of the guzheng, as if suspended on butterfly wings between dream and awakening. Ji’s glissandos, sometimes swift and fluid, occasionally slow and grave, are not only gestures of movement, but also transitions in emotional and narrative arcs.

Also thoughtful is her decision of ‘damping ’(止音). More than simply cutting off sound, Ji used damping as a sculptural tool, carving space and accentuating silence as a meaningful counterpoint to resonance. In one key moment, she juxtaposes layers of glissandos with a sudden pause—drawing a clear sonic line between the real and the imagined, the continuous and the disrupted.

Through this detailed interplay of techniques, Mengdie Ji demonstrated that the Guzheng is much more than a carrier of traditional music. It is a multi-faceted, highly expressive instrument, capable of navigating the constant flow of music, engaging in cross-cultural dialogue, and expressing the multi-layered psychological dimensions of contemporary music.

After the concert in New York, an audience member asked, ‘Do you think the Guzheng you played represents modernity or tradition?’ Ji replied: The Guzheng has always carried both contemporary and historical significance. This is precisely what I aim to achieve—to serve as a bridge, using the piece ‘Zhuang Zhou’s Dream of the Butterfly’ to connect the traditional and contemporary aspects of the guzheng, and to bridge the gap between beautiful fantasies and reality. Her response transcended the instrument itself, embodying the resolve of a performer to interpret the cultural essence of life.

Photo Courtesy: Melody Ji

Beyond Butterfly’s Dream: A Living, Evolving Practice

In recent years, Mengdie Ji has consistently utilised the Guzheng as a musical and cultural language across various artistic mediums. From commissioning new works to integrating dance and visual arts, and even crossing into architectural soundscapes, she has transformed the Guzheng into a tool that challenges the traditional stereotypes of Chinese instruments. In diverse musical spaces, artistic forms, and cultural contexts, she infuses the guzheng with new vitality and a unique cultural identity, driving its evolution and global dissemination.

Butterfly’s Dream is a representative work that seamlessly blends the traditional zither with a modern perspective, an international stage, and the profound philosophical essence of Chinese classical culture. Its interpretation has become an embodiment of the artistic philosophy of Ji Mengdie’s zither practice. It offers a balanced and viable exploration of how the guzheng can preserve its classical spirit and traditional artistic essence while expanding its boundaries to align with contemporary aesthetics in future artistic expressions. This not only fills us with anticipation for the guzheng’s journey of growth on the international stage but also sparks a desire to explore further.

As Zhuangzi said in this famous story: ‘I am the butterfly, and the butterfly is me.’ History is the present, I am the instrument, the guzheng is the language, and tradition is modernity. These opposing, illusory concepts are explored in art, transforming from the abstract to the concrete, from the superficial to the profound.

Work information

• Work title: Butterfly’s Dream
• Composer: Ray Lin
• Guzheng performance: Mengdie Ji
• Premiere time and location: March 2025, St Mary le Strand, London, UK
• Re-performance: May 2025, Aaron Copland School of Music, New York, USA
• Performance format: Chamber music
• Instruments: flute, B-key clarinet, Guzheng, piano, cello
• Duration: about 7 minutes and 20 seconds
• Keywords: Dream, philosophy, cross-culture, chamber music, Guzheng
• Core performance techniques: finger rolling, harmonics, chanting, tremolo, glissando

Disclaimer: The opinions and interpretations presented in this article are those of the author and the featured artists, based on their personal experiences and creative perspectives. The content provided is for informational and artistic exploration purposes only. Any references to the Guzheng’s capabilities, Mengdie Ji’s performance techniques, or cultural interpretations are subjective and not guaranteed to produce the same outcomes for every individual or performance. The descriptions and expressions within this article reflect artistic interpretation and should not be viewed as factual claims or universally applicable statements.