XILINHOT, China — Video recorder in hand, Wang Hong sat inside a small stone-and-brick house with one of China's aging musical masters -- a Mongolian vocalist named Hajab who once sang his region's ancestral melodies for Chairman Mao Tse-tung.
Wang had ventured from his home in San Francisco to the grasslands of Inner Mongolia on a quest to mine the ancient harmonies of the Middle Kingdom. He had lobbied state authorities and waited months for permission to visit Hajab.
He brought beer to their first meeting.
Imprisoned as a traitor in the 1960s, Hajab says he drinks to forget the past. He is 85 now, and his hearing is nearly gone. A lone yellow tooth protrudes from his lower gums, and cataracts have stolen his sight.
Once known as the King of the Grasslands, he rarely sings anymore.
Although it was well before noon, he sipped warm beer from a yellow plastic cup. His mood was dour.
Then two Chinese musicians, one a former student of his, began tuning their Mongolian horse-head fiddles. Hajab grew silent. As the two played the song "Old Bird," his head began moving to the rhythm.
Slowly, he began to sing.
Wang's hands shook with excitement. He glanced at his video camera to make sure he was capturing the moment for posterity.
Wang, 46, is a musical archeologist. For years he has crisscrossed mainland China in search of folk virtuosos, recording impromptu performances on some of the country's 400 ethnic instruments.
He has learned to play two dozen himself. There's the banjo-like \o7ruan\f7, or moon guitar, a four-stringed instrument used in the Beijing Opera. There's the \o7xun\f7, a clay-vessel flute resembling a beehive with finger holes, and the \o7laba \f7trumpet, which mimics bird song. "I see these instruments -- mute, beautiful, mysterious -- and I have to play them," Wang said. To find the old masters, he has traveled by donkey and bicycle over mountain passes. He has played cultural detective, coaxing information from residents, tracking down musicians wary of disclosing the secrets of their craft.
For everyone, Wang has many questions: How are the instruments played? Can they find an audience in a generation obsessed with electronics?
Back in the United States, through his nonprofit Melody of China, an ensemble of musicians trained at some of China's most prestigious conservatories, Wang stages performances by traditional musicians to give the folk music a broader spotlight.
