"When I play, my fiddle seems to reflect exactly what I'm feeling. It doesn't sound good if I'm not at my best. So I have to concentrate and practice a lot."

Wang Xiaofeng plays the kokyu, a traditional Chinese fiddle. He's busy most of the day, practicing, performing, teaching the kokyu to Japanese students, and preparing for performances and lessons. "But I didn't come to Japan originally to work with the kokyu," he smiles.

Wang speaks excellent Japanese. He used to do hotel work, first in China and then in Japan, but he ended up as a professional Chinese fiddle player through a strange twist of fate.

He was born in Beijing 36 years ago. His father played the Chinese fiddle with a group performing in eastern China, and his mother was a university professor. This placed his family quite high on the social scale. Wang had to practice the Chinese fiddle at an early age but he says, "All I wanted to do in those days was goof off." In elementary and junior high school, his main goal was to have a good time, not play music or open a textbook. After senior high school, he began working in a hotel. At that time, his mother was busy with a three-year research project at a university in Japan.

He grins, "Mom told me to come to Japan and learn that the world is more than just a bowl of cherries. She thought that would make me serious and hard working. I was 18 then, and I thought, sure, I'll give it a whirl, because I'll have a chance to see Mount Fuji and ride on a Shinkansen high-speed train.

"But after I arrived I was amazed at how hard the Japanese have to work to make a living. Many wake up early and take packed trains to get to their jobs. I had to admire them—it's their hard work and dedication that keeps the Japanese economy going strong."

Just like his mother had hoped, Wang became a new man. He enrolled in a language school to learn Japanese, studied hard, and then entered the Faculty of Letters at Chiba University. Today, he has mastered Japanese, even the polite forms of the language. "I learned a lot of Japanese watching samurai movies on TV."

"In my second year at university, I attended a get-together with Japanese students and one foreign student began playing the Chinese fiddle. That took me back to my childhood, and I asked if I could play it for them, too. It was like my body remembered everything—it just took over when I began playing. They all clapped hard when I finished. The Japanese people there were really happy to hear me play, and that's when I first realized what a great instrument the kokyu is."

As soon as he could, he asked his family in China to send him an instrument, and he started practicing again. Before long, he was volunteering to play at elementary schools and community centers. After graduating from university he found a job at a hotel in Japan, but people kept asking him to perform so he quit four years ago and began working full time as a professional Chinese fiddle player.

Today, he lives with his Japanese wife and two children. He met his wife while working at the hotel.

"Japanese people are really considerate. The neighbors don't seem to mind when I practice at home. They'll say things like, 'I had a nice cup of coffee listening to you play today.' Japan sure is a great place to live!"

Wang also performs for the traditional Noh theater, adding melody from his kokyu to instruments like the Japanese flute and drums. This creates a new form of performing art, blending Japanese and Chinese art forms. He also entertains children with animé theme songs, and for the elderly he may play old Japanese nursery songs.

What is his favorite Japanese expression? "Ichigo ichie: every moment in life is unique and every person we meet is special, so make the most of those moments. Music coming from the Chinese fiddle creates moments of harmony, like the rapport that links people when they meet."