- Wuxi has been named China’s first UNESCO City of Music.
- Celebrations erupted on Bogong Island, with global representatives in attendance.
- Local musicians, volunteers, orchestras, and school ensembles showcased Wuxi’s music culture.
- The city blends ancient musical heritage with high-tech innovation.
- Community musicians and ordinary citizens play a key role in Wuxi’s recognition.
- Traditional crafts, modern audio museums, and historical artifacts reveal Wuxi’s deep cultural roots.
A Festival Where a Whole City Leaned Into Its Music Identity
Wuxi did not just receive a UNESCO title. It embraced it with the kind of collective energy normally reserved for national holidays and World Cup finals. When the designation as China’s first “City of Music” was announced on October 31, 2025, the reaction was instant: pride, celebration, and a feeling that the world was finally seeing what locals already knew.
Two weeks later, on a bright Saturday afternoon on November 15, Bogong Island became the city’s stage. Residents poured in, school groups rushed to set up stands, orchestras tuned their instruments, and visitors found themselves swept into an atmosphere that felt more like a cultural awakening than a ceremony.
There, Denise Bax, Secretary of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, handed Mayor Jiang Feng the official approval letter naming Wuxi a “World Music Capital”. Her speech struck exactly the tone the crowd had long hoped for:
“I would like to pay tribute to you, the citizens of Wuxi. In this city, music is not only performed and celebrated, but also believed and shared as the universal language that unites communities. … In becoming a UNESCO Creative City of Music, Wuxi joins a global community of cities that believe in the transformative power of culture.”
It was a moment of affirmation for a city whose musicians often rehearse in factory break rooms, school courtyards, ancient alleys, or lakeside parks.
Entrepreneurs With Trumpets, Children With Erhus, A Brass Band With A French Singer
One of the most symbolic sights that weekend was Wuxi’s brass band—an ensemble unlike any you might expect from a UNESCO-level celebration. Most of its musicians are entrepreneurs. They run companies, manage teams, and spend their spare minutes navigating supply chains and contracts. Yet, when the working day ends, they reach for trumpets and tubas.
They have spent ten years playing in every venue that would have them: retirement homes, universities, children’s events, New Year’s dinners, army gatherings, and community festivals. To them, Wuxi’s new title is not an abstract international award. It is the recognition of their decade of volunteer musicianship.
Their performance included something new: French singer Alice Roche, a foreign internet celebrity, joined them for a special collaboration. The mix of local enthusiasm and international flair became one of the festival’s most photographed moments.
Children added their own charm. A lakeside erhu ensemble—small hands, serious faces—played traditional melodies while parents whispered encouragement from the sidelines. The dance performance from a school for the visually impaired prompted the loudest applause of the day, a reminder that Wuxi’s music culture belongs to every citizen.
Saxophones, Steel Workers, And A City That Loves Voluntary Music
If one person represents the city’s grassroots passion, it is Xiao Zhengqing, Vice President of the Wuxi Saxophone Club. He teaches more than 400 amateur saxophonists—engineers, accountants, shopkeepers, retirees, office workers—anyone who wants to learn. This year, he brought them to the World Saxophone Congress, a journey that turned everyday Wuxi residents into unexpected international performers.
Nearby, something equally surprising unfolds inside the Digital Intelligence Center of Xingcheng Special Steel. Workers who spend their mornings around furnaces and machinery gather for choir rehearsals. Their performance during the celebration weekend—strong voices, industrial uniforms, polished harmonies—became a symbol of the city’s spirit. Wuxi, where heavy industry meets heavy musical enthusiasm, is now exporting steel and song.
Heritage That Runs Thousands of Years Deep
While musicians filled the streets, Wuxi’s museums quietly reminded visitors that the city’s musical pedigree did not begin with brass bands or saxophone clubs.
Inside the Hongshan Relic Museum, 400 pottery replicas of bronze instruments—unearthed from Warring States-era aristocratic tombs—show that music has pulsed through this region for over two millennia.
In Huishan Ancient Town, the Sound Hall explores the relationship between landscape and rhythm. Visitors don headphones to hear the Yangtze River, classical strings, or the soft crackle of vinyl. Watching over them is a towering cyber-style statue of A-Bing, Wuxi’s legendary erhu master whose influence still shapes the city’s identity.
A short drive away, the Meicun Erhu Industry Park displays a three-metre python skin used in crafting the instrument’s iconic timbre. Visitors can watch artisans scorch python skin—a craft carried through generations—while learning why the erhu is a cornerstone of China’s intangible cultural heritage.
An Audio Museum That Feels Like a City Within a City
For a different sort of nostalgia, curator Kent Zhang has built a museum that could easily pass for an entire Creative City of Music on its own. Tens of thousands of vintage devices—open-reel machines, Walkmans, Discmans, MiniDisc players, early digital recorders—fill its rooms. Signed albums from Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, Madonna, and U2 line the walls like modern relics.
Zhang spent over 20 years collecting his pieces worldwide. His mission is simple: to teach young people where modern music culture began.
A Conductor With Big Ambitions And A City Ready To Grow
Back at the Wuxi National Orchestra, Assistant Conductor Guo Pan—still early in her career—laughed when asked whether the UNESCO title might help her rise in the national conducting scene. “Of course,” she said, with a certainty that matched the city’s mood.
Her colleagues feel the same. Principal flautist Wang Yijing hopes the new designation will bring more festivals and events. Double bassist Jason Hao dreams of jazz studies in the United States and believes this global recognition can open doors.
For many in Wuxi, UNESCO’s decision is not the end. It is a beginning.
Why Wuxi Earned The Title
By the end of the celebration weekend, the city had already shown the world why the title fits:
Wuxi’s claim to fame includes:
- Volunteer orchestras and ensembles
- Inclusive music programs for children and visually impaired performers
- Strong traditional craftsmanship in erhu making
- Deep archaeological roots of ancient instruments
- High-tech audio museums
- Music in factories, retirement homes, and public squares
- A cultural philosophy embraced by ordinary citizens
A UNESCO City of Music is not built in a year. It is built every time a worker sings after a shift, every time a child picks up an erhu, every time a community chooses creativity as its heartbeat.
Wuxi has simply made that heartbeat impossible to ignore.