Chinese classics are music to his ears (2)

He presents his show, Chinese Mosaic + Postcards from Shanghai, on Fine Music 102.5 radio station in Sydney on the first Saturday of every month.

The program is a mix of different Chinese music and incorporates material specially provided by Shanghai East Radio, as part of the cultural exchange between the two radio stations.

Hooke says the Chinese music scene in Sydney is thriving, thanks to talented musicians of Chinese background who live and work in the city and to visits by China-based musicians.

He has also presented two live-to-air recitals of Chinese music on his program to further cultural understanding between Australia and China.

"Australians are becoming increasingly interested in China and Chinese culture," he says. "Witness the growth of the Sydney Chinese New Year Festival. Over 17 years it has grown from a small community event in Chinatown attended by a few hundred people to become one of the world's biggest celebrations of the Lunar New Year (outside China)."

One highlight from those years, Hooke says, was the concert given in 2011 by Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man at the University of Sydney's Great Hall, an imposing 19th-century Victorian Gothic building used for major ceremonies and concerts.

Hooke cites one reviewer's reaction: "Wu's skill with such an unusual instrument has left the Great Hall in awe, but the experience has been all the more enjoyable because it is so quintessentially Sydney. After all, where else but in Sydney could you listen to an ancient Chinese instrument under stained glass windows of English kings while the cicadas chorus outside?"

That sounds like a perfect example of Chinese culture with Australian characteristics, a trend that will continue to flourish.

Recently, the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney's oldest, largest and most prestigious gallery, announced plans for a major expansion that would double its exhibition floor space.

In a list of 12 "major points" about the project, that included such big-ticket items as the building of a new train station and a new ferry terminal to service the revamped gallery, were three telling words: "attract Chinese tourists".

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