“They have very rigorous learning processes and I didn’t have the stamina to keep up with 8 hours of practice a day.
One cold, winter evening during Christmas, I had a 3 hour session with my teacher to prepare for auditions. That session felt like 3 full days. It’s even harder to practice during winter because of the freezing temperatures. It’s just too painful that I had to warm my hands near the heater. I broke down in tears at the end of the session.
And after that, I couldn’t get a cab to drive me home, because of the extreme weather. Crying, and desperate, I managed to get on those illegal cabs for a ride home. It was extremely dangerous to do so, but I had no choice.
Sometimes, I would look at my friends back home, that were enjoying themselves in their university days, and asked myself, ‘ why should I have to be here at all?’
At one point, I hated my harp so much and wanted nothing to do with it. There wasn’t anybody to motivate me, because all I had was myself. The audition into music school itself is one full year of hard work. Eventually, I realized that the level I wish to achieve doesn’t come in a day or two. It requires a lot of sacrifice to get there.
I embarked on this path right after high school and it has been eight years of training and countless nights of loneliness playing with the Chinese harp, also known as the ‘Guzheng’.
I was not naturally gifted, nor were my parents musically inclined, so I had to work extremely hard to get into music school.
I have never wanted something so much in my life, so I kept on going.
Now that I’m back in Malaysia, I’m collaborating with people from different cultural and musical backgrounds. We know of their food and celebrations, but not of their culture, art and music.
It is my personal mission to promote and share about the Chinese harp to Malaysia. If piano is considered the king of instruments in the West, then in the East, this privilege belongs to the Chinese harp.
I would describe it like a marriage of beauty and strength – tender, yet with an explosive punch. The Chinese harp has always been portrayed as something feminine, like in the movie scenes of classical Chinese drama.
I want people to know that it is no longer the case. Today, it has grown into something versatile and capable of expressing modernity.
There are a lot of different things to explore with the Chinese harp in Malaysia. We get the freedom to experiment because the community is open minded about it. You get to taste a little bit of everything as there is no right or wrong in music.
Now, more than ever, I want to show how far the Chinese harp can go, in hopes that the younger generation will learn to appreciate it, and maybe learn it too.”
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Sara Heng will be performing Xún, which explores different sounds of Guzheng, at Damansara Performing Arts Centre (DPAC.) on 9th September 2018.
As part of the Kuala Lumpur International Arts Festival (KLIAF) x DiverseCity happening in the month of September, Humans of Kuala Lumpur will be featuring talented artists, musicians, actors, designers and sponsors that help make KLIAF a reality.
Humans of Kuala Lumpur (HOKL) will have its first ever PhotoStory exhibition titled ‘Stories from Malaysia’, showcasing portraits of people in Malaysia, alongside their real, personal and intimate stories. Located at Carcosa Seri Negara, HOKL PhotoStory exhibition is happening from 1st until 30th September 2018. Come to meet the people behind your favourite stories, learn storytelling from the HOKL team and enjoy art performances, while admiring the mesmerizing colonial architecture of our venue.
Photostory by Dao Hong
Edited by Amalina Davis and Mushamir Mustafa
Do you have a story? Let us know here: https://forms.gle/ht4HsvbxgSgcKS5h8
(This post was first published on August 28th 2018)
