Can making art together save the world?

Before The Magic Flute opened at the Beijing Music Festival, I joined CGTN’s The Hype with our director Zou Shuang and members of the cast for an hour on Mozart, our production and why classical music still matters.

This Flute is the first co-production ever between an Australian and a Chinese opera company: the China National Opera House, Beijing Music Festival, Opera Hong Kong and State Opera South Australia, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the pit. It began in 2025. Can you believe that?

Paul Keating was arguing as early as the 1990s that Australia should find its security in Asia, not from Asia. In the arts, we have lagged badly.

For me it’s also personal. This production embodies my whole heritage, growing up as a Chinese Australian.

When we got to the co-production on air, I said something I believe completely: “In this world, with everything happening, this kind of person-to-person, human-to-human contact that you get when you create something together and make art together, I think it can really save the world.”

The more we can put people together to create art, the better the world is going to be.

The full episode is below. The co-production conversation starts at 32:04.