Playing on the heartstrings

The musician meets the audience on July 7 in a cinema in Fuzhou, Fujian province, to promote campus film All About Secrets that stars her. [Photo by Zheng Shuai/For China Daily]

"Most members of the audience coming to my recitals are teenagers. They often find the classical music pieces hard to understand and then lose interest," says the cellist. "I want to show them that classical music can be fun. I want to offer them a different feeling about classical music and the cello."

Born in Taipei in a celebrity family－h(huán)er parents are both actors and her aunt a pop singer, Ou-yang has lived in the spotlight from a young age. Since childhood, she has appeared on TV shows with her parents and two sisters, Nini, 21, and Didi, 13. She picked up the cello at age 5 and made up her mind to become a cellist at 8. But her parents didn't think their daughter would take up the cello as a career until she won some awards in music competitions on the island.

In 2013, she went to the United States to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she was taught by renowned cellists Peter Wiley and Carter Brey.

Willowy, long black hair, and big-eyed, Ou-yang is also an actress, starring in the 2014 romantic comedy Beijing Love Story, and recently in the campus romance All About Secrets.

"I really don't feel an advantage over others because of my family background, but I do feel I need to work very hard to prove myself," she says.

Earlier this month, Ou-yang traveled to 17 cities on the Chinese mainland to promote her new movie and new album.

"Lately, I often think of my childhood, especially the days when I began playing the cello," she says. "I miss the days when I had the time to play my instrument for six hours or more a day alone in my room. But now I have to squeeze a few hours to be alone with my instrument."

She always guarantees herself at least three hours of practice every day, as "a way of meditation and relaxation".

Calling being a cellist a passion and her role as an actress a job, Ou-yang says her musical ambition is to collaborate with the Japanese composer and conductor Joe Hisaishi.

"It is on my wish list. But I know I still need to prepare myself more to make this collaboration happen," she says.

Contact the writer at chennan@chinadaily.com.cn