Greek Student Haldoupis Georgios: My Chinese Music Dream

"I had already fallen in love with Chinese music before I started learning Chinese language," said Haldoupis Georgios, 52, a student at the Confucius Institute at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He is a musician and music teacher, and a student in the School of Music Studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

In 2019, while studying at the university, Haldoupis Georgios saw the Confucius Institute opened, and immediately registered among its first batch of students.

"Chinese music was the treasure I found on YouTube by chance, when I didn't understand Chinese, and just saved all the links to Chinese songs based on my liking," he said.

After discussing Chinese music with a professor of ethnomusicology in university, he made up his mind to learn Chinese.

"I cannot explain my interest in Chinese music. It is just growing as time being," he said. "At the first class, I realized that Chinese language itself is music due to the four fantastic tones."

In Athens, Haldoupis Georgios met a Chinese Guzheng performer, who helped him a lot in music, and heard about the music and culture competition held by the Chinese Embassy in Greece. Later, he adapted Qi Yu's Olive Tree for the competition.

"I like Ms. Qi Yu, for she is a bit like the famous Greek singer Harula Alexiou. A song contains many secrets. I like its melody, and composed lyric for it."

After the competition, he became increasingly passionate about Chinese music. In 2022, the original Chinese theme song My Day, composed by Haldoupis Georgios with the help of Chen Sen, an international Chinese language teacher, came to being. Haldoupis Georgios hopes to bring joy and hope to people with music.

Some Greeks like Chinese culture, while some Chinese people like Greek culture. The Chinese teacher he acquainted on Facebook is one of them. This teacher used to study in Greece, and now teaches Greek in China.

Haldoupis Georgios said, "I saw him singing an ancient Greek song with Chinese children on Facebook, and I was touched!"

He had a similar plan of offering Chinese music course in the school he works. He wants to see Greek children sing classic Chinese songs or recite ancient Chinese poems.

"It will be a wonderful program," he said.