Anna Shatilova is a Ukrainian musician who started to learn about professional singing at the age of 7. She is a coloratura soprano who has won awards in international competitions. Her love and pursuit of music brought her to China for further studies in the Vocal and Opera  Department at Zhejiang Conservatory of Music. Quickly adapting to her life in China and, Anna was invited to CCTV4’s “Universal Show” and sang the theme song of the Hainan International Film Festival.

For Anna, what pleases her most is that she met many friends who love life and music in Hangzhou. Xiaoyu is a friend in Hangzhou Anna met on the video website Bilibili. He is an enthusiast of collecting natural sounds. He recorded the sounds of West Lake and made it into a white noise video. His masterpiece “Evening Bell at Nanping Hill” has been viewed by 650,000 people and collected by 62,000 people.

After Anna came to Hangzhou, she often heard people talking about “Jiangnan”. What is Jiangnan? Why is Hangzhou one of the typical representatives of Jiangnan? Anna and Xiaoyu listened to the natural sounds of  West Lake, looking for the answers about Jiangnan.

The full view of Jingci Temple can be seen from the Leifeng Pagoda on the opposite side of Nanping Hill. Here Anna heard the “Evening Bell at Nanping Hill” in Xiaoyu's video. The long bell tone has spread far beyond the Buddhist temple garden, integrating itself with the Su Causeway outside the temple, Nanping Hill and West Lake.

Xiaoyu took Anna to the places where he recorded the white noise. They heard the sound of the natural landscape in Yunxi Bamboo Path, one of the ten attractions of West Lake; they heard the sound of architecture blending into nature in Su Causeway; they heard the sound of gardens in Guozhuang by the West Lake, which the Chinese people regard as their ideal living space. “In my opinion, Jiangnan is more like a romantic aesthetics, which has been carried on by Hangzhou’s unique human geography, social structure and cultural tradition,” Anna said.

In the bustling lakeside pedestrian street by the West Lake, Xiaoyu recorded the lively sounds of the market. From the quiet West Lake to the bustling city, Anna couldn’t help but sigh, “Jiangnan represents ‘prosperity’. Since ancient times, the prosperity of economy has enabled the continuation of ‘Jiangnan’culture.”

The “Discover Hangzhou” series of short videos, part of the Hangzhou Stories told by Foreigners Program jointly undertaken by the Office of Cyberspace Affairs Commission of Hangzhou and “In Zhejiang” has been launched on www.inzhejiang.com. The 8 episodes will tell you the fascinating stories of Hangzhou from a fresh perspective. 

Producer: Zhang Yuyi, Zhou Yi, Xue Yi

Video: Shu Lei, He Zhenzhen

Editor: Zhou Xunnan