Xibeifeng ('northwest wind') is a style of music which originated in the early 1980s, and by the middle of the same decade had evolved into the first distinctively Chinese form of rock music. It drew heavily on the folk-song traditions of the northwestern part of China, especially from the Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. This music represented the musical branch of the large-scale cultural movement called xungen ('root-seeking'). Northwest Wind, scored for flute, clarinet, harp, viola and d...