We all have favorite songs, and usually those songs remind us of people, places, and special moments in our lives. Whether classical symphonies, traditional and folk songs or pop tunes, music seems to cross all social and political boundaries. Of all the arts, music is the one that moves the most hearts. It really is the people's art form.

Perhaps most importantly, music has the power to bring people together. Film, theater and television may provide entertainment or, sometimes, provoke reflection and debate, particularly online, but other than getting a lot of strangers together in a cinema for two hours or sitting around in the living room staring at a box, they largely encourage passive activity. Dance is a good communal activity, but many people just have no aptitude for it. And despite its propensity to make people's brains more active, reading is a solitary activity. But music builds bonds between people - and not just between musicians, but anyone who goes out to see live music or even stumbles upon it accidentally. It is the thing that is most often the focus of our leisure activities.

This is why I believe music could be the key to forging greater cultural links between the people of the countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to forge greater trade ties between 60 countries in Asia, North Africa and Europe. One of the stated aims is also to foster more people-to-people interactions among the member countries. So what better way to do this than through musical interaction?

To this end, I think it would be a terrific idea to organize a song contest for the 60-plus Belt and Road countries. A decent model is the annual music extravaganza centered in Europe, the Eurovision Song Contest, which has been held since 1956. It's gaudy and irrepressible - even cynics cannot resist its kitschy blend of showbiz and exotic culture. Participants - which nowadays include non-European countries such as Israel and even Australia - hold a tournament to choose a song to represent them in a final contest in which each country's representative performs the song live, with the winner chosen by the popular votes from all countries.

The advantages of such a televised contest for the Belt and Road drive are not hard to imagine. It would provide cultural and people-to-people interactions, of course, while showcasing new forms of music, dance and fashion to billions of people. In addition, if the Eurovision model were followed, the contest would rotate among the different countries involved. This would open up the host countries to the media scrutiny of all the other countries, giving a much-needed boost to the economy via tourism and other cultural exports, especially music.

The trade that flourished for 2,000 years along the ancient Silk Road was founded on cultural exchange. Undoubtedly, Silk Road 2.0 will benefit from a concerted effort to foster similar cultural links in a spirit of fun and adventure. A Belt and Road song contest would be an ideal way to get the ball rolling.

Contact the writer at jon.lowe@chinadailyhk.com

(China Daily 05/31/2016 page2)