“Having this opportunity to share my culture with the people of China is something special just because in a lot of countries they don’t know that natives still exist,” said Adam Conte, one of the Living Legends performers. “A lot of them think they’re just in the history books and some people that are kind of extinct now and not really real.”
BYU's Living Legends perform in Xi'an, China as part of the BYU Spectacular tour. (Steve Fidel)
Besides being able to share his own culture, Conte also became immersed in the Chinese culture while on tour. At the end of every show, all of the performers sang a traditional Chinese song calledMo Li Hua. Every time the opening notes ofMo Li Huaplayed, the audience would cheer loudly and pull out phones to record the song.
“I got kind of choked up it was really touching because they told us it was something special to them but I didn’t really realize how well they were going to accept it,” Conte said.
Conte said blending the two cultures helped melt differences. “Being able to share that with people around the world, I think that unifies us more because I think you can always draw similarities between cultures,” said Conte.
The BYU Spectacular tour featured eight performing groups, 160 performers and more than 200 people on the tour, including Living Legends.