Sci-fi inspired singer praises her roots

In a more recent album, Endless Farewell, released in the summer, she conceives a multiverse where each track represents its own parallel world. One could hear her imagination about the outer space, about a divine beauty from an exotic land and also her reflections on what is going on in our everyday life, such as refuse classification, 5G and the shared feelings of isolation and invisibility.

This album was inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky's sci-fi classic Solaris. Then it's not surprising many audiences comments that spending 40 minutes to listen to the whole album is like watching a movie.

Since her debut in the music industry, Zhu has collaborated with many foreign musicians including French duo Toukan Toukan, the California-based songwriter Mario Marchetti and Finnish chanteuse Saara Aalto.

In 2019, she also appeared in the documentary Generational Gravity which probes into the key subjects of interest to the global young generation, namely street culture, beauty and makeup, hair styles and party culture. That took her on a journey to Berlin, Moscow, Kyiv and London where she immersed among young people, mostly music aficionados, in all-night raves and parties revolving on different music genres.

"I really enjoy going to different places all around the world to explore, observe and experience the youth culture and communicate with those young talent," Zhu says.

She regards such experiences of cultural exchange a source of inspiration for her creations.

"That helps me to further understand the diversity of the world and also helps me to know more about myself," she adds.

Her open-mindedness naturally makes it easy for her to create musical works that enjoy popularity among an audience of varied cultural backgrounds.

When writing lyrics, either Chinese or English, she is adept at using simple terms to give graphic descriptions of scenes or stories that can resonate with listeners.

Many of her tracks are well received overseas. For instance, the single Shadow successfully made its way onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2018. Another track, Blessing, was recommended by the international music review site Pitchfork in August, noting that "her synthpop explores the relationship between technology, humanity, and consciousness".

She believes that sincere self-expression can help her music attract a wide audience.