Yu-Peng Chen
Chen Yupeng, also known by his stage name Chen Zhiyi, is a Chinese composer and music producer best known for writing the soundtrack of Genshin Impact, an open-world action role-playing video game by HoYoverse. His work is known for its style of integrating traditional Chinese musical instruments with Western orchestral arrangements. From 2019 to 2023, he was a music producer at HOYO-MiX, the in-house music studio of miHoYo, and led the music production of the game.
Chen was educated at Shenzhen Arts School and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and studied under the tutelage of experienced musicians who influenced his work later in his career. While he studied in college, he was already involved in composing and producing film and television music. Even before his career, his musical works won awards at various events. Chen established the Yupeng Music Studio in 2014, which had cooperative relations with many recording studios and music groups in Beijing and Shanghai, and produced works for companies, including Click Music Ltd., Tencent, and NetEase.
In the early 2010s, Chen collaborated with the accoladed composer Chan Kwong-wing to produce scores for veteran film directors. Their score for Wong Jing's The Last Tycoon earned them a nomination for the "Best Original Film Score" at the 32nd Hong Kong Film Awards. The duo would not win an award until their work for The Founding of an Army, which earned the Golden Deer Award for the "Best Original Music Score" at the 14th Changchun Film Festival. They also produced the score for Andrew Lau's The Captain, one of the all-time highest-grossing films in China. Chen had scored several films by Raymond Yip, most being horror or thrillers.
Early life and education
Chen was born on January 15, 1984, in Changsha, Hunan. His mother was a vocalist. To raise Chen, she stopped her career. His father majored in mathematics. The first musical inspiration came to Chen at age six, when he watched the Japanese animated film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki. Though he did not understand the story, he was deeply moved by the soundtrack and "felt the power of music" for the first time. During his childhood, he also discovered his musical talent as he was sensitive to pitch.In 1996, at the age of twelve, Chen enrolled at Shenzhen Arts School and studied under clarinet educators Jiang Baocheng and Tao Ran. Tao Ran, a Clarinet associate professor at the school, had performed solo clarinet and chamber music concerts. He received several awards for his excellent instruction and musicianship. Tao, like Chen, also studied under Jiang Baocheng. When Chen was 16, he learned basic theories of composition under Ju Zongze, a teacher and assistant lecturer at Shenzhen Arts School. He taught music theory, solfeggio, etc.
In 2002, Chen permanently moved to Shanghai and was admitted to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with the Fu Chengxian Memorial Scholarship. He first studied the clarinet, but Ju Zongze, who discovered Chen's strong interest in composition, suggested that he transfer to a Composition major. Chen later majored in Music Design and Production in the Department of Music Engineering, which was established in 2003. Around the same time, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music invited Japanese musician Tanimura Shinji to join the department as a resident professor. When Chen attended Tanimura's master class in 2005, he noted that Tanimura's work combined Japanese folk music, oriental pentatonic melodies, and Western orchestral music. The learning experience gave much inspiration, especially Tanimura's concepts of "music has no borders" and "spread the positive energy of love". Shortly after that, Chen was one of the eight students from the department to join Tanimura for a concert performance at Expo 2005. He was responsible for the arrangement and production of the musical works, and performed as a pianist. It was also during that year, in November, when he won an award during a song activity organized by Tanimura and the Shanghai Federation of Literary and Art Circles for the opening of the Yangshan Port and Donghai Bridge.
Other than Tanimura, Chen also studied under the tutelage of An Dong, Chen Qiangbin, Wu Yuebei, Hu Taoyuan, Xu Jianqiang, and Qin Shile. The different styles, composition philosophies, and approaches to music taught by the first three teachers greatly influenced Chen's work later in his career. While he studied, he also assisted An Dong in producing film and television music.
In September 2006, Chen's work "GAMES OF FANTASIA" won the first prize at the annual concert of the Department of Music Engineering. He also received three awards for the best creativity, teamwork, and popularity. During the same year, he worked with An Dong on the films The Tokyo Trial and Fiery Autumn Wind. In June 2007, the department held the Undergraduate Outstanding Graduation Works Concert and Exhibition. Chen's "Challenging Hollywood" was selected as the department's outstanding work and won the first prize, and then was performed. Later that year, Chen graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with honors and joined An Dong's studio.
Film and television scoring career
''Armor Hero'' series
In 2009, Chen composed the soundtrack for the first season of Armor Warriors, directed by Zheng Guowei. The story tells of five gifted people who don magical battle armor handed down in China since ancient times, and together they become warriors representing the power of light. They fight against forces of darkness to save their world. In 2010, the series was followed by the film Armor Hero Emperor, which Zheng Guowei also directed and Chen scored.In 2016, Chen composed the theme song "God's Rival" for the film Armor Hero Captor King, with the lyrics provided by Zhou Bingyi and Jing Qian. Two years later, since Chen was the composer of the original Armor Warriors, he was invited to be the music director for Armor Hero Chronicles, a film commemorating ten years since the series began. In addition to producing the soundtrack, he composed and sang the ending theme song, "Kaixuan".
Collaborations with Chan Kwong-wing
At an unknown time, Chen joined Click Music, the studio of Hong Kongese film composer Chan Kwong-wing. Chen accumulated much practical experience at the studio and learned various musical languages and styles since creating film soundtracks had him dabble in genres such as hip-hop, jazz, electronic music, etc. He and Chan worked together to produce the score for The Last Tycoon, a 2012 period drama film directed by Hong Kong cinema veteran Wong Jing. The film is set in early 1900s Shanghai and follows the story of a tycoon named Cheng Daqi and his associates who get caught in the events of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Chen and Chan Kwong-wing's work on the soundtrack got nominated for the "Best Original Film Score" at the 32nd Hong Kong Film Awards.Their next collaboration was for Wong Jing's From Vegas to Macau, a crime-comedy film. Chen and Chan also worked on the scores for its sequels From Vegas to Macau II and From Vegas to Macau III. The three films are part of the God of Gamblers franchise. After From Vegas to Macau III, Chen and Chan worked on the score of The Founding of an Army, a historical drama film directed by Andrew Lau commemorating the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army. Their work earned them the Golden Deer Award for the "Best Original Music Score" at the 14th Changchun Film Festival. They next worked on Andrew Lau's The Captain in 2019, a film based on the events surrounding Sichuan Airlines Flight 8633. It was one of the films that competed in the Golden Deer Awards at the 15th Changchun Film Festival in 2020.
Raymond Yip films
The first film score Chen independently produced was for Bump in the Road, a 2013 comedy film directed by Raymond Yip. The film's story tells of a man named Zhang Kai who suddenly receives an ultrasound image of his child; he embarks on a road trip with his younger brother Xin to search for the child's mother. Chen provided his vocals for the songs "Snatch the Bouquet", "On the Road", and "Far Place".In 2014, Chen returned to score Raymond Yip's The House That Never Dies, a thriller film based on the haunted house Chaonei No. 81. Director Yip gave great importance to the music and did not give restrictions on producing the soundtrack. It was a challenge for Chen as he had no reference for the music, so he created the style, structure, tempo, and orchestration himself. Yip approved the overall design of the music. The film was a box-office hit and became the highest-grossing Chinese horror film. The 2017 sequel, The House That Never Dies II, was directed by Qian Renhao. Chen composed its ending theme song, "Soul Returns".
In January 2015, the suspense thriller film Tales of Mystery, directed by Raymond Yip, Tian Meng, and Xian Xuchu, was released. Its music production was the first test of Chen's creative techniques in the genre of horror music and influenced his work on The House That Never Dies. The film is divided into three acts, each having a unique musical style. The first story is "Japanese-style creepy," the second is "American-style brutal," and the third is "heartwarming with emotions".
The next film directed by Raymond Yip was Phantom of the Theatre in 2016, a thriller like his two previous works. The story tells of a haunted theater filled with the spirits of a performance troupe that perished in a fire many years prior. What Chen found to be most time-consuming in producing the music was not the rigorous score and complex engineering but making the score rich while not complicated, concise but not monotonous. Aside from horror music, Chen took on four themes for the soundtrack: fate, love, and the ordinary and magical sides of the Palace Theater. These themes blend and change with each other. Chen composed "The Mist," the film's theme song that takes on love. His score for the film had received both praise and criticism. Jonathan Broxton of Movie Music UK, in his film score review, wrote, "Phantom of the Theatre has, quite rightly, been the recipient of quite a bit of critical praise in 2016, and despite its flaws I certainly recommend it for anyone wanting to dip their toes into Chinese film music."