Can You Write an Uplifting Song About the Climate Crisis? Student Zitong (Selina) Zhang talks about the inspiration behind her new song Life, a meditation on climate change and its impact on our world.
By
Tori Donahue
May 20, 2022
Zitong (Selina) Zhang
Image courtesy of the artist
Sixth-semester student Zitong (Selina) Zhang took inspiration from the beauty and vulnerability of the world around her to write her new song Life, a meditative reflection on the cycles of life and the impact of climate change.
A songwriting major from Beijing, China, Zhang submitted the song as an entry for Berklees Songs for Social Change contest, impressing Mark Simos, the contests faculty facilitator. She also performed the song at the recent Earthapalooza showcase with a nine-piece backing band helping to drive home the powerful effect of lyrical refrains such as, Life is endless, day and night, and, Praise life and release nature.
Berklees Media Relations team spoke to Zhang about the inspiration and creative process that goes into writing a song about such a difficult topic, as well as the tools shes learned from Berklee to enhance her musical and creative abilities.
Listen to Life on Berklees Songs for Social Change SoundCloud playlist and watch Zhangs Earthapalooza performance on Vimeo (at the 2:22:00 mark).
You submitted the song Life, a reflection on climate change and its impact on our world, for this year's Songs for Social Change songwriting competition. Why did you choose this subject for your submission? The reason why I submitted Life is because I think social change can be expounded and acted upon from various perspectives and angles in a broader scale, among which climate change and its impact on our world would also be an inseparable part of social change. Imagine as if our whole society is an organic organism, and every department of the organism existed for the survival of each organic entity. Whether we are flowers or trees, animals or humans, we are an indispensable component of this life circle.
What inspired you to write Life ? I particularly loved your descriptions of nature's many wonders followed by lyrics like appear, disappear, survive, destroy -how did you come up with this contrast? How do you reflect this contrast in your performance? From a literal perspective, the special inspiration of this song stems from the precious and priceless natural landscape that we can see every day in our daily routines, but coincidentally becomes the most easily ignored part of the world for us. For example, as mentioned in my lyrics, earth, sky, mountains and rivers; jade tree, scorching sun, wind flower, snow moon, -their changing processes, a result of climate change, are reflected in the lyrics appear, disappear, survive, destroy.
All things in the world have balance, and balance is harmony. In the performance, the most obvious way I reacted to this contrast is the change from the last chorus to the outro. With the increasing speed of the chorus and the continuous rising tone, the appeal becomes increasingly stronger and stronger, and particularly conveys the message of life being like a wave with an ebb and flow-until the final part of the outro expresses that we will find the unity of life when we return to the purest and most tranquil spaces in our hearts.
You performed with nine backing musicians at this year's Earthapalooza concert. How did you conceptualize the instrumentation of the song? For the instrumentation of this song, each instrument plays their own unique language. In addition to several indispensable but traditional musical instruments, one highlight is the addition of several national percussion instruments, such as the Chinese kit, gong, and rain stick. The arrangement of [the songs] instrumentation is not convoluted; it interprets cultural charm while also highlighting musical expressiveness. I have always wanted to better integrate the traditional culture and music of China and show it to an audience. This is inter-complementary to the big topic of Life.
I want to thank Associate Professor Kevin Block-Schwenk for giving me this special opportunity to perform. And I also appreciate my excellent band-I couldnt have done this without them!
Has anyone at Berklee-faculty, staff, or student-influenced your performance style and themes in your music throughout your time here? My studies at Berklee have made a great impact on my performance and music style. They have given me the drive to constantly explore and practice relentlessly. In particular, I would like to thank several people who have had a far-reaching impact on me and my mindset. The first is Associate Professor Ben Camp. I think he is very special, resourceful, and talented. I feel so grateful that I took his course, Stealing from the Masters, last semester. The content of this class is divided into three parts: past, present, and future. In the future section, it unconsciously had me thinking, What will the future development of Chinese music be like? And it became one of the driving inspirations for me to complete Life.
I would also like to thank Rob Lewis ['94] and Ash Rodriguez [B.M. '10]. In their event for Career Jam, The Show, the whole process of the concert was like a hallmark, offering profound help and influence on my current and future musical path. They urged us to think and helped us translate our visions into live performances. Rob and Ash also encouraged us to constantly uncover and improve our uniqueness by discovering our most suitable place in the ever-changing music arena. I love them so much! Truly, every professor, student, and the whole environment of Berklee has had an influence on me.
What is coming up for you next, both in your studies at Berklee and in your own creative pursuits? I graduate from Berklee in a year. I feel
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
20/11/2025
LONDON The winners of the Rise Awards 2025, which recognize women and companies whose achievements have stood out in the media technology industry, have been an...
20/11/2025
SANTA MONICA & NEW YORK Lionsgate's Worldwide Television Distribution Group and Debmar-Mercury have launched MovieSphere Gold in more than 30 million homes....
20/11/2025
ALAMEDA, Calif. Clear-Com has introduced its four-channel HelixNet beltpack, a next-generation advancement of its widely used two-channel model, and anticipates...
20/11/2025
NEW PROVIDENCE, N.J. Streaming technology and services provider Kiswe has launched Kiswe Core, a next-generation cloud-based platform designed to simplify the s...
20/11/2025
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Dolby Laboratories has signed on as an official signature partner of the Bay Area Host Committee (BAHC) for the 2026 Super Bowl and the we...
20/11/2025
STUTTGART, Germany 3 Screen Solutions (3SS) has announced that the Canadian multiservice operator Telus has launched its Telus TV+ entertainment platform on Sam...
20/11/2025
Major League Baseball has announced deals with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix covering 2026-2028 that make ESPN the exclusive rightsholder of MLB.TV, see regula...
20/11/2025
Berklee Presents Holiday Extravaganza: Duke Ellingtons The Nutcracker Suite and ...
20/11/2025
The How To Gael pocast gals, comedian Chris Kent and quizzer Darragh Ennis drop by for the fifth episode of The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In
In the penultimat...
20/11/2025
Tonight on RT Prime Time, Marie Crowe on how a Reading School changed her son&#...
20/11/2025
The NVIDIA Blackwell RTX upgrade is nearing the finish line, letting GeForce NOW Ultimate members across the globe experience true next-generation cloud gaming ...
20/11/2025
Tanya Berger-Wolf's first computational biology project started as a bet wit...
19/11/2025
Sphere Sound Kicks Up Its Heels at Radio City Music HallUltra-immersive system from the singular Las Vegas venue is also ready for sportsBy Dan Daley, Audio Edi...
19/11/2025
The Future of Stadium and Arena Video Control Rooms: Tech Leaders Talk 4K, IP, a...
19/11/2025
One Year at Intuit Dome: Walking Through the Stunning Arena's Advanced Video...
19/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: IMG's Francois Westcombe Goes Inside IMG's Annual Digital ...
19/11/2025
Inside Brighton & Hove Albion's fan-first media machine By George Bevir
Tuesday, November 18, 2025 - 10:10
Print This Story
Brighton & Hove Albion'...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 1: Kansas Athletics Brings New Production Power to Rebu...
19/11/2025
Rock Chalk Rebuild, Part 2: A Pro's Guide to Kansas Athletics' New Video...
19/11/2025
MLB Media Rights Shakeup: NBC Inks Three-Year Deal for Sunday Night Baseball, Pe...
19/11/2025
Rohan Parashuram Kanawade attends the premiere of Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theatre on January 26, 2025, in Pa...
19/11/2025
Awards season is heating up, and the International Documentary Association just ...
19/11/2025
Aerojet Rocketdyne President Ken Bedingfield and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders were joined by state and local officials to celebrate the groundbreaking o...
19/11/2025
L3Harris and PentenAmio formalise their teaming agreement at MilCIS 2025, streng...
19/11/2025
Calrec gives Phoenix Broadcast Solutions its full support in strategic multi-year enterprise partnership New Singapore OB company invests in Calrec technology f...
19/11/2025
October brings a larger audience in front of TV screens. The cooler autumn weather and the continuation of new programming schedules brought increases in both t...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Vitec has acquired Datapath, a developer of real-time video processing for large-scale video walls, AVoIP content distribution and KVM control in mission-critic...
19/11/2025
NEVADA CITY, Calif. Telestream has introduced ARGUS Version 2.3, which introduces Live Look, a feature that lets operators inspect live and on-demand streams vi...
19/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. and NEW YORK Charter Communications, Inc. has announced a major deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that establishes AWS as one of Charters stra...
19/11/2025
TOKYO Atomos has announced a major firmware update that brings integrated camera control to the Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX its new CFexpress-based monitor-recor...
19/11/2025
Berklee's Signature Series Reimagines the Musical and Visual Artistry of Col...
19/11/2025
PlayBox Neo departed the NAB Show New York 2025 on a high note. The company's all-new PlayBox Neo Suite made a splash on the show floor, drawing strong inte...
19/11/2025
AAVBR (American Audio Visual Baton Rouge), a leading full-service event production company serving Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region, has enhanced its product...
19/11/2025
In its mission to deliver live event services combining advanced engineering with a creative approach to captivating live sports and entertainment experiences, ...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK Short-form vertical video has exploded across platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, but a new survey commissioned by Media.net, a provider of c...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK YES Network, the regional sports network home of the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets, and CAMB.AI have struck a partnership they said will leverage ...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has issued detailed guidance on filings that were disrupted by the government shutdown. While many of those fil...
19/11/2025
NEW YORK The popularity of NFL games is largely responsible for continued seasonal momentum in TV viewership into October (measured Sept. 29-Oct. 26), according...
19/11/2025
DirecTV has announced that its MyFree DirecTV streaming service has added seven new channels. Those include four sports services, NBA FAST, Red Bull TV, DAZN Ri...
19/11/2025
SURREY, U.K. Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has launched Flair Bridge, a compact device that transforms how operators control the company's motion-contr...
19/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission, which is continuing to rapidly ramp up its operations after the end of the federal government shutdown, has se...
19/11/2025
IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group and Tegna filed applications on Nov. 18 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking its consent to transfer broad...
19/11/2025
Martin Freeman, Jessie Buckley, Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon, Eddie the Eagle and ...
19/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz collaborates with Broadcom to enable testing and validation of n...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Innato, starring Imanol Arias and Elena Anaya, arrives on Netf...
19/11/2025
Back to All News
Guillermo del Toro Sits Down With Troll 2 Director Roar Uthaug...
19/11/2025
Some projects feel monumental from the moment the first phone call comes in. When BCE, the host broadcaster appointed to coordinate the national coverage, asked...
Can You Write an Uplifting Song About the Climate Crisis? Student Zitong (Selina) Zhang talks about the inspiration behind her new song Life, a meditation on climate change and its impact on our world. 
