Yu-Peng Chen

In 2022, a selected number of Genshin Impact soundtracks, including Chen's compositions "Liyue," "Rapid as Wildfires," and "Contemplation in Snow," got included in the 2022 Winter Olympics music library to be used in sports exhibitions. "Contemplation in Snow" was featured in a promotional video for the Beijing National Speed Skating Oval, a competition area constructed specially for the event.

After three events of the Digital Audio Competition, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music held the International Digital Music Festival in December 2021. The event got jointly organized by the Shanghai Music and Art Development Collaborative Innovation Center (上海音乐艺术发展协同创新中心), game developer company miHoYo and their music studio HOYO-MiX. It saw the participation of local and foreign digital music industry veterans and university subject leaders; it also included forums and lectures on recording art, film and video game music, etc. Chen participated in the event and gave a presentation on the music production of Genshin Impact.

In a Sina Weibo post published in November 2020, Chen expressed disappointment that Genshin Impact did not get nominated for "Best Original Soundtrack" at The Game Awards 2020. Nevertheless, he expressed his pride as a Chinese composer. Chen later got awarded "Outstanding Artist — Newcomer/Breakthrough" at the Annual Game Music Awards 2020 held by the music journalism website Video Game Music Online (VGMO). He also spoke to VGMO in an interview about future music-related offline activities, including concerts. The first concert for Genshin Impact was held in October 2021 through an online event to celebrate the game's first anniversary. Among the involved performers was Belgian composer and conductor Dirk Brossé, who conducted Chen's nominated work "The Curse of Blood" at the 2019 World Soundtrack Awards.

In 2019, Chen produced the Taibai (太白) sect theme, "Saying Sword." Wang Yibo (王一博) provided his vocals for the song. The folk music and strings were performed by Qingqin Qingqing and the International Master Philharmonic Orchestra (国际首席爱乐乐团), respectively. "Saying Sword" was Chen's final work for Moonlight Blade before producing the soundtrack for Genshin Impact.

In 2019, video game developer company miHoYo got Chen to produce the soundtrack for their title Genshin Impact with their in-house music studio HOYO-MiX. It was Chen's first major video game work, and he described the project as a difficult challenge. The game has an open-world environment that features areas referred to as regions, with visual designs inspired by different world cultures. In composing the music for these regions, Chen chose a style that integrates elements of traditional folk music with Western musical arrangements. During the pre-release development stage, the game only featured Mondstadt and Liyue, two of the planned seven regions. On top of idyllic rural scenery, medieval European architectural styles and cultures inspired the design of Mondstadt. In composing the music for Mondstadt, Chen borrowed the language and rhythm of Impressionism and used the piano, tin whistle instruments, and medieval-style lutes. The Mondstadt soundtrack got performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Chen was present during the scoring sessions in London and conducted some scores himself, including the "Genshin Impact Main Theme." For Liyue, which had scenic Eastern fantasy as its basis, he used elements of Chinese folk music—traditional instruments, the pentatonic scale, and ancient tonal melodies—with Western romantic harmonies and orchestral arrangements. The Liyue soundtrack got performed by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. An Dong (安栋), one of Chen's mentors from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, served as a music supervisor during the scoring sessions of the soundtrack. Chen especially enjoyed composing combat music, using various composition techniques such as polyphony and taking orchestration elements from composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven.

After two years of production, Chen digitally released his first original album, Being Towards Death, on April 2, 2019. It includes various works created over ten years and features new recordings of previously released works, such as "Midnight Radio," "Time Tunnel," and "A Cup of Moon." The production of the album got supported through crowdfunding. With an initial goal of 30,000 RMB, the project raised 38,000. According to lyricist and project planner Jing Qian, the difficulty of the production lied in the communication as each song involved illustrators, video creators, and other artists. All songs he worked on got revised at least twice before arriving at the finished product; "A Cup of Moon" got revised at least three times. He also described Chen's attitude towards music as "rigorous." Column editor Xiao Xiao (小小), explaining a bit of the production, said, "Chen really went out of his way for his precious album. Every day, he worked until one or two o’clock in the morning before going home, just to optimize and re-optimize all the songs at the last minute. Even several songs got re-edited directly and recorded again. So the songs that have been published on NetEase [Cloud] Music have big differences in the new album."

In 2018, Chen composed the theme song "Dreams of Farewell" (梦留别) for Yihua (移花), one of the martial arts sects players can choose to join upon creating their character. The theme of the song was based on a soundtrack previously created for Moonlight Blade, "Treading the Waves in the Sea" (沧海踏浪) by Liang Bangyan (梁邦彦). It was a challenge since the theme may not be suitable for singing, and for Chen to adapt the work of a senior composer he admired. Previously, Chen arranged theme songs by himself. This time, to bring new ideas to players, he invited a composer from Beijing, Cui Zhi'en (崔知恩), to participate in the song production. Another person was supposed to work on the sound mixing, but since each revision brought new inspiration, Chen mixed the song himself. The song was written by Wubi (无比) and sung by Zhou Shen (周深).

In 2018, Chen collaborated with lyricist Jing Qian (镜千) to produce the song "You're Not Here" (你，不在这里). The song was based on a poem that Jing wrote at the time his grandfather had passed away, two years prior to the song's creation. When Chen read the poem for the first time, his grandfather had also recently passed away. He decided to finish the song in one go as his grandmother was also seriously ill. And before releasing the song, Chen had many of his relatives and his grandmother listen to it before she died. The song got released on February 1, 2018. Chen said, "I personally think that this is a completely non-commercial song about family affection, expressing my deepest thoughts. I hope that others can understand my feelings, but I don’t want it to be overly snooped on by people. I hesitated for a long time between publishing it or not. In the end, I chose to let more people hear it and call for more memories of my loved ones."

Chen and Jing next worked on "A Cup of Moon" (一杯月), together with music engineers He Jiade (何迦德) and Kaola (考拉), and mixing engineer Liu Junjie (刘俊杰). It was a song originally made for the Qingqin Qingqing (轻琴謦磬) band, hence its length of six minutes. Yin Lin (银临), a singer Chen invited to participate in the project, persistently suggested shortening the song, but Chen continued with his vision. He also completed the arrangement in one sitting during an eight-hour-long live broadcast. The recording and mixing took half a year, and then the song got released on October 6, 2018.

In June 2018, the singles "Endless" (无疆) and "Twelve Godlikes" (十二神肖), both composed by Chen, were released on online music platforms. On July 22, Qingqin Qingqing debuted at Bilibili Macro Link (BML), a concert event held at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai. The event saw more than 4.5 million people from offline and online audiences.

Many filmmakers got involved in the game's story creation, martial arts action, art style, costume design, etc. In the process, the game incorporated cinematic creation techniques. Following this, Chen requested to produce the landing music at the level of film music. He composed the soundtrack "Thousand People, Thousand Faces" (千人千面), which plays at the beginning of the game as the player selects and modifies their character. Chen noted that the landing music shapes the first impression of the whole game. Therefore, the music got based not solely on the theme of martial arts but on the curiosity and enthusiasm felt by players when exploring the game world. Also noted was that treating the music with high requirements and quality was unavoidable. The arpeggio elements in the music from Final Fantasy inspired Chen's work on the track. In February 2017, Chen released an album containing his works for Moonlight Blade from 2015 to 2017, including "Thousand People, Thousand Faces" in the tracklist. Chen later adapted the song into "Wind of the World" (八荒之风), a theme song for The World of Swinging Swords (剑荡八荒) competition in November 2017.

On April 14, 2017, Chen released the singles "Midnight Radio" and "Time Tunnel." He composed both songs while Tian Chenming (田辰明) wrote the lyrics. They previously collaborated on various projects including Armor Hero Emperor (2010), Painted Skin: The Resurrection (2012), and Bump in the Road (2013).

In 2017, Chen founded Qingqin Qingqing (轻琴謦磬), also called 4Q, a band that focuses on the Zhongguo Feng genre. The band includes a dozen members, each having a different traditional instrument, such as the erhu, dizi, xiao, and guzheng. According to pipa musician Juanmo (眷墨), "Qín" (琴) and "Qìng" (磬) refer to music and ancient music, respectively. The third character, "Qìng" (謦), means relaxed or happy. Together, these characters express a scene where a group of friends who love ancient music get together to play music with ease and joy.

From May to June 2017, Chen participated as a judge in the Guofeng Cover Singing Contest (国风翻唱大赛) held by DouYu and Tencent.

In 2016, Chen composed the theme song "God's Rival" (神的对手) for the film Armor Hero Captor King, with the lyrics provided by Zhou Bingyi (周秉毅) and Jing Qian (镜千). Two years later, since Chen was the composer of the original Armor Warriors, he got 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" (铠旋).

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 and 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."

In April 2016, Chen got invited to produce the score for Butterfly Cemetery. A film based on a novel of the same name by Cai Jun (蔡骏) and directed by Ma Weihao (马伟豪), it tells of a woman named Shang Xiaodi who meets a half-butterfly man during a trip to Budapest. Compared to his previous film works, Chen chose a more modern style for the music, and the techniques he employed were influenced by German composer Hans Zimmer's minimalist style. Since the story is set in Hungary, Chen incorporated Hungarian elements into the music. The music production went on for five months, and the film got released in October 2017.

In January 2015, the suspense thriller film Tales of Mystery, directed by Raymond Yip, Tian Meng (田蒙), and Xian Xuchu (咸旭初), 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."

In 2015, Motion Magic (幻维数码) invited Chen to compose songs for Magic Town, an educational program for children. Most of the creative team were first-time parents or had young children, including Chen, whose partner was expecting their daughter. As Chen was about to become a father, he was motivated and proud to take on the project. Magic Town had nearly a hundred songs that took almost two years to produce, and many were improvised by Chen when he first worked on them. Chen considered the diversity of musical styles and incorporated elements from various genres such as folk, jazz, rock, electronic dance, new age, etc. He also took into account the fact that children are "exposed to advanced knowledge and culture." Therefore, he used trendy elements for nursery rhymes. The overall experience of working on the project was much different compared to Chen's past film and television works in terms of emotions. In film music, various emotions are present, including negative ones such as anger, fear, anxiety, and depression; Chen felt these as he composed. Magic Town was different because of its overall positive, bright themes. The show premiered in December 2016. At the same time, the music got released across four albums.

In 2015, Chen began to work as one of the music producers for Moonlight Blade, a martial arts-themed MMORPG by Tencent Games. He was under the guidance of music director Yang Jie (杨结), who was strict about innovation in music. Chen went beyond limits in producing his work for them to reach their best quality. He incorporated new instruments into his works, such as traditional Chinese instruments, which, according to Chen, made the style of the game music "refreshing." He was also interested in integrating elements of Chinese folk music into the soundtrack to create a "new national style" of folk music to promote Chinese culture. While working on the game, he also built his own fan base. He began to care more about players' preferences as regular communication with them brought changes to his ideas; he made his music more inclusive and integrated more elements into it. Through all this, Chen established his confidence in music as he formed his style and direction.

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.

Their next collaboration was for Wong Jing's From Vegas to Macau (2014), a crime-comedy film. Chen and Chan also worked on the scores for its sequels From Vegas to Macau II (2015) and From Vegas to Macau III (2016). 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 (2017), a historical drama film directed by Andrew Lau (劉偉強) 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.

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 (钱人豪). Chen composed its ending theme song, "Soul Returns" (回魂).

The first film score Chen independently produced was for Bump in the Road, a 2013 comedy film directed by Raymond Yip (葉偉民). 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" (抢花球), "On the Road" (在路上), and "Far Place" (远方).

At an unknown time, Chen joined Click Music, the studio of Hong Kongese film composer Chan Kwong-wing (陈光荣). 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 (王晶). 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's work on the soundtrack got nominated for the "Best Original Film Score" at the 32nd Hong Kong Film Awards.

In April 2012, Chen participated as a guest at the second Digital Audio Competition by Digital Audio China. He joined the event with two other first-prize winners from the first competition in 2010, Peng Fei (彭飞) and Guo Shensheng (郭申生). Their commissioned works got performed at the awards gala.

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 (2012) 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 (2017) 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 (2019), one of the all-time highest-grossing films in China. Chen had scored several films by Raymond Yip, most being horror or thrillers.

From May to October, Shanghai hosted the Expo 2010. Among the various organized activities was a large-scale parade performed every day. One of its routes was the Puxi Line at Longhua East Road, for which Chen composed the theme song "Good Dream Is a Song" (好梦是歌).

In 2009, Chen composed the soundtrack for the first season of Armor Warriors, directed by Zheng Guowei (郑国伟). 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 got followed by the film Armor Hero Emperor, which Zheng Guowei also directed and Chen scored.

"Midnight Radio" started with a rhythm that came to Chen's mind as he walked down an empty road at night. He shared this with Tian, who came up with lyrics. Tian later explained in a comment that the convenience store mentioned at the beginning of the song is a Lawson store located at the intersection of Fuxing Road and Maoming Road. What also inspired the lyrics are the times he squatted on the side of the road to smoke cigarettes in the middle of the night; the clerk at the store would play the midnight radio. Chen wrote "Time Tunnel" eight years before its release when he had planned to release ten songs in "honor of his passing youth." He then intended to dedicate these songs to those who supported him, and his friend Tian had also encouraged him multiple times to release his own song album. Tian commented on the song, "I wrote the lyrics in 2009, and in 2017, Zhiyi just finished recording and posted them. Unconsciously, the phrasing and style have changed a lot, and the motifs [representing] different age groups are also different. Every time I think about it this way, it's like walking into a time tunnel."

In October 2009, the eARTS Digital Audio Competition by Digital Audio China got officially launched. It was an event organized by the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the China Association of Recording Engineers (中国录音师协会), and Yangpu District government to promote China's development and research in digital audio and related fields. The competition's judging panel included musical engineers Simon Rhodes of Abbey Road Studios, Nick Wollage of AIR Studios, and record producer Quincy Jones, among others. During the semi-finals, Chen placed second in Recording Art and first in the Music Arrangement and Multimedia Soundtrack categories. Shanghai Sequence Culture Communication Co., Ltd. (上海音序文化传播有限公司) represented him, which Chen heads. At the finals held in March 2010, he won the first prize in the Multimedia Soundtrack category, second prize in Recording Art, and third prize in Music Arrangement. Chen commented in an interview during the awards gala, "I originally participated in this competition with the mentality of giving [it] a try. I feel that winning the award is a kind of affirmation for me and my 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 (西风烈). In June 2007, the department held the Undergraduate Outstanding Graduation Works Concert and Exhibition (本科优秀毕业作品音乐会暨展示会). Chen's "Challenging Hollywood" got selected as the department's outstanding work and won the first prize, and then got performed. Later that year, Chen graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with honors and joined An Dong's studio.

In 2002, Chen permanently moved to Shanghai and got admitted to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with the Fu Chengxian Memorial Scholarship (傅成贤纪念奖学金). He first majored in 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 got 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 (上海市文联组织) for the opening of the Yangshan Port and Donghai Bridge.

In 1996, at the age of twelve, Chen enrolled at Shenzhen Arts School and studied under clarinet educators Jiang Baocheng (姜宝成) and Tao Ran (陶然). Tao Ran, a Clarinet associate professor at the school, has 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 (居宗泽), a teacher and assistant lecturer at Shenzhen Arts School. He taught music theory, solfeggio, etc.

Chen Yupeng (Chinese: 陈宇鹏; pinyin: Chén Yǔpéng; born January 15, 1984), also known by his stage name Chen Zhiyi (Chinese: 陈致逸; pinyin: Chén Zhìyì), is a Chinese composer and music producer. He is best known for composing the soundtrack of Genshin Impact, an open-world action and role-playing video game by miHoYo that is one of the highest-selling mobile games in history. His work is known for its versatile style of integrating traditional instruments with Western orchestral arrangements. As of 2021, he is a full-time music producer at HOYO-MiX, the in-house music studio of miHoYo, and leads the music production of the game.

Chen was born on January 15, 1984, in Changsha, Hunan Province. 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 (1984) by Hayao Miyazaki. Though he did not understand the story, he got 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.