Such an amazing woman and inspirational story! I was once a teacher in China for a year, so I can appreciate how much of a positive impact she must be having between our two countries. Well done, Abigail. Fei cheng hao! Ni shi li hai!
It seems that she has found her place and that music has really been an instrument for her. She seems to have bridged the gap with her music and the language. I applaud her.
thank god it worked out this way. You succeeded to make me laugh, cry, sing, rethink tonight at your concert in Budapest. I adored you and Bela, such a charismatic duo.
12 ปีที่แล้ว +6
Thank you Abigail... what a wonderful personal story of discovery. I do believe music is a universal language.
Her songs are prophetic, her wisdom ageless and her heart huge - for all mankind. We need more folks like Abigail - and The Grand Slambovians! If we listen more to folks like them and love more, we'll achieve peace on Earth. She's beautiful inside and out and I applaud her efforts! You go girl!
Stunning! Music, which is mathematics-based and thus science-based, i.e. acoustics, is the universal language of all of Humanity. American Abigail "Big Sister Wong" Washburn reaches the Chinese with her American folk music just as the Chinese band "Twelve Girls Band" reaches us, (Americans and other nationalities of people), with their "Chinese-flavored" versions on some of our Western songs/music like: Coldplay's "Clocks", Enya's "Only Time", & van Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5 in C Minor".
music is culture, and to understand others, we need to learn to understand their culture. And learning their music you learn to understand a part of their culture; a part of them, it is important.
I heard her first on Prairie Home Companion, thought she was great, then saw her in concert! Then I recently heard about ZeFrank's return to TH-cam, and found my way to this channel... Small world. Abigail IS awesome!
Its a good message. That even though we are from different cultures, we all have stories to share and we can relate to each others because we are human.
Wow! Just saw her with husband Bela Fleck in Providence last night. What a very cool, amazingly talented beautiful woman she is! Good for her! Inspiring message!
Abigail, we loved having you in Chattanooga with Bela. Thank you for your Washington Phillips song, What are they doing right now... will try that on mandolin. We're tellin our friends who have adopted from China about you. Play on. Come back.
Horrendous is killing 60 million people not making your poorest classes better off than most of the rest of the world. Where do people get the idea that the US Government is horrendous and idiotic???
not more in love with herself as you are in love with yourself for posting such a clever comment. also, to reiterate, that hair is probably the cause of a lot of staring in china. having been to china with a friends daughter who has hair like that, youd a thought that little girl was a celebrity. her words come from experience, not a degree earned on youtube comment boards.
no, not in other words. im sure you have some experience in dialogue, its important to read everything, not the first few words. i just want to point out that a person relating expereinces they have, like going to china and having strangers come up to you to touch your hair, causes one to speak in certain ways, as a person with depth would do. saying, "look at that lady with the hair" wasnt her showing how awesome her hair is, but relating an experience.
You, apparently without irony, use phrases like "the universe would give him one more piece of knowledge" and you wonder why you don't understand the ones that dislike this...
This is Earth. It's a planet. This is a global political environment. You are not your country. You are a human being. "Politics" is about people. Okay? Are you following me? A climate of misunderstanding, a climate of fear, a climate of misconception and false perception, a climate of physical and emotional distance- these will not foster better human relations. This is about BEING HUMAN and sharing that experience in a meaningful, compassionate way through our shared language- through music.
Well obviously. We're not even culturally unified in this country even though we like to pretend we are (and not that we should be either). Not to mention traditional community structure is all but dead and the U.S. is the closest you can get to a "spiritual wasteland", for lack of a better term (I don't actually have any supernatural belief). Still, she wasn't saying the GOVERNMENT should invest it's effort into musical relations; This has nothing to do with policy. Geez.
This lady seems so in love with herself. It's obnoxious. "Look at that lady with the hair, singing in Chinese." Ugh, I get it. You're unique. Can we talk about something else please?
Well I don't think that's the point of this talk. I don't think a community of cross cultural musicians is likely to be a vehicle for the U.S. to impose it's political ideology on China.
cool. everyone should play some kind of instrument for that reason, among others. but what's the science behind that? use the creative side of the brain to balance out the logic side?
yes, science is objective in its methods. but it takes creativity at the forefront of human knowledge to make breakthroughs. that's what revron77 is saying.
Not to defend the speaker (because I don't care if you think she's obnoxious) but I'm guessing you've never been to a culture which isn't accustomed to your race? Her words are something any westerner could hear a south-east asian say.
![ILLSLICK - THE KING'S LANDING [Freestyle]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/feIJJnNkTfk/mqdefault.jpg)
Such an amazing woman and inspirational story! I was once a teacher in China for a year, so I can appreciate how much of a positive impact she must be having between our two countries. Well done, Abigail. Fei cheng hao! Ni shi li hai!
Thank you for teaching in China !
I've watched this 5 times and still tear up EVERY TIME! Pure radiance. I want to dwell in that light with everyone, too.
gosh this one is a tear jerker.
Fast forward a few years: Abigail Washburn and her husband, Béla Fleck on stage accepting their Grammy for 2016 Best Folk Album of the Year!
It seems that she has found her place and that music has really been an instrument for her. She seems to have bridged the gap with her music and the language. I applaud her.
Seen her shows twice before,..love the fusion! Dunno why people wanna bring her message down,..girl jus doin her thing,..an its a good thing,ain't it?
the ending made me tear up
thank god it worked out this way. You succeeded to make me laugh, cry, sing, rethink tonight at your concert in Budapest. I adored you and Bela, such a charismatic duo.
Thank you Abigail... what a wonderful personal story of discovery. I do believe music is a universal language.
Haters gonna hate. It was an awesome TED Talk.
Abigail, you are a remarkable storyteller! :)
That was so good!! Really a very interesting way of bringing it together, and the ending was so powerful. A good TED Talk.
Her songs are prophetic, her wisdom ageless and her heart huge - for all mankind. We need more folks like Abigail - and The Grand Slambovians! If we listen more to folks like them and love more, we'll achieve peace on Earth. She's beautiful inside and out and I applaud her efforts! You go girl!
China-US relationship needs more people like her
The story right at the end really pierced my heart.
She's an artist telling a well learnt story. Telling it very well in my opinion.
Stunning! Music, which is mathematics-based and thus science-based, i.e. acoustics, is the universal language of all of Humanity. American Abigail "Big Sister Wong" Washburn reaches the Chinese with her American folk music just as the Chinese band "Twelve Girls Band" reaches us, (Americans and other nationalities of people), with their "Chinese-flavored" versions on some of our Western songs/music like: Coldplay's "Clocks", Enya's "Only Time", & van Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5 in C Minor".
music is culture, and to understand others, we need to learn to understand their culture. And learning their music you learn to understand a part of their culture; a part of them, it is important.
this is the only ted video i've watched twice in a row... awesome
Brought a tear to my eye.
impressive! and she's right: "music connects hearts"
I don't understand why there are so many negative comments on these TED videos.
Wang da jie, you are a true artist.
I heard her first on Prairie Home Companion, thought she was great, then saw her in concert!
Then I recently heard about ZeFrank's return to TH-cam, and found my way to this channel...
Small world.
Abigail IS awesome!
Its a good message. That even though we are from different cultures, we all have stories to share and we can relate to each others because we are human.
So much hate for this! Why? I think it's one for the archives. On the same shelf as the Jill Bolte Taylor talk. Or close to it anyway.
Wow! Just saw her with husband Bela Fleck in Providence last night. What a very cool, amazingly talented beautiful woman she is! Good for her! Inspiring message!
Right on, sister
Abigail, we loved having you in Chattanooga with Bela. Thank you for your Washington Phillips song, What are they doing right now... will try that on mandolin. We're tellin our friends who have adopted from China about you. Play on. Come back.
Thank you for the music and the stories!
Music is a universal language across humans or I should say across all lives.
She touched me in a very special way.
thanks, it makes me cry!
follow your heart！我喜欢你，王大姐。
TED should be technology EDUCATION design, because people ought to consider those to be a source of entertainment.
How could anyone dislike this video? Cynical people.
Could not have said it better. Thank you for your reply. That's exactly what I wanted to say also.
great speech! great person!
She is awesome.
amen to your comment! I don't understand why there's sooooooo much hate!
i am starting to admire you a lot!
Love this🎉
Some do with with their brain and some with the heart.
awesome!
that was actually really really good. wow
She never said improving our cultural relations would make our corporate U.S. government stop being horrendous and idiotic, but it can't hurt.
Horrendous is killing 60 million people not making your poorest classes better off than most of the rest of the world. Where do people get the idea that the US Government is horrendous and idiotic???
I liked it WHEN she started singing.
ha, ikr
Amazing Amazing! What a gorgeous voice!
Amazing.
Has any one ever noticed that allot of people who call themselves 'rationalists' are really just very conservative squares?
not more in love with herself as you are in love with yourself for posting such a clever comment. also, to reiterate, that hair is probably the cause of a lot of staring in china. having been to china with a friends daughter who has hair like that, youd a thought that little girl was a celebrity.
her words come from experience, not a degree earned on youtube comment boards.
this is great.
What a magnificent soul
no, not in other words. im sure you have some experience in dialogue, its important to read everything, not the first few words. i just want to point out that a person relating expereinces they have, like going to china and having strangers come up to you to touch your hair, causes one to speak in certain ways, as a person with depth would do. saying, "look at that lady with the hair" wasnt her showing how awesome her hair is, but relating an experience.
What a sweetheart.
I love this-I’m verklempt. TH-cam, based on liking a Ted talk , please don’t deluge me with Gary Vaynerchuk videos. Let me enjoy this moment.
US-China relations will be ever-important very very soon.
You, apparently without irony, use phrases like "the universe would give him one more piece of knowledge" and you wonder why you don't understand the ones that dislike this...
Who said that?
This is Earth. It's a planet. This is a global political environment. You are not your country. You are a human being. "Politics" is about people. Okay? Are you following me? A climate of misunderstanding, a climate of fear, a climate of misconception and false perception, a climate of physical and emotional distance- these will not foster better human relations. This is about BEING HUMAN and sharing that experience in a meaningful, compassionate way through our shared language- through music.
what a pretty voice
Well obviously. We're not even culturally unified in this country even though we like to pretend we are (and not that we should be either). Not to mention traditional community structure is all but dead and the U.S. is the closest you can get to a "spiritual wasteland", for lack of a better term (I don't actually have any supernatural belief).
Still, she wasn't saying the GOVERNMENT should invest it's effort into musical relations; This has nothing to do with policy. Geez.
I like how some of you seem mad that she's talking about herself...that's what she was invited to do.
加油!
I believe this so much to be true.
free voice!
Was not what I espected. I thought I was about to watch some hippie shit! Little did I know I would be teared up by the end.
This is Steve Martin's idea. Decades ago he imagined Nixon getting off of Airforce One with a banjo in hand to spread world peace.
0:26
I'm gonna get what I want! (shoes)
Yo-Yo Ma became a UN peace negotiator by playing his cello
This lady seems so in love with herself. It's obnoxious.
"Look at that lady with the hair, singing in Chinese." Ugh, I get it. You're unique. Can we talk about something else please?
It is a good thing you found enough self love to make a hang mans noose video.
Everyone can grow.
This aged like milk in a field in August.
103 people don't get it.
where the hell did they put the like button
The end of your statement makes no sense? Should be? It shouldn't be... as it should be?
Nice comment bro.
So in other words, "I know you are but what is she?" That's your response? O-kaaay....
aaamaaaazing yo
I wonder how she learned chinese.
I thought this was gonna be the singer of king gizzard
erik manchez lmfao
0.15 --> skip intro
immortality works for me ;)
She should have been playing a Washburn.
it's poetic license buddy.
i love you!!
wow
And unlike policy change the sound of a banjo will be a drop in the ocean, unfortunately.
Before I watch this: You will have to get on with China - they hold most of your markers!
Because we're a mercenary state.
Well I don't think that's the point of this talk. I don't think a community of cross cultural musicians is likely to be a vehicle for the U.S. to impose it's political ideology on China.
wait wait i see what you did there.. is this one of collegue humor pranks right??
cool. everyone should play some kind of instrument for that reason, among others. but what's the science behind that? use the creative side of the brain to balance out the logic side?
My third time just now ;P
OK, that's a goodern.
❤❤❤
0:15
Not 1.3 billion, but some.
yes, science is objective in its methods. but it takes creativity at the forefront of human knowledge to make breakthroughs. that's what revron77 is saying.
That isn't the point.. -_-
Not to defend the speaker (because I don't care if you think she's obnoxious) but I'm guessing you've never been to a culture which isn't accustomed to your race? Her words are something any westerner could hear a south-east asian say.
75 people are not mortal
Her last name is washburn. Just saying...