By Paul Sullivan
“The story behind the song “Lover’s Oath” is actually quite interesting”, smiles Yu-Peng Chen from inside his studio in Shanghai. “I only had about 15 minutes to create that piece of music, and it was only going to be shown once in the game to serve as the introduction of a character. It was actually never used again. So I sat down at the piano and, after a moment of inspiration, composed it, not thinking that it would be very important or impactful at all. So you can imagine how surprised I am at its success—and also how happy I am that people have wanted to listen to it over and over again. I really think this song and the story behind it somehow sums up the power of music; the way something can start life as a song to guide people in a game and end up providing life-long memories. It’s also a reminder for me that when inspiration strikes, you have to act immediately; any kind of distraction can mean the idea disappears and never returns.”
The song in question was just one of the several viral hits Yu-Peng created for HoYoverse’s game Genshen Impact, for which he was the lead composer between 2019 and 2023. This period forms only a small part of his remarkable oeuvre: despite being only 41 years old, the composer has already knocked up over 36 scores for movies, series and games, creating over 1.5 billion streams and millions of views on his YouTube and TikTok channels.
Born in 1984, in Changsha, Hunan, China, Yu-Peng’s musical journey started at the Shenzhen Arts School and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. His first successes were in the realm of film music, composing scores for several international films such as The Last Tycoon (2012), The Founding of an Army (2017), and The Captain (2019). Genshin Impact, the open-world role-playing game developed by HoYoverse, consolidated his career, leading to globally beloved compositions such as "Lover’s Oath" and "Rex Incognito". Indeed, under his leadership, HOYO-MiX—HoYoverse's in-house music studio—earned multiple awards.
“The most important thing for me, whether I am working on a game or a film, is to tell the story that needs to be told as well as I can. In both cases, in my experience anyway, these soundtracks have also allowed a certain amount of freedom and have enabled me to experiment a little. Since I trained in classical music and learned to play the clarinet, my first loves are Bach and Rachmaninov. But I also adore using traditional Chinese music, for example, and often use pop or jazz for inspiration. With these tools, my aim is to also create music that the viewer or listener will remember long after they have stopped watching the film or playing the game. John Williams was a master of this. His pieces have become independent of the soundtracks they were made for, and this is what I am seeking in my work.”
In 2023, Yu-Peng left to pursue other musical endeavors. In the last couple of years, he has been busy working on music for Justice Online, a multiplayer online role-playing game developed by NetEase. “For this game, I purposefully used a lot of traditional elements,” he says. “Since the game serves a social function whereby players talk to each other and meet people, I wanted to introduce some of the magic of the Chinese folk music tradition, precisely because I know it’s not considered so attractive to young people any more. As a born-and-raised Chinese person, I am proud of this culture, and love to use new arrangements in new ways to recontextualise it for the modern era.”
Yu-Peng has been busy with his debut collaboration with DG, Fantasyland, which came out last year but is being re-released this year as a deluxe edition (CD and vinyl) with new bonus tracks, and a booklet featuring notes by the composer in which he explains the inspiration behind the album. It follows his exclusive signing with the yellow label earlier in 2025—the first Chinese composer to sign such a contract—and was recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra led by conductor Robert Ziegler. It’s an emotionally undulating and unashamedly romantic vision intricately weaved from his own piano playing, accordion played by Zhao Liu and Ilona Soumalainen, and instruments from non-western traditions that range from Indian bansuri and sitar, Japanese koto and shakuhachi, to Chinese dizi, erhu, guzheng, pipa and morin khuur. There are also vocal interventions from children’s and male choruses. In short, it sounds like the kind of album only Yu-Peng could have made.
“Of course, I always wanted to make my own music, to compose songs for myself rather than for someone else.” he states. “I have mixed up different traditions again because I feel that these belong to the whole world and that there are no real divisions, for example between classical and folk music. A big personal inspiration for me has also been the birth of my daughter. Since I became a father, I have had new emotions and experiences, and I wanted to try and somehow get these feelings of love, warmth and connection across. It’s an exciting idea to think about reaching a wider audience than I might for a film or a game. In a way, it feels like a conclusion of the last few years as well as a new beginning. I hope the audience will like it and want to continue this same vision for the future.”
Fantasyland is out now on CD, LP, and digitally. Listen and order here.
