In truth, as conspicuous as they might seem, the pipers have yet to have their breakout moment.Ĭurling has one of the most taxing schedules of any sport at the Winter Games, with competitions stretching from Feb. “It’s been a long time since I heard ‘Scotland the Brave’ come out,” he said. On Wednesday, on the first night of the men’s competition, Chris Plys from the American team noticed them, too. He added that the music reminded him of home.

“I’m very happy to have them here,” Bruce Mouat, a native of Edinburgh who represented Britain in the mixed doubles competition, told reporters after a match. Otherwise, the response has been much warmer. In the article, Zhang replied, “We try to be as close as we can to traditions, but it’s cold - we have our undies for sure.” (In Mexico, some clubs have substituted the bagpipes with mariachis.) “What we like most is the bagpipes.”Īnd yet, the band has been emblematic of a transformational time for curling, as the sport balances the traditions that are ingrained in its DNA with a surge in global popularity in the years since it became an official Olympic event at the 1998 Nagano Games. “I honestly don’t know much about the rules,” Chao, 37, said. They have watched some of the matches on their phones, which they stow in their sporrans. At least one piper tried to curl once and said it didn’t stick. Curling, for that matter, does not matter that much to them either. Still, they conceded, they did not pick up the instrument out of an interest in traditions of a faraway place. The group designed the logo stitched onto their uniforms, which includes the letters Y and S, representing the Chinese word for warrior - another homage to Scottish history. “It takes a lot of time,” he added, “to practice each piece over and over again.” The bagpipes, Zhang said, “require a strong lung.” He described the strength it takes to achieve the right sound - “controlling the air pressure in the bag, to be stable and unchanging.” “Like, when a bagpipe is broken, how do you fix it?”Īside from the technical difficulty, the Chinese pipers were also surprised by how physically demanding it could be. “I think the hardest part of learning bagpipes is mainly not knowing enough about the instrument,” Chao said. The band - with four pipers joined by two drummers, coming from a range of backgrounds that includes elementary schoolteachers and a freelance stage designer - have played together for a few years, just as curling competitions were starting to ramp up across China ahead of the Games. I think there’s a draw to that to all sorts of people.” “It takes me to a place where I can emote the experience, not just play the notes. “It’s the rhythm of a babbling brook, it’s the rhythm of a season, it’s the rhythm of a doe bouncing down the glen,” McLean said. Playing it offers a singular form of expression. Learning the instrument feels like solving a puzzle. The curiosity and hunger for a challenge that pulled in this group is familiar among pipers. “I know only a dozen people in China who can play this instrument,” said Chao Luomong, another of the pipers. “Loud and clear and penetrating,” as Zhang put it.īut bagpiping, it turns out, is a pursuit that has yet to find much of a toehold in China, meaning becoming one of those skilled hands is not easy. The pipers in Beijing said they were lured by a sound they found mesmerizing.

Female bagpipe player