Mélodie Xu Yang - Cultural Mediator.
- Isobel Arden
- 20 hours ago
- 5 min read
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Meet Mélodie Xu Yang.
In this interview, Mark invited Mélodie Xu Yang to create her own fantasy cultural year from the answers to some easy questions where there are no wrong answers. Enjoy her journey below.
Mélodie Xu Yang is a cultural producer, curator and cross-disciplinary creative who has built a career at the intersection of art, culture and international collaboration.
With a name like Mélodie Xu Yang, you might expect rhythm—and you’d be right. Her work hums with it, moving fluidly between institutions, artists and audiences across borders.
Specialising in cultural programming, exhibition production and creative strategy, Mélodie Xu Yang has developed a reputation for turning complex ideas into accessible, engaging experiences. Her work often centres on bridging Eastern and Western artistic perspectives, creating spaces where dialogue feels natural rather than forced—a rare skill in a world that often overcomplicates “global” conversations.
Over the years, Mélodie Xu Yang has contributed to a range of cultural projects spanning galleries, festivals and international initiatives. Whether coordinating exhibitions, managing artists, or shaping curatorial narratives, she brings a combination of precision and imagination that keeps projects grounded but never dull.
In practical terms, that means budgets get met, timelines behave themselves, and the final output still manages to surprise people.
Her approach is deeply collaborative. Mélodie Xu Yang works closely with artists, institutions and stakeholders to ensure that creative visions are not only realised, but elevated. She has a particular talent for translating artistic concepts into experiences that resonate with wider audiences—no art history degree required.
Alongside her production and curatorial work, Mélodie Xu Yang is also engaged in cultural research and strategy, exploring how art can respond to contemporary social and global issues. Her work reflects a broader belief that culture is not just something to observe, but something to participate in.
In an industry that can sometimes lean towards the opaque or overly theoretical, Mélodie Xu Yang keeps things refreshingly clear: good art should connect, good projects should function, and good ideas should actually go somewhere.
Mélodie Xu Yang's Fantasy Cultural Year ... with a magic wand and time machine to hand.
Mark introduced the idea of a “fantasy cultural year” - a way to get to know each new full member that's far more spontaneous than a traditional interview — allowing imagination, travel, culture and Mélodie's creative vision to collide.
It starts with Mark Walmsley throwing a deceptively simple challenge at Mélodie Xu Yang: 15 minutes, no notes, not work-related—what do you talk about?
Her answer is instant and very on-brand: musicals. Not just any musicals—multilingual ones. She lights up talking about shows across English, German, French, and even highlights the Spanish version of Les Misérables as a favourite. For Mélodie, musicals aren’t just entertainment—they’re a cultural bridge.
🎢 The Fantasy Cultural Year Begins
Her favourite “building”? The iconic Disney Castle. She describes that unforgettable first moment of seeing it in real life—pure magic.
At a café nearby, we find:
A diabolo (a fizzy, fruit-syrup drink—non-alcoholic and nostalgic, tied to a friend in Paris)
A copy of Wicked (still on her reading list, but aspirationally placed there)
Disney songs in Danish playing in her headphones—because of course she’s learning Danish on Duolingo
✈️ Stop 1: Canada (Prince Edward Island → Montreal)
Her first destination: Prince Edward Island, inspired by Anne of Green Gables—a series that shaped her childhood. She even read the books in sync with the protagonist’s age.
From there, she’s whisked to Montreal:
Dance performance: Swan Lake (a childhood tradition with her dad—who attended mostly to nap beside her)
Dinner: Colombian cuisine, chosen because of a close friend from Colombia
Again, culture = relationships.
🏠 Stop 2: Home (Dalian, China → Beijing)
Next, she chooses to return to her hometown, Dalian, near Beijing.
This is where things get more reflective. She talks about:
Wanting to see her home through a professional lens
Bridging identities—being “fully this and fully that,” yet not entirely either
Embracing the richness of being multicultural
At a sports event, she picks figure skating—drawn to its elegance, danger, and its connection to Disney-esque storytelling like Frozen.
❄️ Stop 3: Oslo, Norway
In Oslo, she enters a futuristic VR gallery and chooses to step inside the work of Frida Kahlo.
She loves the contrast: a Mexican artist’s vibrant, emotional world experienced in a Scandinavian setting she hasn’t yet explored. It’s another example of her instinct to connect cultures rather than separate them.
🎭 Back to London: A Cultural Week
Back in London, they map out a full cultural week:
Concert: Mika (whom she’s seen live—and is convinced he saw her back)
Play: Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare's Globe
Musical: Six (a near-miss she’s still recovering from—soundtrack on repeat)
Opera: Tosca at the Royal Opera House
Film: My Fair Lady—because of her admiration for Audrey Hepburn, whom she remembers every year on the anniversary of her death
🍽️ The “Hero Lunch”
For her dream lunch guest, she chooses Arthur Rimbaud.
This isn’t random—she’s spent over a decade studying him:
First discovered in a bilingual edition in China
Learned French partly because of him
Eventually dedicated her PhD to his work
And if Rimbaud could invite someone?Her answer: Oscar Wilde—whose The Picture of Dorian Gray she describes as both inspiring and emotionally devastating.
🎯 Future plans
The conversation wraps with Mélodie sharing a real-life update:
She is looking to start an (unpaid) internship at an art gallery
She’s determined to move into arts and culture
And crucially, she wants to challenge the stereotype of the “cold academic”
Her goal is clear: To be both a serious researcher and a storyteller … A multilingual thinker and a Disney fan.
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Mark Walmsley FRSA FCIM AGSM
Chief Culture Vulture
Arts & Culture Network
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