Siqingerile captures her struggle for success in memoir

Although Siqingerile was turned down by the director of the ensemble who said that she didn't have a singing talent, she didn't give it up and kept practicing bass part-time after daily dance training.

The next year, Siqingerile formed her first band, Hawk, with three friends, and played at a local concert with some rock bands from Beijing. Then she began to channel all her energy into music.

In 1991, the band went down south to Shenzhen, the most open city in China at the time, hoping to earn enough money to buy better instruments. During the next three years, they played in various bars in the suburb of Shenzhen.

"We earned a lot more in Shenzhen than in Inner Mongolia, but I found my playing become so machine-like that it started to drain my well of inspiration," she said in a previous interview with China Daily.

In 1994, the band went to Beijing, the birthplace of Chinese rock music, seeking to develop their creative rock 'n' roll style.

"Although there was a sense of confidence in us when we first came to Beijing, it turned into a growing bleakness from the pressures of life in subsequent years," recalls Siqingerile. They lived in shabby hostels, didn't get stable jobs and had no place for rehearsals. Sometimes they lived on cheap instant noodles. Meanwhile, other band members got addicted to drugs and the band fell apart. But she still knew music was her life and love.

The turning point came in 1999 when she was noticed by Zang Tianshuo, who was an established musician and invited her to join his band. After her success at the Guangxi Folk Songs Festival, Siqingerile released her first album, New Age, and became a popular singer and bassist.

"Looking back, there is no shortcut for success. Love for music and never giving up brought me to where I am now," says Siqingerile.

In 2014, Siqingerile founded a new band, Cactus, which is made up of musicians from different ethnic groups including Uygur, Kazak, Tibetan and Mongolian, and they aim to remix 56 classic folk songs of the 56 ethnic groups in China with modern music.