As I stood onstage in David Geffen Hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in front of an audience of 2,000, I gave the looper station a quick stomp, swung my bamboo clappers, strummed the guitar strings, and began layering sound upon sound like a one-person symphony in motion. Joined by my musical partner, Timmy Liu, I was ready to debut something never heard before in that historic New York venue: a fusion of American country music and bamboo clapper rap. Our rendition of “Nine Pound Hammer,” layered with beats from a bamboo clapper and backed by the bright twang of a banjo, broke genres and transcended borders.
The applause at the end wasn’t just for us. It was for what we represented: the possibility of blending tradition and innovation, East and West, heritage and reinvention. In many ways, that moment reflected the world we live in, where the most interesting ideas emerge not from merely passing down tradition but from reinventing, connecting, innovating, and building on the cultural gold mines passed down by our ancestors.
As I’ve worked in finance by day and performed as a bamboo clapper rapper by night, I’ve come to see my life as a bridge between disciplines, cultures, and genres. Wharton helped plant the seeds for that bridge-building instinct. As I was alternating my group study sessions and investment banking recruiting trips to New York, I was also stepping onstage at the Wharton International Cultural Show at the Annenberg Center and the Philadelphia Four-School Spring Festival Gala at Irvine Auditorium. At both events, I performed for a diverse group of fellow students and local residents of Philadelphia. Although these were small stages compared to Lincoln Center, they provided me with some of my most memorable moments during my time in Philly.
Yuchen performed traditional bamboo clapper rap pieces, including “Tong Ren Tang,” at the TEDxSinanRd event in Shanghai.
After I moved to New York and became an investment banker, my musical career started to take off. I started out as the opening act for some visiting bands in New York. Over time, I was invited to perform at festivals. Audiences started connecting not just with the novelty of clapper rap and loop-station beats but with the fusion itself. My music was no longer just the Asian element of a show; it was a new sensation that blended identities, technologies, genres, and generations.
The lessons I’ve taken from the stage increasingly mirror what I’ve learned in the world of finance: how to hold a room and tell a story that earns trust. A pitch book, like a performance, is about presence, rhythm, and emotion. Whether you’re managing a portfolio or managing a crowd, the ability to adapt and connect is everything.
I had Wharton to thank once again when I had the honor of meeting Mr. Feng Gong, the legendary performer widely regarded as China’s greatest comedian. In 2018, when he was invited to the Penn Wharton China Center, I volunteered to open for him with a bamboo clapper rap set. To my surprise and delight, he was impressed. Not long after, he formally accepted me as one of his disciples. With a signature grin, he would introduce me as “his only Wharton-trained disciple who can calculate IRR by day and rhyme in meter by night.”
Over the past five years, I’ve kept pushing the boundaries, from mixing loops with stand-up to experimenting with new forms of rhythmic comedy. I brought clapper rap and live looping to national TV on multiple occasions. Still an investor by day, I co-founded the Gadgeteers Comedy Club, dedicated to blending American-style stand-up with rhythmic storytelling. Our shows are bold, cross-cultural, and experimental. Today, the Gadgeteers has grown into one of Shanghai’s top comedy brands.
But this isn’t just about me. What’s happening in my journey is happening across industries. Some of today’s most interesting thinkers won’t be confined to being just MBAs or artists; they can be both. Wharton has always been a cradle of innovation. Perhaps the next wave of Wharton impact isn’t just about tech disruption or capital flows. It’s about storytelling and about connecting across cultures, not just with strategies but with soul, whether that happens through a cross-border investment term sheet or a cross-cultural clapper beat.
Yuchen Jin WG14 is a musical artist and stand-up comedian based in China. He has performed bamboo clapper rap in venues around the world, including New York’s Lincoln Center, and on national TV in China. He is also an investor in education and tech and the founder of AlphaLink. He is currently a vice president of the Wharton Club of Beijing and an instructor of finance at two universities.
