Typical of Albarn's various cultural adventures, he doesn't attempt to pass as a local; the details and pentatonic scale may come from Chinese folk music, but the playful melodies .
He will no doubt be thinking of the silken flutter of the 13-stringed koto or the modal mysteries of the pentatonic scale.
Perhaps he did not catch on at once, but his horn was tuned naturally to a pentatonic (five-note) scale.
Myung-Whun Chung in EastDay.com Chung says the orchestra will also be performing Chinese composer Ge Ganru's "Six Pentatonic Tunes for Orchestra."
Bela Fleck in Newsweek A lot of Chinese music is very pentatonic, which bluegrass music is,says Fleck, referring to the scale preferred by many roots musicians. "But they think American traditional music is 'Country Road'."