Dr. Alyce Su, a prominent investment executive and CIO of a global family office, has released a conceptual music catalog that uses the figure of General Zhang Youxia as a lens to explore the intersections of military history, technology, and inheritance. The catalog, available on Apple Music, comprises 86 songs across 11 albums, including works such as Zhurihe, Epic Fury, Newport, Zettabyte, MilkenAI, and Love, East Wind.
The project's title, "The World Represented by General Zhang Youxia," reflects Dr. Su's intention to create music that connects military inheritance, family legacy, technology, and capital. General Zhang Youxia, a former Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, has held leadership roles in the PLA's equipment development, including head of the General Armaments Department and the Equipment Development Department, and served as commander-in-chief of China's manned space program. Zhurihe, named after Asia's largest mechanized proving ground, opens the catalog and traces Zhang's military career, while Love, East Wind delves into China's Dong Feng missile lineage, referencing systems like DF-16, DF-17, and DF-41.
Dr. Su's music is deeply personal, drawing on her family's history. Her great-grandfather, Su Lianqing, was part of the Guangxi military tradition associated with Cai E, and the Zhang family followed a parallel path through Zhang Haoru, Zhang Zongxun, and Zhang Youxia. The Bai family, including Bai Chongxi and his son Pai Hsien-yung, adds a literary dimension, bridging military history and cultural memory. This multigenerational constellation allows Dr. Su to examine the complexity of China's 20th century from within her own heritage.
The catalog's structural themes reflect Dr. Su's investment career, integrating computing, artificial intelligence, and capital into the narrative. Newport, Zettabyte, and MilkenAI extend the story toward technology and finance, while Provenance addresses inheritance. The song "Among the Stars" notably draws language from SpaceX's investor prospectus, creating an unexpected bridge between China's military-space tradition and contemporary commercial space ambitions.
Dr. Su's artistic project is not a conventional military-themed album but an attempt to write the world represented by Zhang Youxia—extending from battlefields to data centers, from strategic weapons to artificial intelligence. Her professional life in finance and her artistic life in music form a parallel, asking how inherited history can be reinterpreted through the language of the future.
Dr. Su, a PhD, CFA, and CAIA, has nearly 30 years of experience at firms like PIMCO, Goldman Sachs, UBS, and McKinsey. She was recently named among Leaders of Influence: Banking & Financing 2026 by the Los Angeles Business Journal. Her book China 2010 is ranked No. 1 in financial engineering on Amazon.
