From Yellow Children, her first album, to United Nations goodwill ambassador, Zhu Zheqin has come a long way.

The singer, also known as Dadawa, made a two-year journey of Tibet autonomous region, then made her voice heard around the world when she released the Tibetan-inspired album Sister Drum in 1995.

Singer Dadawa has a new role working to advance the cultural legacy of minority groups as a goodwill ambassador for the UN. Guo Yingguang

She then delved further into the world's minority groups and told her story in the 2006 documentary The Journey of Sound. It revolves around South Asian music, and includes street, gypsy and religious music.

Now she has a new role, working to advance the cultural legacy of minority groups as a goodwill ambassador for the UN.

The singer will work with the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) to help save and develop the cultural legacy of China's minority groups, from 2009 to 2010.

"I hope that I can act as a conduit, that I can be the person who tells some of these (people's) stories," Dadawa says. "My travel experiences to see these minority groups and the things I've seen in my life have led me toward this."

Dadawa is always on the road. She has visited almost all of the Chinese ethnic groups during the past decade. In addition she has traveled from Kashmir to Delhi and Varanasi in India, to Nepal, then across the Himalayas and back to Tibet.