The Atlas Obscura Podcast · Thursday, September 17, 2026
Ross Jennings, a Scottish national, spent much of his childhood in China. It was during this time, while he was away from his cultural homeland, that his interest in Scottish heritage, including bagpipes, grew. His formal introduction to the instrument came at age 14 when he attended school in England.
“It's great when you have a broad, but when you're away from your birth country or your cultural country, or whatever that might be, you learn about these cultural aspects from that country and then you, you yearn for it. You become more like that.”
“It was well Ross was living in China that he first got interested in his Scottish heritage, in country dancing and in bagpipes.”
“And when Ross was 14, his parents sent him to school in England. And one day, they had a school assembly. And then suddenly, from outside, the bagpipes start.”