Sound check: Jamie Woon

Just after Christmas, Jamie Woon, the BRIT School graduate who made waves this year with a dubstep-inspired soul sound, will head to the northern city of Xi'an for six weeks. The 28-year-old from New Malden was selected by the British Council and fellow organiser the PRS for Music Foundation, alongside electronic experimentalist Imogen Heap, folk musician Gareth Bonello and pianist Matthew Bourne, who are or have been on separate trips to other parts of the country. The work they produce will form part of UK Now, an ambitious celebration of British arts running in China from April to November next year, but generally speaking their brief is vague, and all the more inspiring for that.

"New work is expected to come out of it but it's not restrictive in terms of what they bring home," says Cathy Graham, the British Council's director of music.

"We can't tie artists to a particular expectation, though we hope there will be manifestations in both the UK and China."

"I don't expect to have a giant epiphany and start writing Chinese music," Woon tells me. "That kind of immersion would take a lot longer. But I'm looking to write as much as possible and there's no doubt that it will have a big influence on me."

Heap is currently engaged in creating a new song inspired by a day in the life of Hangzhou, a city to the east of 8.7 million, recording the regular activities of local residents. "I want to find the heartbeat of Hangzhou. To find a rhythm. A pattern. A physical thread between everyday goings on in the city and its inhabitants," she says.

Once he's seen Xi'an's Terracotta Army, Woon's main plan is to host his own show on the city's local radio station. It's a place known for its underground youth culture but he still feels he can offer them something new.

"I really jumped at the idea of radio time," he says. "The idea is quite liberating, to be able to play the music that I grew up on, but in China, and to find some connections too. It gives me an incentive to immerse myself in local music as much as possible so I can also play that."

He is better placed for an enriching experience in China than many UK acts: his father is Malaysian-
Chinese and he spent five weeks travelling around the country three years ago. Even so, he plays down the connection: "My dad spoke Chinese to me until I was about four but then he gave up. Now I can ask for directions and order in a restaurant but I'm completely in the dark about Chinese music."

When Woon first emerged on the pop scene he looked set for success as a folk-inspired singer-songwriter, until a remix by dubstep producer Burial of his version of the standard Wayfaring Stranger persuaded Woon to reinvent himself with a more daring electronic sound last year.

He and the similar-sounding James Blake, a Mercury nominee and fellow name on the BBC's powerful Sound of 2011 poll, took dance music home for late night listening. "I thought it was a low-key, lo-fi record, so it took me by surprise when it took off," he says of his debut album Mirrorwriting (Polydor), which reached the top 20 last spring.

He recorded most of it in his bedroom on a laptop, so writing his next album on the other side of the world is going to be a challenge he relishes. "In China you get such a feeling of foreignness, which is hard to get in a lot of places in the world where so many travellers have been there before you and everyone speaks English. I want to drop out of my culture for a bit."

From the British Council's perspective, it's an important place in which to have a presence. "China is obviously a very important country with a very big economy, and an enormous audience with a lot of potential," says Graham. "The impetus behind this is to send some of our best young musicians out there to work, take inspiration, and meet the music industry. That creates trust and understanding and we know from experience that those seeds that are sown can spread and develop over the years."

Since 1934 the British Council has existed as a cultural relations organisation aiming to build trust and understanding between the UK and the rest of the world. While it is not strictly an arts organisation (the majority of its funding comes from providing exams and tuition abroad), the main way it improves Britain's standing overseas is through showing off our creative industries.

The council currently syndicates a weekly two-hour radio show, The Selector, to about 40 countries, a surprisingly edgy programme that does a good job of breaking new music overseas. Woon's single Lady Luck ended up an unlikely success in Kazakhstan after it was playlisted by the show.

With his own programme on Xi'an radio, it's just possible he could repeat the trick in China.