Have you ever been moved by the film soundtrack of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Musician Tan Dun used a traditional Chinese musical instrument, erhu, in his arrangement.

Erhu is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument and sometimes known in the west as the “Chinese violin” or “Chinese two-string fiddle”. It is a very expressive instrument and often used as a drama accompanied instrument in small ensembles and large Chinese folk orchestra.

Erhu History

Erhu is developed from and part of Huqin – a family of Chinese musical instrument.

Huqin was introduced to the Han nationality during the Tang Dynasty (A.D.618-907). ‘Hu’  meaning ‘foreign’ and ‘Qin’ referring to ‘string instrument’, the Huqin has its root in the Xiqin which  originated from the Mongolian Xi Tribe.

After centuries of development, a series of similar bowed stringed instruments derived from Huqin surfaced in the market, in order to meet the high demand of bowed stringed instruments used for music accompaniment in local opera shows and dramas. For example, now we have banhu, jinghu, gaohu, yehu and sihu etc, and erhu being the most popular and well-known in the huqin family of instruments.

The instrument was named Erhu only in recent times. The first Chinese character of the name of the instrument (二, èr, two) is believed to come from the fact that it has two strings. An alternate explanation comes from the fact that erhu is the huqin that produces the second highest pitch relative to the gaohu in the modern Chinese orchestra. The second character (胡, hú) indicates that it is a member of the Huqin family.

Erhu - a unique Traditional Chinese instrument

The Beauty of Erhu

The tone of erhu is mellow and bright, similar to the violin, yet more soulful and expressive. And it can imitate many natural sounds such as the sounds of birds and horse. Its midrange and high frequency stand out and enables it to perform music with a variety of moods, especially melancholic tunes, but also capable of playing merry melodies.

Erhu – Instrument Parts

Here are the introduction to the different parts of this instrument to you.

Erhu - breakdown and explanation of the instrument's parts

Erhu - sound box

Qín tǒng (琴筒), sound box or resonator body

The sound body of the erhu is a drum-like little case usually made of rosewood, sandalwood or other dense and heavy hardwoods and python skins. It usually has a hexagonal or octagon shape with the length of approximately 13 cm. The front opening is covered with skin of python (snake) and that of the back is left open. The function of this case of resonance is to amplify the vibrations of the strings.

Qín pí (琴皮), skin

The resonator is covered with a piece of stretched python skin that produces a unique tone. The bigger the scales of the python skin used, the better the tone produced.

Erhu - skin & pad

Erhu - Neck

Qín gǎn (琴杆), neck

The neck of the erhu is about 81 cm long and is manufactured with the same materials as the resonator. There is no fret or fingerboard and the player plays the instrument by pressing their fingertips onto the strings without them touching the neck.

Erhu - top of neck

Qín tóu (琴头), top or tip of neck

The top of neck is bent for decoration. It usually has a simple curve with a piece of bone or plastic on top, but is sometimes elaborately carved with a dragon’s head.

Qín zhóu (琴轴), tuning pegs

There are two cone-like tuning pegs through the neck vertically. Traditionally, it was made of wood, metal machine gear pegs are common used in these days. The upper one is bound with the inner string and the under one is bound with the outer string.

Erhu - tuning pegs

Erhu - nut

Qiān jīn (千斤), nut

It’s a small loop of metal wire placed around the neck and strings acting as a nut pulls the strings towards the skin, holding the bridge in peace.

Erhu - bridge

Qín ma (琴码), bridge

The bridge is often made of wood and together with the nut determines the scale length.

Nèi xián (内弦), inside or inner string

It is usually tuned to pitch D4, nearest to player.

Wài xián (外弦), outside or outer string

It is usually tuned to pitch A4.

Gōng (弓), bow

The bow is made by two parts: Gōng gǎn (弓杆, bow stick) and Gōng máo (弓毛, bow hair). The proper length of the bow is about 80cm. Just like other bowed stringed instrument, bow rubs against the string and then makes the sound. What is special about the erhu is that the bow hair is never separated from the strings. The bow stick is made by bamboo and white horse tail hair is regarded as the best material for the bow hair.

Erhu - bow hair between strings

Qín diàn (琴垫), pad

It is a piece of sponge, felt, or cloth placed between the strings and skin below the bridge to improve its sound.

Qín tuō (琴托) ,base

It’s a piece of wood attached to the bottom of the qín tǒng to provide a smooth surface on which to rest on the leg.

Playing posture

An erhu player normally sits with the instrument on his or her left upper thigh with left hand mastering the strings meanwhile moving the bow horizontally over the two vertical strings by right hand. Vibrato, slide, trill, harmonic overtone and pizzicato are frequently-used skills during the performance.

Famous Erhu masters:

Liu Tianhua

A notable composer and player for the erhu was Liu Tianhua (刘天华) (1895-1932)

Liu Tianhua - a noteable and famous Erhu player and composer

He is a Chinese musician who studied western music as well. He composed 47 exercises and 10 solo pieces (1918-1932) which were significant to the development of the erhu as a solo instrument. His works for the instrument include Yue Ye (月夜; Yuè yè, Moon Night) and Zhu Ying Yao Hong (烛影摇红; zhú yǐng yáo hóng, Shadows of Candles Flickering Red).

Ah Bing

Another famous composer and player for the erhu was Ah Bing (阿炳, 华彦均) (1893-1950), a blind erhu mobile busker.

Ah Bing - a blind Erhu player

He can play many Chinese traditional musical instruments when he was young. The composition Er Quan Ying Yue (二泉映月; èr quán yìng yuè, Moon Reflected on Second Spring) is one of the most famous erhu music in China. It is seldom that people were not moved after hearing the melancholic tune.

Song Fei

Song Fei (宋飞) (born 1969) is an outstanding erhu musician in modern times and once performed in Carnegie Hall and Golden Concert Hall.

She began to learn erhu playing when she was seven from her father, who was also an excellent erhu player, and became famous when she was a teenager. She replayed many classical erhu compositions such as Er Quan Ying Yue and injects her own style in it. Also she plays some western classical music such as Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumble Bee, which shows her exquisite skill and expands the influence of erhu in the west.

Thanks to the contribution of pioneer Erhu performers, ever since the Erhu was created, the instrument has been constantly improved. Played with a variety of techniques, it is now extremely popular for both solo and orchestral performances. In classical Chinese music the erhu is melodic, haunting, ever changing, and alive. The traditional style of playing is rich in ornamentation, giving the music a deep, three-dimensional quality.

Listen to Erhu Music

Erhu piece – “Er Quan Ying Yue”

Learn Some Mandarin

It is the last days of the Southern Song Dynasty when its people still cling to old practices. On a fine spring day, Du Liniang, the sixteen year old daughter of an important official, Du Bao, to abandon her studies and take a walk in the garden, where she falls asleep.

In Du Liniang’s dream she encounters a young scholar, identified later in the play as Liu Mengmei, whom in real life she has never met. Liu’s bold advances starts off a flaming romance between the two and it flourishes rapidly. Du Liniang’s dream is interrupted by a flower petal falling on her Having awakened from her dream, she became lovesick and un-consoled in her longing, until she finally pined away with a broken heart in the seclusion of her maidenly chamber.

Later, Liu takes shelter in Du’s family residence one summer by chance for an examination. In Du’s room, he finds her portrait. Meantime, the president of the underworld adjudicates that a marriage between Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei is predestined and Du Liniang ought to return to the earthly world. The girl comes back to life.

Du Liniang appears to Liu Mengmei in his dreams who now inhabits the same garden where Du Liniang had her fatal dream. Liu agrees to exhume her upon her request and Du Liniang is brought back to life. Liu visits Du Bao, Du Liniang’s father, and informs him of his daughter’s newly resurrection. However, Liu was captured and imprisoned for being a grave robber and an impostor.

The ending of the play follows the formula of many Chinese comedies. Liu Mengmei narrowly escapes death by torture thanks to the arrival of the results of the imperial examination in which Liu has topped the list. The emperor pardons all.

Many people have been moved with the story of Du Liliang.

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The Peony Pavilion is distinguished particularly by the play’s highly refined and subtle lyrics hailed as another height in Chinese literature. Aided by the then newly developed Kun music, the lyrical prose of the Peony Pavillion weave out a dainty fabric of nuances and metaphors which elegantly transgress the divide between nature’s beauty and man’s inner cosmos of emotions and desires.

Through the lights and shadows of the its literary fabric transpire the play’s ravishing sensitivity and intoxicating effeteness and, almost antithetically, a persistent tone of youthful optimism. Within a few words, the audience finds itself, carried by the magic of the play’s language, already in the midst of a celebration of sensitivity, a banquet of metaphors and a dance of the imagination the compound of which defines nothing less than a unique form of and literary and esthetic pleasure.

In 1999, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts produced a 20 hour version of Tang Xianzu’s Peony Pavilion directed Chen Shizheng.

This 20 hour version was perhaps the first full length staging in 300 years and spurred a renewed interest in the full opera beyond a few celebrated episodes. Lincoln Center’s version toured extensively, playing in New York, Paris, Milan, Singapore, Caen, Charleston, Aarhus, Berlin, Perth and Vienna. DVD highlights have been released in the United States and Taiwan.

In the latest version of The Peony Pavilion, adapted by Bai Xianyong, has once again surprised the world with its breathtaking storyline and the modified, yet preserving costumes that are designed to accommodate the perspective of the modern day viewers. It premiered in 2004 helped rejuvenate this tradition.

Bai Xianyong, a Chinese scholar at the University of California, Working out of the Jiangsu Suzhou Kunqu Theater, the group condensed and adapted the original fifty-five scenes to twenty-seven scenes, and twenty hours of performance time to nine.

He invited over 80 excellent artists from the China’s mainland and Taiwan to form the most powerful team. The actors are not only at their prime time, but also are excellent in appearance, singing and action, very close to the temperament of the figures in the play. The stage pursues the beauty of simplicity so that the play will display the elegance and classicality of the Suzhou ancient culture, and also be full of the charm of youth. The performance was a huge success.

Bai Xianyong, who had chosen The Peony Pavilion because of its universal message of love, hoped that his rendition would attract youth to Kunqu. According to Bai, the goal of this youth-oriented production was to “give new life to the art form, cultivate a new generation of Kunqu, and offer respect to playwright Tang and all the master artists that came before.” His production of The Peony Pavilion was his way of doing so.

Vocabulary

昆曲   kūn qǔ    kunqu opera

牡丹亭  mǔ  dān tíng     The Peony Pavilion

中国文学    zhōng guó wén xué     Chinese literature

剧作家   jù zuò jiā    Playwright

Chinese Paper cuts, which were usually of symbolic character, were part of this ritual. After hundreds of years’ development, nowadays, Chinese paper cuts are very decorative. They can be pasted onto walls, windows, doors, columns, mirrors, lamps and lanterns in homes especially during the Spring Festival and wedding days. Entrances are decorated with paper cut is supposed to bring good luck.

Chinese Paper cutting stands out for its charm – exacting lines and ingenious patterns which are all hand-made.

It shows us the life expressions of the figure’s sentiment and appearance, or portrayal of natural plants and animals’ diverse gestures. Exaggeration and symmetry are the skills often used by these folk artists. Flowers are most common to see in the patterns.

If you want to make a Chinese Paper cut, what you need are: paper and scissors or an engraving knife.

To make the three-dimensional scenes pop out visually from the paper, as they are usually in monochrome (especially red), engravers must exert their imagination. Knife cuttings are fashioned by putting several layers of paper on a relatively soft foundation consisting of a mixture of tallow and ashes. Following a pattern, the artist cuts the motif into the paper with a sharp knife which is usually held vertically. Skilled crafters can even cut out different drawings freely without stopping.

One of the basic methods of paper cutting is called positive image. It involves cutting around the design you wish to make cutting away all background paper leaving the design in tack thus you have a beautiful positive image.

Since there is a positive image it is only natural that there is a negative image. The negative image is the opposite of the positive image. That is you cut away from the lines and shapes of the design leaving the background in tact as one piece This method is especially well suited for dyeing.

The perfect Chinese paper cutting method is a combined positive and negative image. According to the design in some places you use the two methods above flexibly and thus you bring forth the special features of both methods in one perfect design.

Here are some places which are famous for Chinese Paper-cuts:

• Yuxian in Hebei Province
• Fengning Manchu Autonomous Region in Hebei Province
• Zhongyang in Shanxi Province
• Ansai in Shaanxi Province
• Jinzhou city in Liaoning Province
• Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province
• Yueqing in Zhejiang Province
• Foshan, Shantou, Chaozhou(all in Guangdong Province)
• Luxi City in Yunnan Province

Nowadays, more and more fashion elements combine with traditional Chinese paper cuts. As the photos below shows a paper cut of Obama on one of the street as well as paper cut-inspired dress.

Vocabulary

剪纸  Jiǎn zhǐ   paper cut

巧妙的图案  qiǎo miào dē tú àn   Ingenious patterns

手工制作  Shǒu gōng zhì zuò   hand-made

立体  lì tǐ   3-dimensional

正象  zhèng xiàng   Positive image

The history of New Year paintings can date from Tang Dynasty (AD618-907) and this folk art reached its zenith of sophistication in the Qing Dynasty(AD1644-1912).

As decorative paintings for the New Year, the paintings mostly feature auspicious and joyous subjects. Simple lines, bright colors and happy atmosphere are combined to define New Year paintings, which capture all festive customs and life details, stories from traditional opera novels and folktales etc. The creation of New Year paintings are closely linked with people’s daily life and have strong local features.

Some specific objects on paintings have some specific symbolized meanings. A bat (蝠), for instance, would represent fortune (福) for they share the same pronunciation in Chinese; by the same token, a fan (扇) indicates kindness (善), a rooster (鸡) is a symbol for luck (吉) and a fish(鱼) stands for surplus (余).

How to create New Year Painting?

Technically, New Year Paintings are wood block printings. The production of a New Year Painting includes five main steps: drawing (勾), carving (刻), printing (印), painting (画) and mounting (裱). Traditionally, all these steps are handcrafted in the family painting business studio.

Types of New Year Paintings

There are four distinguished New Year Paintings in China. The four outstanding have their own distinctive features and are named after their production places: Taohuawu (桃花坞) , Yangliuqing（杨柳青）, Yangjiabu（杨家埠）and Mianzhu（绵竹）.

1.Taohuawu New Year paintings

Taohuawu is a place in the north of Suzhou, Jiangsu province. Taohuawu New Year paintings originated from the brilliant wood engraving craft during Song Dynasty (about 900 years ago) and reached inspiration from embroidered image.

Each one colour is printed by each corresponding wood block, so procedures are complicated but the final paintings are delicate. Pink, bright red , blue , purple , green , light ink and lemon yellow are very usually used in the paintings.

2. Yangliuqing New Year paintings

Yangliuqing New Year paintings originated in Yangliuqing Town, in the western suburbs of Tianjin City about 600 years ago, in the early 17th century and flourished in the Qing Dynasty. Adopting the method of integrating block printing and hand-colored decoration, it is coloured after the image appears on the link lines. Traditional opera, beauty and chubby child are usually depicted in Yangliuqing New Year paintings.

3. Yangjiabu New Year paintings

Yangjiabu is a small village of Weifang, Shandong province. Yangjiabu New Year paintings’ history can date back to Ming Dynasty(AD1368-1644). At first influenced by Yangliuqing New Year paintings, Yangjiabu New Year paintings reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty.

4. Mianzhu New Year paintings

It is a type of folk woodblock picture in the southeast of China and produced in Mianzhu County, Sichuan province. Mianzhu New Year paintings began in the eleventh century and flourished at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. Composition of a Mianzhu New Year painting makes a point of symmetry, distinction and lively colours.

Nowadays, new printing technologies are adopted to speed printing and increase the number of copies, but people buy New Year paintings’ enthusiasm unchanged. Traditional New Year paintings are persisted as a priceless art form and you can probably still notice these paintings on the front doors of every household.

Vocabulary:

nián huà
年      画    new year painting           n.

shàng tiān bǎo yòu
上         天     保    佑    Heavenly blessing     n.

mù bǎn huà
木      版   画     Wood block painting        n.

cì xiù  xiāo xiàng
刺    绣  肖    像      Embroiled image        n.

pàng wá wá
胖       娃  娃      Chubby child        n.

jiā tíng
家   庭      Household      n.

yán sè xiān yàn
颜     色  鲜    艳     Lively colours        n.

Kunqu Opera has a history much longer than Beijing Opera. It is held in great respect and is regarded as the sister opera of Beijing Opera. Kunqu was shown to the royal or wealthy families only. Its music is much softer and similar from play to play. The dialogue is more poetical and refined. Kunqu is famous for its music and its poetical & romantic style. It will be rare to have any military roles or acrobatic actions in a Kunqu play.

The dancing and movement of a role is gentle and closely connected with the player’s singing. The music instruments used for Kunqu is different from Beijing Opera. Perfectly matching the poetry style of the play, Flute is used as the main accompanying instrument instead of something with strings. Others are bamboo-pipe-composed Sheng, Erhu and Pipa

Kunqu Opera was artistically refined over a period of some 200 years to stand out prominently among the various competing schools of operas for its “delicate tunes and elegant melodies”.

With Suzhou as its base, Kunqu Opera soon became popular both at home and abroad. However, when China entered the modern age, Kunqu Opera underwent a gradual decline from its zenith and finally lost favor among its audience, due to the rapid and dramatic social changes. Yet it survived and remains the most influential traditional Chinese opera.

Kunqu Opera is a synthesis of poems, music, dance, acting, makeup, costumes, props and sets. Its value is embodied in this comprehensive cultural breadth. In essence, Kunqu Opera is a melodious language art with a dramatized singing style.

Today, Kunqu is performed professionally in seven Mainland Chinese cities: Beijing (Northern Kunqu Theatre), Shanghai (Shanghai Kunqu Theatre), Suzhou (Suzhou Kunqu Theatre), Nanjing (Jiangsu Province Kunqu Theatre), Chenzhou (Hunan Kunqu Theatre), Yongjia County/Wenzhou (Yongjia Kunqu Theatre) and Hangzhou (Zhejiang Province Kunqu Theatre).

Plays that continue to be famous today, including The Peony Pavilion 牡丹亭 and The Peach Blossom Fan, were originally written for the Kunqu stage. In addition, many classical Chinese novels and stories, such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin and Journey to the West were adapted very early into dramatic pieces.

Look out for an upcoming article about The Peony Pavilion 牡丹亭 and why is it so famous throughout the century.

Vocabulary:

kūn  qǔ
昆      曲          kunqu opera          n.
yuán cháo

元      朝          Yuan Dynasty        n.

mǔ dān tíng
牡 丹  亭               The Peony Pavilion                             n.