Instrument Music in China

Chinese classical music is most attractive in China. There’re various kinds of classical music in China, from time to time, from east to west. The styles are quite different. People may know Peking Opera. It’s of charm that Singer’s dressing up and making great performance using both their voice and flexibility in the body on the stage.
Music played by instruments is one of the most beautiful and oldest genres and it’s my favorite. It’s usually slow and beautiful. The 1st song is played by Hulusi 葫蘆絲 - made of bamboo or another plant such as gourd, and played like a mouth organ, blown both in and out. Created by ethnic groups in the southwest of China, this kind of instrument seldom tells a sad story, nor shows a happy-go-lucky guy straight forward.

It sounds gentle, soft and emotional, just like an 18-year-old girl. She must be naughty sometimes, but she knows how to be a lady well. She might hide her feeling, waiting for someone to unpack the secret of hers.

The second song is played by a new classical music band in China. You can see a lot of musical instruments that are most common used in classical music. A kind of magnificence calls inside the audience mind.
The 3rd one, is mainly played by Guzheng 古箏 (or the Gu-Zheng, or the Zheng, or the Cheng). It tells a story about an ancient musician who felt only one of his friends could understand his music. This song was for his friend’s funeral. After that, the musician never played any more. Guzheng often builds an atmosphere of sadness and meditation.
Instrument music is like riddle that it doesn’t tell you what it is about by explicit words. You should always guess. It right fits the high-context character of Chinese and Chinese culture. People appreciate that understanding by certain indication. If you’re a foreigner to Chinese and you can understand instrument songs, you’ll surely be popular in China. I mean, songs convey certain cues of a culture. The song is another language of a nation. People create the song and they’ll go back to songs when they’re dominated by some kind of feeling, whether tired or happy. So music is a great topic if people start a casual conversation to know each other. Because music reveals characters of a society, a relaxed way to study cross-culture is to learn from its music and don’t forget to enjoy it!