Tag Archives: music

New uses for old Chinese instruments

Here are some videos showing musicians using traditional instruments to play all kinds of new music. If you cannot watch any of these videos, please complain to your local Internet provider or your government about censorship or slow connection speeds. … Continue reading

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The pipa

The pipa (琵琶) is a pear-shaped type of lute with four strings. It’s one of the most common Chinese musical instruments – varieties of pipa have been played in China for about two thousand years. Like many instruments now considered … Continue reading

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The guqin and earth’s greatest hits

In 1977 NASA sent Voyager I into deep space to explore the great beyond. The spacecraft contained a 12-inch copper disc titled “Sounds of the Earth”, featuring “greetings from the People of Earth in 60 languages, and natural sounds such … Continue reading

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A blind Beijing beggar and his erhu

The erhu — compact, cheap and easy to use to make noises that sound like music — is a favorite of itinerant Chinese beggars and buskers. I wanted to speak to an erhu-playing beggar in Beijing about his instrument so … Continue reading

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Nixon in China, not in China

Nick Frisch puts the Met’s performance of Nixon in China up against the expectations of Chinese opera viewers.

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Hymns of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and their Christian hymns.

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Shosholoza on the Shanghai Metro

Kliptown Youth Program gumboot dancers on the Shanghai subway sing Shosholoza, a traditional South African song sung by migrant workers on trains bound for Johannesburg where they would dig for gold for paltry wages.

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Rocking pipa

Central Conservatory of Music professor Zhang Hongyan (章红艳) introduces the pipa, and then plays Sunny Spring White Snow (阳春白雪), a rocking traditional song that may be more than two thousand years old.

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Guzheng and Masada

Rosh Hashanah – Jewish new year – starts tonight. Shana tova to our Jewish readers.

Celebrate by watching this video shot at the North Sea Jazz Festival in summer 2009: Secret Chiefs 3 joined by Wu Fei (吴非) on guzheng playing music from John Zorn’s Masada series which is based on traditional Jewish music.

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Danwei Canteen: Chestnut Chicken Stew

Our new series, Danwei Canteen is a quick guide to traditional Chinese food as it’s prepared where the cuisine was born: in Chinese rural areas and villages.

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