Category Archives: Music, Books and Art

New uses for old Chinese instruments

Posted on 2011-06-08 by Danwei

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 →

Posted in Music, Books and Art | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on New uses for old Chinese instruments

The pipa

Posted on 2011-06-07 by Danwei

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 →

Posted in Music, Books and Art | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on The pipa

The guqin and earth’s greatest hits

Posted on 2011-06-06 by Peter Micic

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 →

Posted in Music, Books and Art | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on The guqin and earth’s greatest hits

A blind Beijing beggar and his erhu

Posted on 2011-06-03 by Zhang Lafei

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 →

Posted in Music, Books and Art | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on A blind Beijing beggar and his erhu