Tag Archives: guqin

The pipa: How a barbarian lute became a national symbol

‘Playing the pipa behind the back’ is a special kind of Chinese gongfu that expresses flying in heaven at Dunhuang. [See image of pipa player from Mogao caves at Dunhuang] The road to industrialization with Chinese characteristics was taken by Mao Zedong after … Continue reading

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The guzheng

The guzheng is a 21-stringed zither that has been played in China – in one form or another – for about two thousand years. Aside from having 21 strings (compared to the guqin‘s 7 strings), the guzheng’s other major difference from … Continue reading

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Chinese instruments and the creation of a national music

Modern Chinese instruments are a lot like modern China: a disparate patchwork of various Parts forcibly cobbled into a Whole that, to hear some tell it, Always Was and Ever Shall Be. That is a bit of an exaggeration: no … Continue reading

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The guqin

The guqin, also just called the qin and sometimes “the scholar’s lute” in English, is perhaps the most Chinese of all instruments. As qin performer and scholar John Thompson puts it: The guqin throughout its long history has been the musical … 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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Touring China with the guqin

John Thompson on old guqin music; controling coverage of the earthquake; the race for gold medals; a non-looting episode; no more thin plastic bags; why not to learn Chinese.

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The guqin and earth’s greatest hits
by Peter Micic

Peter Micic writes about guqin music.

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by Peter Micic