Chinese Culture Exchange UK

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During our visits to China we have been lucky enough to meet up with Chinese musicians. Some of our group had the opportunity to learn how to play the gucheng, a traditional Chinese instrument. We joined the pupils of a local school to share the learning experience. Although some were very young, the students  all performed for us with great skill.

Then they tried to teach us how to play. Not so easy as the children made it appear! It was a very special occasion for all of the British visitors as the time shared enabled us to make friends with the children, despite the language problem.

Chinese Opera is unique . The brightly painted faces and elaborate costumes make it very spectacular. Often there are scenes involving acrobatic skills too. So the Chinese say that Beijing Opera has four major elements - mime, song, dialogue and acrobatics. Stories are based on famous characters from history, or from welll known tales. The character on the right of this photo is the Monkey King from the famous story "Journey to the West".

The music can sometimes be quite loud with lots of gongs and cymbols especially during the fight scenes. Other traditional instuments are used such as the "erhu" (a two stringed instrument played with a bow) the "pipa" (similar to a lute but with four strings) and the "dizi" ( a bamboo flute).

In its current form the Beijing Opera has only existed for about 200 years although its origins can be traced back to the Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644) to a type of musical drama called "Kanju". It was often performed in the streets and market places before permanent theatres became fashionable.

We were fortunate to meet with members of the Lianyungang Opera Company, who came to perform for us and to explain about the make up and the costumes. Later some of us tried the costumes.

More pictures in the Photo Gallery