Traditional Chinese Crafts & Performing Arts
Have you ever been moved by the film soundtrack of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Musician Tan Dun used a traditional Chinese musical instrument, erhu, in his arrangement. Erhu is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument and sometimes known in the west as the “Chinese violin” or “Chinese two-string fiddle”. It is a very expressive instrument and…
The Peony Pavilion is one of Chinese Classics written by Tang Xianzu in the Ming Dynasty. It is a romantic masterpiece in the Chinese opera history and it is said to be the Eastern version of Romeo & Juliet. The performance tradition has focused on the love story between Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei. It…
Chinese Paper cut or Jianzhi is one of China’s most popular folk-arts. It originated from the 6th century, various paper objects and figures used to be buried with the dead or burned at the funeral ceremony. Chinese Paper cuts, which were usually of symbolic character, were part of this ritual. After hundreds of years’ development,…
New Year Painting is a unique art form in Chinese folk culture, which is used to decorate doors, walls and windows on the Chinese New Year to invite heavenly blessings and ward off disasters and evil spirits. The history of New Year paintings can date from Tang Dynasty (AD618-907) and this folk art reached its…
Kunqu Opera is one of the oldest forms of opera still existing in China, with its origins dating back to the end of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and beginning of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Kunshan, a place near Suzhou of today’s Zhejiang Province. Kunqu Opera has a history much longer than Beijing Opera. It is…
