Geography Total area: 9,596,960 sq. km. (about 3.7 million sq. mi.). Cities: Capital--Beijing. Other major cities--Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Harbin, Chengdu. Terrain: Plains, deltas, and hills in east; mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west. Climate: Tropical in south to subarctic in north.
There are different ethnic groups in china but the largest is the Han Chinese population. The rest of them are groups like the Zhuang, Manchu, Hui, Miao and many others. There are seven major dialects in China and mandrin is the dialect that is spoken by most of the population. The population of china is just over 1.3 billion and still rising constantly. Therefore, China is very concerned about its population growth and has attempted to implement a strict birth limitation policy that permits 1 child per family in most conditions. Religion in china plays a very important role in the life of many Chinese and buddhism is the most widely practices.
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Monday, July 20, 2009
Map of china
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Saturday, July 18, 2009
Music in China
Why do they make music? Music was created and played by the Chinese people. Confucius, the famous philosopher said music was for calming passions and desires, and getting rid of conflicts and disturbances within one’s self, rather than for entertainment. Thus, the ancient Chinese believed that music was used to purify one’s thoughts and soul. Therefore, music entertainers had a very low social status.
During the Chou dynasty, music was a subject that the sons of noblemen and princes had to study. However, during the Qin dynasty, music was thought to be a waste of time and many musical books, manuscripts and instruments were destroyed. Despite this, music made a comeback during the Han dynasty when a whole department of music was made to take charge of ceremonial music. During Liu Zhang’s reign during the Han dynasty, there were 3 types of orchestras. The first was for religious activities, the second for royal archery contests and the third for entertaining royal banquets. During the Tang dynasty, Emperor Tai Zong had 10 orchestras. The imperial court had a band of nearly 1400 members!
Dances are accompanied by music, usually percussion. Music is used to accompany operas and dragon dances. The music has a meaning and a feeling. Sometimes, singing can be included, to match the harmony of the music. Chinese opera is the combination of music, art and literature. Chinese opera music is harsh, with high-pitched vocals. Examples of traditional music instruments used are the erhu and the gong.
Example of a chinese opera:
Example of a dragon dance:
Music, especially Han folk music, is used during weddings and funerals. The music can be happy or sombre, and is often based on western pop and television theme songs. During funerals, the prayers are accompanied by the gong, flute and trumpet.
This is an example of han folk music:
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Friday, July 17, 2009
Instruments that can be found in china
Xun
The xun is one of the oldest musical instruments in china and some say that it originated from the hunting tool of the stone meteor. The earliest was made of stone or bones but later they used clay to make them. The xun is an egg-shape wind instrument and it has a blowing hole on top. The xun is used in court music and also among common folk. Having eight to nine holes, the xun is able to play a full octave and it comes it various keys. Here's a video, showing a person playing the xun:
Gehu’s name is made up of two chinese characters. “Ge” means revolutionary and “hu” which is the term for all bowed chinese instruments. The Gehu is made up from the body, bridge, spine and the bow. The instrument is bowed like the cello and the body is covered with animal skin, usually the skin of a horse, lamb or snake. The tone quality depends on the parchment on the body. The gehu can produce a sufficiently full and low pitch sound, the tone is clear and rich. However it has disadvantages too, it has a tendency to go out of tune with too much increased pressure from the bow. The parchment on the body is also easily damaged by humidity, thus affecting the tone quality. The Gehu is softer in volume; some say that the music produced by two Gehus is equivalent to one cello.
Liuqin is a high pitch-plucking instrument. The name derives from the willow wood and the willow shaped body it has. (Liu means willow in Chinese) It is a little smaller than the pipa and uses a plastic pick to play it, it is known for its highly penetrative sounds. The luiqin is the highest pitched member of the plucked strings but it produces a very small sound. It is capable in producing an exciting and agitating tune or a sweet and touching tune. A stand could also be added to the instrument’s side and stabalise it while playing. The liuqin’s original silk strings have been replaced with steel ones, amplifying the luiqin’s volume and giving it the characteristic metallic high pitches. Adept at playing fast, passionate and carefree pieces, the instrument is growing slowly in repertoire and technique.
Sheng This is a wind instrument which is one of the oldest instruments in china. It consists of a bundle of 17 to 36 pipes, each of a different length, sitting on a small wind chamber. The base is traditionally a gourd-shape, wooden wind-chest. It can play in soprano, alto, and tenor models; they have a great clarity of tone. This instrument is very unique as it is capable of playing up to six notes simultaneously. Music is produced by blowing and sucking the air through a metal tube connected to the base while pressing on the selected keys near it. The Sheng is used as both a solo and an accompaniment instrument. It creates a warm mellow sound expresses lyrical melodies well.
Guan (also known as guanzi): This is a traditional Chinese wind instrument; it has a cylindrical body with seven frontal finger holes, one thumb hole and a reed mouthpiece. It can be made of wood or bamboo depending on the various versions. Some of the modern guan have a loosely attached bell at the end of the instrument. This instrument is mainly found in folk guchui music and Buddhist, Taoist music. Tone quality of the guan differs, for example the tone quality in the guan is expansive, where as it carries a strong nasal timbre for the houguan. It is an instrument that is not easy to handle yet very expressive.
Here is an example of a person playing the Guan zi:
San Xian The instrument derived its name because Sanxian means “three strings” and this instrument is a three-stringed plucked musical instrument. It has a snake skin membrane stretched over a round rectangular resonator. A long flat neck which is made of wood goes through the body. The sanxian has a rich, full tone quality and a loud volume. It is widely used as an accompaniment, as well as in ensembles and orchestras, even in solo pieces. Traditionally it is plucked with a thin, hard plectrum made from animal horn but today people use a plastic plectrum or their fingernails instead. Some other techniques that people use include hitting the skin of the instrument. Here is an example of how a san xian is played:
