How traditional Chinese instruments sheng and ‘Chinese bagpipes’ make music using gourds

The calabash or bottle gourd produced wind instruments the ‘Chinese bagpipes’ and sheng, their sounds key to a modern Chinese orchestra

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The sheng and “hulusi” or Chinese bagpipes (above) are traditional Chinese wind instruments that use a bottle gourd for a base and bamboo pipes with finger holes to play notes. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 12:30pm, 26 Aug 2024Updated: 12:01pm, 16 Sep 2024

This is the second in a series of articles about classical Chinese instruments and the traditional Chinese music orchestra, in which we explore how musicians play the eight different types of instrument, and their history.

For most people, gourds are for eating, not for making musical instruments, but in Chinese music, gourds are one of the eight categories of instruments and produce some of the most essential sounds in a modern orchestra such as the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra.

The category, known as pao in Cantonese and hulu in Mandarin, is named after a specific kind of gourd called the calabash or bottle gourd.

It looks like a small sphere atop a larger one, with a narrow neck at the top. When dried, it becomes wood-like, with an impermeable shell, and for centuries has been used for transporting liquids.

A dried calabash or bottle gourd. These were used for millennia for transporting liquids, and in ancient China were turned into musical instruments including the sheng and “hulusi” or “Chinese bagpipes”. Photo: Shutterstock

Below are two of the most common gourd instruments found in Chinese orchestras today.

1. Sheng

SCMP Series

Chinese musical instruments

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