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Erika Na

This is the seventh 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.
Bamboo is fast-growing, widely available and versatile, which makes it a useful material for everything from fabric to houses.
It has long been a popular material for making musical instruments in China, and is one of the bayin – the eight categories into which modern Chinese orchestral instruments are grouped based on the material traditionally used to make them.
These are two of the most common bamboo instruments:
1. Dizi
The dizi is a bamboo flute and is widely used in Chinese folk music and opera.

The first flutes excavated date back to over 8,000 years ago in the Neolithic era, making them the oldest musical instruments found in China. They are believed to have been made from the leg bones of cranes.
At some stage, people started using bamboo to make dizi, and it remains the main material used to make the flutes in China today.
The dizi is closed at one end with cork and has six finger holes, an opening for blowing into and a hole called dimo, covered with a thin bamboo membrane which gives the dizi its signature rattling sound. The instrument is played horizontally.
The sound a dizi makes varies according to the kind of bamboo used to make the instrument. Older bamboo produces a richer sound. A tall, pale variety of bamboo called white bamboo makes dizi whose sounds are brighter. Dizi made of darker purple bamboo produce a softer sound.
Traditionally, there were two sizes of dizi. The shorter one, called bangdi, has a higher pitch and emerged from northern China and ranges between 45cm and 52cm (17.5 to 20.5 inches) in length. The longer qudi has a pitch a fourth or a fifth lower than the bangdi, and is between 56cm and 67cm long.


A 20th-century addition to the dizi family is the xindi, which means “new flute”. Similar to the flute used in Western music, it has five more finger holes than the usual dizi and does not have a dimo hole.
2. Xiao
The xiao is a bamboo flute that is played vertically. Both ends are open, and players make sounds by blowing into a small, U-shaped notch in the upper rim of the flute. Xiao are usually 70cm to 90cm long.
The xiao traditionally had six holes – five on the front and one on the back – but an eight-hole version, with two extra holes on the front, was created in the 1930s and is the more commonly used. There are four additional vent holes at the bottom that are not used, and sometimes musicians will adorn their instruments by tying tassels through these unused spaces.
The xiao produces a softer sound than the dizi. One of the reasons for this is because xiao does not have the dimo membrane. Because of its mellow sound, the xiao has often accompanied stringed instruments such as the pipa, huqin and zither.

The xiao has often been used by folk music ensembles and to accompany Chinese opera performances.
The flute can be played seated or standing – a player stands when performing a solo or duet, but is otherwise seated.
As with the dizi, the sound of the xiao depends largely on the form of bamboo used to make it. Older bamboo produces a richer sound, and it is said that instruments made of bamboo that has been cut between the winter solstice and the spring equinox are the best.
One problem with bamboo, versatile though it is, is that these flutes are prone to cracking when the humidity is too low.


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Chinese culture

All about bamboo flutes the dizi and xiao, their evolution and uses in Chinese music

A woman plays a dizi, a Chinese bamboo flute. The first flutes excavated in China were made from bone. Today, ones made from bamboo are widely used in Chinese music and opera. Photo: Getty Images

Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra Lin Yu-hsien with her dizi, a bamboo flute. Photo: Jonathan Wong

The xiao can be played seated or standing. Photo: Getty Images

Made using jade or limestone, Chinese musical instrument the lithophone has a long history

A Chinese lithophone, or “bianqing”. Photo: Sina

Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra member Luk Kin-bun with a lithophone. Made of stone and struck with a wooden mallet to produce sounds, the Chinese musical instrument. has a long history. Photo: Jonathan Wong

The bianqing is a common sight when Chinese instrument orchestras perform. Photo: Sina

Some bianqing have stones carved with decorations, like this qing from the Shang dynasty. Photo: National Museum of China

Exploring the Chinese zither and erhu, ‘2-stringed barbarian instrument’ a bit like violin

Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra erhu player Song Hui with her instrument. Often compared to the violin, it is a relative newcomer compared to another stringed instrument, the Chinese zither, or guqin. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Master instrument maker Choi Chang-sau with a guqin at Choi Fook Kee Musical Instrument Factory in Shek Kip Mei, Hong Kong. Photo: SCMP

Chinese students show a member of a delegation of students from the US state of Washington how to play the guqin in Beijing earlier this year. Photo: Xinhua

Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra member and erhu virtuoso Song Hui with her instrument. Photo: Jonathan Wong

All about Chinese chime bells and gongs, classical musical instruments with a long history

Performers strike hand-held gongs during cerebrations for the Dragon Boat Festival in Linfen, China, in 2020. Of the metal instruments played in a Chinese orchestra, gongs and chime bells are the most common. Photo: Getty Images

Bianzhong, or chime bells, are an ancient instrument often found in tombs and were already in use in the earliest recorded periods of Chinese civilisation. Photo: Getty Images

Chime bells from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, exhibited in the Hubei Provincial Museum. Photo: Getty Images

An illustration of a Chinese waterman and his barge, next to a large gong, in the 18th century. Photo: Getty Images

All about the Chinese clay flute, from its ancient origins to Studio Ghibli inspiration

A musician plays the xun, an ancient Chinese clay flute that began life as a hunting tool to attract prey. Today, it is the signature clay instrument of modern Chinese orchestras. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Wu Chih-ting, a Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra member, with a xun. It is the signature clay instrument of modern Chinese orchestras. Photo: Jonathan Wong

A musician plays the xun at a village in Zoucheng, Shandong. Blowing air into the mouthpiece creates a breathy, sometimes melancholic sound that can be calming and meditative. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

When an ancient Chinese voyager tried durian, and the rise of Malaysia’s cultivars

Malaysia is renowned for its durian, a unique and strongly flavored fruit known as the “King of Fruits.” Durian is native to Southeast Asia and is highly prized for its rich, creamy, and sometimes pungent taste. PHOTO: Getty Images

Native to Southeast Asia, durian is highly prized for its rich, creamy and sometimes pungent taste and in loved in countries from Malaysia and Singapore to Thailand and China. Photo: Getty Images

A group of Malaysian boys eat a durian, circa 1950. Photo: Getty Images

A man sells durians at a fruit stall in Malaysia. Photo: Getty Images

Lifestyle

Arts & Culture

Culture

Music

Chinese musical instruments

The history of Chinese musical instruments and how they fit in modern orchestra – overview

Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra member Wang Kaihan sits with her pipa. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra member Wang Kaihan with her pipa, an instrument sometimes called the “Chinese lute”. We look at the history of Chinese musical instruments and their role in a modern Chinese orchestra in this first in a series of articles. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra member Lu Yi with his sheng, a wind instrument dating to 1100BC. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra member Song Hui with her erhu, a two-stringed bowed instrument. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra percussion principal Luk Kin-bun with a drum. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra dizi virtuoso Wu Chih-ting with a xun, an ancient wind instrument. Photo: Jonathan Wong

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

The Chinese sheng (above) is formed from a gourd and bamboo pipes. Photo: Shutterstock

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

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

Lu Yi, sheng player with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. Photo: Jonathan Wong

The ‘Chinese bagpipes’ come in various forms and colours, and are often decorated in classical Chinese style. Photo: Shutterstock

All about the Chinese drum, orchestra essential once seen as a way to talk to the gods

A drumming workshop on stage at Tsuen Wan Town Hall. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Luk Kin-bun, the percussion principal of Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, with a large “tanggu” drum. The instrument, a mainstay of Chinese orchestra percussion sections, has been around in China for thousands of years in various forms. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Monie Chak, a drumming teacher with the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, conducts a workshop on stage at Tsuen Wan Town Hall. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Hong Kong Paralympian Daniel Chan plays the tanggu, a barrel-shaped drum made of wood, on stage in a workshop at Tsuen Wan Town Hall. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Performers at a Hong Kong Drum Festival 2024 event at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photo: Dickson Lee

The first flutes excavated in China were made from bone. Today, ones made from bamboo are widely used in Chinese music and opera


The first flutes excavated in China were made from bone. Today, ones made from bamboo are widely used in Chinese music and opera.


Performing arts in Hong Kong