Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Traditional Chinese musical instruments include the two-stringed fiddle
(èrhú) -
famed for its
desolate wail - the two-stringed viola
(húqín)
, the vertical flute
(dòngxi
ā
o)
, the horizontal flute
(dízi)
, the four-stringed lute
(pípa)
and the Chinese zither
(zh
ē
ng)
. To appreciate traditional mu-
sic in Běijīng, catch performances at the Lao She Teahouse close to Tiān'ānmén Sq in the
south of Xīchéng.
If you get bored after the first hour or so, check out the audience antics - spitting, eat-
ing apples, plugging into a transistor radio (important sports match perhaps?) or loud tea
slurping. It is lively audience entertainment fit for an emperor. Many theatres around town
stage performances of Peking opera.
China is a nation in thrall to hierarchies, a legacy of Confucianism, hence film-makers are
ranked by generation. The most famous of them all is the Fifth, the first generation to attend
the Běijīng Film Academy after the end of the Cultural Revolution. The current generation is
the Seventh.
