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Jiangnan sizhu band, led by Tang Lin, Deputy Director of Huaqiao Sanitary Hospital, is a cultural feature at Huaqiao.
Jiangnan sizhu plays is a type of Chinese chamber music largely developed and maintained by amateur musicians for their own enjoyment. The first Jiangnan sizhu group started meeting in 1911 on Fuzhou Road, the center of the old red-light district. Most of the musicians, led by Gu Jianqiu, can play several instruments in the ensemble, which may include the erhu, various types of plucked lute, the yangqin, the dizi or xiao, and several types of percussion.
Percussion does not play as prominent a role as in some other kinds of Chinese music, however, and none of the melody instruments is performed in a virtuoso manner (as they frequently are in other contexts). Instead, each instrument plays simultaneously differing versions of the same tune, with parts varying depending on the instrument and the player.
The Jiangnan sizhu band is made up of nine players, and is often invited to perform at Putong, Kunshan, Jiangqiao regions. They are also frequently interviewed by the local media.
The name Jiangnan sizhu is made up of two parts. Jiangnan is the traditional name for the area south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze river in southern Jiangsu, Shanghai, and northern Zhejiang. Sizhu, which literally translates to "silk and bamboo," refers to the string and wind musical instruments the band plays. Silk is the traditional material from which strings have historically been made in China, and bamboo was traditionally used to make Chinese flutes like the dizi and xiao. The term sizhu has now come to refer to instrumental music in general, especially when played indoors.
Instruments typically used in Jiangnan sizhu include plucked, bowed, and struck string instruments, as well as flutes and sometimes also mouth organs, and small percussion instruments. The most commonly used instruments are:
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