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Silk Road School Students visited Suzhou Ethnic Musical Instrument Factory
On the afternoon of November 8th, Silk Road School teachers and students visited Suzhou National Musical Instrument Factory. International students from countries such as Russia, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Ghana, Costa Rica, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Zambia, and Kenya participated in this event.
When they arrived at the musical instrument factory, the international students first visited the "Museum of Ethnic Musical Instruments", where they learned about the types of Chinese ethnic musical instruments, such as erhu, guzheng, pipa, ruan, konghou, and serial bells, as well as the production techniques and cultural aspects of ethnic musical instruments through a combination of audio-visual experiences. MARMA,KYAW JAW SINE from Bangladesh said that there are similar instruments in their country, which shows that music is interconnected and can transcend borders.
Suzhou Ethnic Musical Instrument Factory (hereinafter referred to as "Factory") was founded in 1954 and is the earliest ethnic musical instrument production unit in Suzhou. It is also a national intangible cultural heritage inheritance and protection unit and a time-honored enterprise. The production technique of Suzhou ethnic musical instruments is one of the local traditional handicrafts in Suzhou, and was listed in the national intangible cultural heritage list since 2008. The production of orchestral instruments requires processes such as cutting, batching, woodworking, carving, lacquering, inlaying, and tuning; Percussion instruments (brass instruments) need to go through multiple processes such as material selection, melting, making into slices, molding, sound copying, scraping, and tuning. Each process has independent skills.
International students have exclaimed that Suzhou's ethnic musical instruments have beautiful and concise shapes, as well as reasonable structures. They are exquisitely crafted, elegant in style, and have sweet and pure tones, which are in line with the temperament of Suzhou as a city. This study tour showcased to international students the outstanding achievements of China's ethnic musical instrument manufacturing industry in promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional Chinese culture, enhancing cultural exchanges.
