Qin stories from Hong Kong and China

By Dan Nung Ing, October, 2004

(1) Choi Yi-Men - qin maker and repairer in Hong Kong, Saturday afternoon, September 4th

Within hours of landing in Hong Kong, I was in the company of the qin maker, his wife and two friends who were making their own qins in his workshop. Choi Yi-Men - qin maker and repairer, operates under the name of Choi Fook Kee (www.choifookkee.com.hk) in Hong Kong. One of the friends turned out to be the qin player Ms Lau Chor-Wah, a contemporary of Yip Ming-Mei. During the 1970's, both were students of the famous qin player Tsar Teh-Yun, the oldest living qin master. The other, a Mr Cheng, is a retired civil servant.

I was asked to try out the latest Tai Ko silk strings by the maker Fred Wong, a Hong Kong Chinese (originally from the mainland) who lives in Canada. The new strings are quite different in look from other silk strings in use today, being paler and whiter, and the thinner strings are semi-transparent. According to people who have tried them, the touch is much smoother, the sound more pure and refined. Fred Wong's latest Tai Ko silk strings are also available for other instruments including pipa, erhu, sanxian etc..

I brought my qin (Qing dynasty) along, intending to ask Mr Choi to do some repair work. Neither Choi nor Lau thought any repair was necessary. Lau added that all qin players should learn to do their own repairs. She promised to send me a few goose feathers for the job. She kept her promise and three goose feathers recently arrived at my London office. There was a tea break at 5 pm and everybody gathered round for tea and cakes. A very civilised atmosphere. Ms Lau is making her second qin, spending a few hours every weekend; it will take about a year to finish.

Photo, left to right: Choi Yi-Men, Ing Dan-Nung, Ho Chun-Wah.

(2) At the Fayuan Si monastery in Beijing, Sunday afternoon, September 5th

Within hours of arriving in Beijing, I found myself in a Buddhist monks' dormitory with a friend who is also a qin player. The room was quite crowded with the six of us, including two monks. At the far end of a large "bed" was a low qin table with a cut-out on the right hand side. On the top was a new qin made by Wang Peng. I was still sweating and catching my breath when I performed Dong Ting Qiu Si, in a kneeling position!

(3) Meeting with Li Xiangting, Sunday evening, September 5th

That evening, My friend and I went to see Li Xiangting with the qin we played earlier that afternoon. Professor Li played it and exclaimed "very good, very good indeed, the bass sounds just like an old Tang qin....". The manner in which he evaluated the new qin, the speed with which his fingers moved up and down, playing all the notes on all the strings in all the positions, was a feast for the eyes. An experienced qin player can probably evaluate the sound of a qin in less than a minute.

At about the same time, eight thousand miles away, our London Youlan Qin Society was having their yaji in London, in the presence of Yip Ming-Mei.

(4) Meeting with the qin maker Wang Peng in Beijing, Monday and Tuesday, September 6th and 7th

The next morning, I was greeted by a "taxi driver" who turned out to be the the qin maker Wang Peng. Wang is in his early forties, wears a beard and looks just like an artist of the French school. Our first stop, his home. There were plenty of his qins there, as well as sculptures he had made. Mr Wang was a wood sculptor before he turned to making qin full-time. I had nothing to impress him and as a last resort, offered him a copy of "Ya Voy" ("I'm coming" in Spanish), a compilation CD of some of my best recordings. Then we drove to his workshop in the countryside to the south of Beijing. I was impressed with the systematic way he organised his work. There were large stockpiles of materials, wood graded by quality and age. His workshop is turning out dozens of qins each month. I was particularly impressed by the quality of the basic model. I bought a qin from him - the one that I played and Professor Li had tried the day before.

He took us for lunch in a local restaurant for connoisseurs. They played qin music there. Afterwards, we went to a car showroom: he likes Land Rovers. Then we drove to a tea room called Yi Qing Quan Cha Yi Gong in the centre of town. This is in fact where the Beijing Qin Society meet up for their yaji every month. There is a platform made of thick glass over a large fish pond, and at the centre a qin table and a qin (by Wang). This suspended platform has a most unusual resonance when plucking the qin; the vibration can be felt through the whole body. I would strongly recommend qin lovers to experience this when they visit Beijing.

The next evening, the three of us went to a Yunnan restaurant in Hou Hai. Wang and I are both beer drinkers. I suggested to him to come and stay at my place in Sevilla in Spain. I can imagine that the culture of Andalucia, the passion of Spain, would do a lot of good to his qin making. In Sevilla, my territory, I can introduce him to bullfighting, tapas, flamenco dance and music.

(5) Meeting with the qin maker Tian Shenquan in Beijing, Thursday morning, 9th of September

A qin friend Li Shan took me to meet Tian Shenquan, a qin maker in his early 70s. He has a small workshop situated in a hutong - a narrow alley. Li Shan is an apprentice making her own qin there. I was shown a number of his qins, including a rather expensive one from the Yuan dynasty. Master Tian learnt his trade from qin master Guan Pinghu. His photograph album contains pictures taken with all the famous names in the qin world. He was interrupted by a phone call, an urgent request for him to go and inspect an old qin, so we hurriedly took a few photos and left. We were joined by Li's friend Li Yan (another qin player) for lunch in a restaurant known for its dumplings. My experience with eating dumplings in China is that we often finish up with a large portion to take away. This time was no exception. After lunch, we went to the Central Music Conservatory to meet a friend. I bought some qin CDs and books there. I also managed to get the steel/nylon qin strings made by the Shanghai Music Conservatory. These are probably the best steel/nylon strings for the qin, but very difficult indeed to find. My friends exclaimed that the three sets I bought should last for decades! This brings me to the important question of how long a set of qin strings lasts. Talking to qin players, the impression is that they would probably keep on playing until the strings break or become worn out. In fact, many say that the strings (whether steel/nylon or silk) get better with the years. When I played the guitar, I changed the strings every few months, and a concert guitarist would change the whole set once a week and before each concert.

It was a chance meeting with Li Shan and her friend Li Yan. In the afternoon, we were joined by their friend Xiao Feng. She is yet another qin player and the granddaughter of master qin maker Tian. These three were planning to open up a tea room with a difference - qin playing. To cut a long story short, I became one of the partners and the Yi Cheng Cha Guan opened in November: a traditional place with a courtyard, in a hutong opposite the Yong He Lama Temple, near near the Confucian temple.

Photo: Dan Nung playing qin at the Yi Cheng Cha Guan teahouse.

(6) A visit to the Sin Ya Qin Society, Hong Kong, Saturday 18th September

Today, Hong Kong has three qin societies. Sin Ya is perhaps the one with the longest history. It is located in the Sin Ya Research Centre, inside the Sin Ya Middle School. Its heyday was in the 1970's, and it now survives on a shoestring budget. My contact there is a Miss Fanny Wong, another qin player. When I arrived, there were at least 10 of us all crowded into a small room, with 4 or 5 instruments - pipa, erhu, sanxian, flute, qin - all playing their own music, all at the same time. I was introduced to Fred Wong, maker of the Tai Ko silk strings. Everybody was busy trying out his latest silk strings. I heard the qin piece "Geng Shen Diao Wei" played by Fanny Wong and liked it. It is interesting to note that our secretary Julian Joseph also plays this piece.

(7) Lunch with string maker Fred Wong, Sunday, 19th September

A few hours before departing for London, I turned up at the Central Library in Causeway Bay to meet Fred Wong (silkstring@telus.net) for lunch and with the intention of buying a few sets of his new silk strings. In the end, he paid for the lunch and gave me two sets of strings to try out (very rarely can anyone beat me when it comes to paying at a restaurant!). We then went for a cup of coffee and I showed him my "old" qin from the Qing dynasty. Again, he confirmed that no repair was needed. He played it and was very pleased with the instrument. I was delighted. We talked like old friends for hours. I learned a lot about qin that afternoon. I would suggest that all qin players should seriously consider having at least one of their qins fitted with silk strings, now that high quality strings are finally available. Nowadays, I find qin players very reluctant to learn and perfect the art of changing strings. It is true that it can be troublesome compared to other instruments. But practice makes perfect, and it is certainly within the ability of everyone. In the past, qin players had to practise the art of changing strings for days at the very beginning of their qin training. Nowadays, there are many who rely on their teacher - no teacher, no play!