erhu, pipa, shen yun, traditional chinese culture

Music Is Medicine in Shen Yun Performing Arts

In a Shen Yun production, music is a medicine that nourishes your soul. Shen Yun is a show that brings beautiful ancient Chinese culture back to life through traditional dance and music. It’s an explosion of color and traditional costumes, full of rich stories and legends with extraordinary talent and music. In ancient China, one of music’s earliest purposes ...

Jessica Kneipp

Shen Yun dancers performing on stage.

Meet the Pipa, the Chinese Stringed Instrument

The pipa is a plucked 4-string Chinese musical instrument that is easily identifiable by its pear-shaped wooden body. Often called the Chinese lute, the frets on a pipa range from 12 to 26. A video by Shen Yun explores this instrument in detail. The pipa instrument Some people make the mistake of a pipa being similar to ...

Emma Lu

A young woman playing the pipa.

The Pipa: The Traditional Chinese Guitar

The pipa is often referred to as the Chinese lute, and may remind you a little bit of a Western guitar. The history of the instrument reaches back over 2,000 years. The pipa is a stringed instrument that gained great popularity in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). As an instrument for fairies and gentlewomen, the pipa ...

Nspirement Staff

A woman playing a pipa.