Recently, the journalists of sdchina.com and our foreign participator Dahlia from Jamaica arrived at an Erhu shop in Bianzhi Street of Lixia District in Jinan to give a glimpse of the Erhu, a traditional Chinese musical instrument.

The Erhu is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a Southern Fiddle, and sometimes known in the Western world as the Chinese violin or a Chinese two-stringed fiddle. It is the most popular of the huqin family of traditional bowed string instruments used by various ethnic groups of China.

Dufuzhuang Huqin Shop, our destination for the activity of this time, was established in 1915 and has been passed on to now. Du Wenyuan is the present owner of the shop. He said he has made the Erhu for almost 35 years since he began to learn it at the age of 18.

Most Erhu are mass-produced in factories. But as we all know, the highest quality instrument must be handmade. That’s why Du Fuyuan has been insisting on making the Erhu by hand. “Each complete instrument needs dozens of procedures and it sometimes takes me half a month to finish an Erhu,” Du told Dahlia.

The Erhu consists of a long vertical stick-like neck, at the top of which are two large tuning pegs, and at the bottom is a small resonator body (sound box) which is covered with python skin on the front (playing) end. Two strings are attached from the pegs to the base, and a small loop of string (Qian Jin) placed around the neck and strings acting as a nut pulls the strings towards the skin, holding a small wooden bridge in place.

“Various dense and heavy hardwoods are used in making the Erhu,” said Du Wenyuan. The woods include zi tan (red sandalwood and other woods of the genus Pterocarpus such as padauk), Lao hong mu (aged red wood), wu mu (black wood), and hong mu (red wood). Particularly fine Erhus are often made from pieces of old furniture. A typical Erhu measures 81 cm from top to bottom, the length of the bow also being 81 cm.

Interestingly, Du Wenyuan, no doubt, is a specialist craftsman in making the Erhu, but he cannot play it. It’s also a pity for him that cannot perform it for those enthusiasts bought the Erhu in his shop. Huqin making has been listed as one of the intangible cultural heritages of Jinan City, and Du said he hope to pass this craft to next generation.