Grand old strings tug at the heart

The first time that Guo Mingxuan saw a pipa in the home of her music teacher Chen Yu, she was 6 years old and she was impressed by the 2,000-year-old four-stringed musical instrument. To her the pear-shaped plucked instrument looked exquisite.

The Tang Dynasty (618-907) poet Bai Juyi described the sound of the pipa as "pearls landing on a jade plate". After Chen played Dance of the Yi Ethnic Group, one of the most popular solo compositions for the pipa, Guo was intrigued by the musical instrument's strong expressivity, as well as intricate and delicate tonality.

Guo's long relationship with the pipa had thus begun.