Once, while watching a traditional Chinese opera during the Chinese Ghost Festival in Penang, I couldn't help but notice a small essemble backstage with their plucked and bowed stringed instruments, flutes, cymbals, gongs and drums. Chinese music has started eons ago, at the dawn of Chinese civilization to be precise. Documents and artifacts provide evidence that music has been well developed as early as the Zhou Dynasty (1122 BC – 256 BC). Today, the music does not just continue a rich traditional heritage but it has also emerged into a more contemporary form, which inevitably reminds me of the Twelve Girls Band ( 女子十二乐坊 ) , the all female Chinese musical group whose first album, Beautiful Energy reached the top of the J-pop chart in Japan in 2003 and went on a Miracles tour in the United States in 2004. The girls use traditional Chinese instruments to play both traditional Chinese and Western music.
Listen to the girls play!
Listen to the girls play!
Comments