The Department of Chinese Music of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts is the only institution in Hong Kong that cultivates professional talents in Chinese instrumental music. Yu Meili, who graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, has been teaching dulcimer at the Academy of Performing Arts since the 1990s.

She said that compared with ancient music such as dulcimer, erhu, and pipa, guqin is less familiar to people. When Mr. Tang Jianyuan was the head of the Chinese Music Department (1984-1992), he had already required students to learn Guqin.

The sound of the piano enters the foreign embassy

Yu Meili said that the guqin is different from other ancient music. "The guqin is pleasing to oneself, deeply introverted. In ancient times, emperors, generals, ministers, and literati learned the qin for themselves. More than 3,600 ancient songs have been circulated for more than 3,000 years. Nearly half of the qin songs have lyrics that you can play and sing to express your feelings." As a dulcimer performer of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, after leaving the Chinese Orchestra in 2016, she began to promote the guqin. In addition to her teaching work, she also brought the art of guqin performance to the residence of the Baroness in London, the French Embassy in China, and the residence of the Consul General of the Netherlands in Hong Kong, etc. , among them, in 2018, they took the students of the guqin and the famous Irish bagpipes to carry out a cultural exchange activity called "The Encounter of Two World Heritage Sites".

Cai Guanyingqin, who is in charge of receiving famous Irish bagpipes, said that the Irish Consul General hopes to communicate with students who are representative of Chinese musical instruments. However, there were no students studying Guqin in the Academy of Performing Arts at that time, so he invited famous bagpipes to visit the Academy of Performing Arts and also arranged to visit Cai Jiyou School. and their Guqin class students to communicate.

Guan Jiahui, vice president of the Caiqin Association, said that Master Cai Changshou has passed the skills of the qin to more than 50 people, and he saw that many people are interested in the qin. If you love qin, you will want to create your own qin if you love guqin.” The institute started guqin classes last year, and there are more than 20 people in five classes so far.