"One string makes a hundred sounds, and a single string can make a song." Whether it's explaining Jing culture to tourists at the Jing Nationality Museum in Dongxing City, Guangxi, or playing the one-string qin for fans in the live broadcast room, Zhao Xia always tells it over and over again. The unique charm of the unistring.

As a symbol of Jing culture, this musical instrument composed of one string and one rocker can perform thousands of different tunes. The timbre is unique and exciting. In 2011, this art, which has been circulating for hundreds of years, was officially included in the list of representative projects of national intangible cultural heritage.

However, in the past few decades, the monochord has been in decline for a while, facing the dilemma of inheritance. "Many young people of the Jing ethnic group don't know that the monochord is their own unique national musical instrument." Zhao Xia sighed. In 2019, Zhao Xia became the representative inheritor of the solo string piano art. She has been with the solo stringed piano for 20 years, and now she is a museum docent of Jing culture and a solo stringed piano player active in the live broadcast room.

In the two years since the live broadcast, tens of thousands of viewers who had never seen the solitary piano first learned about this "novel" instrument through Zhao Xia's live broadcast room. From the Beijing music track "The Wind Blows Across the Bridge", to the meticulously adapted nostalgic golden song "Ning the Eyebrows", and then to the "Pig Bajie Carrying Daughter-in-law", which made the solo string suddenly "fire", Zhao Xia has always been trying to use the solo string piano. Perform different styles of music. Her goal is very clear: "I want to make the Jing people's solitaire more famous, so that there are more people who learn the piano, which is to inherit."

Zhao Xia's Douyin account "Single String Qin [Jingwei Tianren]" currently has more than 400,000 followers

In order to live, she once put down the lyre

Zhao Xia grew up on Wanwei Island, one of the three islands of the Jing tribe. In her memory, the livelihood of the villagers basically depended on fishing. It is busy before dawn, collecting fish from the wharf, and then selling it in the farther county town. It is a busy day. For Zhao Xia, who grew up freely, the lonely sound of the monochord is a deep memory of her childhood.

"When I was in elementary school, there was only one person in the whole village who could play the solo stringed violin," Zhao Xia remembered. "Every evening, an uncle would put a sound on the roof rack, and the sound of playing the solo stringed zither could spread throughout the village. "At that time, she and her friends in the village couldn't understand it. Because both the tune and the tone, the monochord is too sad. "Most of the old people who could play in the past learned songs through traditional oral transmission. "The Wind Blows Across the Bridge" and "The Boatman's Ballad" are traditional songs, which have no resonance with children."

As she said, it is not easy to inherit the single string piano. The traditional single-stringed qin has never been recorded. In addition, the Jing nationality population is only 20,000 to 30,000, and many young people enter the city to work, so few people learn the qin. "In the early years, the old-fashioned monochord was unimproved, with a sad tone, lack of sustain, and limited expressiveness." Zhao Xia recalled. Because of this, the older generation of Jing people's single-stringed qin artists once sighed: "The single-stringed qin is an ancient musical instrument passed down from generation to generation by the Jing people. If you don't learn it, if he doesn't learn it, it will be gone."

At the age of 16, Zhao Xia went to school in Nanning City, and joined the school's minority singer class because she was good at singing. The teacher requires that the students must learn a musical instrument. As a girl from the Jing family, Zhao Xia chose the single-stringed qin.

This is Zhao Xia's first serious study of the solo stringed piano. This seemingly simple instrument is not easy to learn. When playing, pluck the strings with your right fingers or hold a bamboo stick to make sounds, and at the same time use the outside of your palm to lightly press the strings to tune, and the plucking force should be precise. The left hand flicks the joystick, swaying with the flow of the string, injecting emotion into the rhythm. The whole performance is very soft, and the sound of the instrument is particularly ethereal. When she was a girl, Zhao Xia felt for the first time that the single-stringed violin sounded good, and this practice lasted for three years.

After graduation, Zhao Xia chose to return to her hometown. In his hometown of Manmi Island, opportunities for solo performances are limited. Zhao Xia often shows Jing nationality musical instruments to tourists in some tourism activities, and she can earn dozens of dollars after performing a performance. She also put down the solo string and went to work in a hotel in Manmi Island. At one time, Zhao Xia also thought that she would no longer have contact with this "lonely" musical instrument.

An unexpected performance made her determined to learn piano from a teacher

In 2006, 20-year-old Zhao Xia was working as a receptionist at the Golden Beach Hotel in Wanwei Island, but received an unexpected invitation call.

At that time, a large-scale folk song festival program called "Folk Song China" was calling for minority singers and musicians from all over the country to participate. When they arrived at the Jing nationality, the local cultural department wanted to form a group of three girls to sing the folk songs of the Jing nationality and play the single-stringed qin. But looking around, there are very few young people in the area who can play the solo string, only two girls were found, and one girl was missing. At this time, Zhao Xia received a call from the local cultural department, inviting her to participate in the rehearsal.

"I don't have the money to make clothes for performances, and I don't have a good piano to use." Zhao Xia's family's financial situation has not been good for a long time, and the money for school has been scraped together. When she received the notice, not long after she graduated, her monthly income from various jobs added up to seven or eight hundred yuan. "Fortunately, the leaders of the Cultural Affairs Bureau decided that the entire cost should be borne by the local area, so I had the opportunity to participate in this performance."

On the show, three girls from the Jing ethnic group performed a song "The Wind Blows Across the Bridge", which made countless audiences hear the sound of the monochord for the first time. It was also this experience that allowed Zhao Xia to meet folk music experts from all over the country. When she returned to her hometown, Zhao Xia felt that her solo string skills were far from perfect: "Although the tunes performed were well-practiced, they were definitely not enough. I was only twenty years old at the time, and I felt that I could definitely play better, so I decided to go to a teacher to learn the piano seriously."

Zhao Xia participated in the recording of the program "Folk Song China"

Back home, Zhao Xia decided to learn from He Shao. When it comes to the history of the modern Jing people's single-stringed qin, He Shao is an inescapable figure. He was born in 1945. At the age of 15, he learned to play the single-stringed piano from the first-generation folk artist Su Shanhui, and devoted his life to the inheritance of the single-stringed piano.

When Zhao Xia wanted to apprentice, He Shao was over sixty years old, and the criteria for accepting apprentices were very strict. Facing Zhao Xia's call to ask for a teacher, He Shao refused several times for various reasons. Zhao Xia was heartbroken, took her own piano, and ran to the teacher's door. Seeing that this Jing girl was so persistent, He Shao decided to give her a chance.

"I was still playing with bamboo sticks at that time, and my skills were very limited, so I especially yearned for the finger-tapping technique that Teacher He created with all his life. This technique is very rich in timbre and plucking skills, and few people can master it." Zhao Xia explained that in addition to technical innovations, He Shao also created a large number of solo qin songs based on the traditional folk songs of the Jing people, of which "Jing Hai Qin Yun" is the most famous.

He Shao lives in Fangchenggang City, and Zhao Xia lives in Dongxing City. To go to class, she has to take a three-wheeled motorcycle to and from the bus, which is a nearly three-hour journey. But Zhao Xia still insists on taking a class once a week, even if the tuition and car fees cost most of her income. On weekdays, as long as she was not working, she practiced the piano in the house she rented for two or three hours in the morning and in the evening. He Shao later learned about Zhao Xia's financial difficulties and decided to teach the piano for free, seeing that she loved the piano art.

This teaching lasted 11 years until He Shao died in 2017. Zhao Xia sighed: "Teacher He's contribution to the Jing people's solo stringed qin is truly unparalleled in his life. From then on, I thought that I couldn't let him spend all his time creating and composing the qin skills and composing the solo qin music. dissipate."

In 2011, the art of the Jing nationality solo stringed qin was included in the third batch of national intangible cultural heritage list. With the support of the local government, the Jing nationality solo-chord players also began to teach the solo-chord through voluntary teaching and the formation of performance teams.

In 2019, Zhao Xia became the autonomous region-level inheritor of the Jing nationality solo string art, which made her feel more responsible. Zhao Xia decided to continue He Shao's "mission" - to continue the wonderful sound of the monophonic piano.

pass on the violin

In May 2020, Zhao Xia posted a short video of herself playing "Pig Bajie Carrying My Wife" on Douyin. Familiar tunes are paired with unique national musical instruments, and this video has received nearly 100,000 likes at once. On the same day, she turned on the live broadcast, and thousands of people poured into the live broadcast room. The public screen is full of curious questions from the audience:

"What kind of instrument is this, see you for the first time!"

"One string can play so many notes, how do you do it?"

Zhao Xia recalled that the tunes usually played on the monochord were lyrical and slow rhythms. "After recording the video, it became popular as soon as it was posted."

Since then, Zhao Xia has started to "science" to the audience over and over in the live broadcast room: "The single-string piano has only one string and one rocker, but it can play 6 zones and 3 octaves." She also began Try to adapt some popular songs into tunes suitable for solo string playing, re-key, arrange fingering, and play live on Douyin. "The live broadcast has actually helped me to practice the solo string better and expand my music library. Now there are about 300 pieces that I can play very proficiently."

In the live broadcast room, Zhao Xia is always a combination of one person and one piano: "It's simple and good, and there are fans who like me, who will reward and send gifts to show their support." Zhao Xia also invested the income from the rewards. In the teaching work of his own non-genetic inheritance. At most, hundreds of students came to class every day, and many of them knew her from Douyin.

Zhao Xia teaches students at the non-genetic inheritance point of the solitaire

Zhao Xia's solo teaching is different from the traditional form. "It turned out to be taught by heart, and there was no sheet music, so some tunes were hard to hear after they were lost over time." She explained that when teaching the piano now, students need to be able to read sheet music and understand music theory. "In this way, the tunes and techniques can be passed on for a long time."

In the solo string training class, there will also be students from relatively poor families. Zhao Xia will give them musical instruments out of her own pocket, free of tuition fees, just like the help she felt when she studied under He Shao. "Inheriting the teacher's piano skills and inheriting the music of the Jing people is far more than just tunes," Zhao Xia said.