Over the past few years, the huqin has been in charge of the huqin, and the music is like a spring to spread the national rhyme——Interview with Gao Zhenbao, the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage Erhu making skills in Linyi City

Erhu, its tone may be euphemistic and delicate, round and pure, feminine and graceful; or bold and straightforward, high-pitched and bright, rough and straight. However, Chinese folk music pursues a more subtle and convergent expression because it pays attention to the linear nature of melody and harmonization. Under this circumstance, a handful of erhu, cadence and rhythm, will make the world cool. Therefore, the erhu is also regarded as the musical instrument that most inherits the essence of national rhyme and can best express the feelings of the Chinese people.

In Lequan Village, Miaoshan Town, Tancheng County, Linyi City, there is such an old man. Three generations of ancestors have dedicated all their enthusiasm to the craftsmanship of huqin; They are all focused on the production of Huqin, and they have a heart of ice. He is not only proficient in huqin production, but also gradually develops it into a complete local industrial chain, and develops Lequan Village into an "Erhu Village" with a unique "Erhu Culture", leading the local villagers to get rid of poverty and become prosperous towards common prosperity. . He is Mr. Gao Zhenbao, the inheritor of Linyi's intangible cultural heritage Erhu making skills.

Inheriting skills by fate

The origin of Gao's Erhu can be traced back to the 1930s. Before liberation, due to the difficult and turbulent situation, Gao Zhenbao's grandfather Gao Feng'e and father Gao Yonggui had to flee to Nanjing, Jiangsu. After observation, the two found that because Nanjing is deeply influenced by the typical southern cultural traditions, the erhu is very popular in the local area. So the two men started selling erhu to make a living. Soon, by chance, the two of them were able to study the production of stringed instruments such as the erhu, and learn some professional techniques from Zhou Jingmei, the master of Chinese music and the "Pipa Master" at that time.

After the founding of New China, Gao Zhenbao's father, Gao Yonggui, was finally able to return home. After returning to his hometown of Tancheng, he has already learned a lot of craftsmanship and set up a musical instrument group of six or seven people in the local commune. In 1963, he helped the village organize a new musical instrument group. After more than ten years of development, the village musical instrument group finally developed into the commune's musical instrument factory in 1976.

At the same time, Gao Zhenbao has also graduated from junior high school and has grown into a teenager. Due to the booming business of his father's musical instrument factory and the urgent need for manpower, Gao Zhenbao did not continue his studies, but joined the factory as a cashier and accountant, contributing to the sound operation of the musical instrument factory. During this period, Gao Zhenbao had a close contact with the craftsmanship of huqin production, and was also moved by the craftsmanship spirit of the elders in the family who worked hard to make huqin. Therefore, he gradually shifted the focus of his work to the craftsmanship of huqin, and began to learn the craftsmanship from his master. At that time, the production of huqin was very different from that of today. At that time, good wood was hard to find, and most of the raw materials of good wood could only be purchased through imports. Despite the difficulties, Gao Zhenbao thought to himself and vowed to inherit the family tradition of huqin making and carry it forward in the days to come.

With the development of the times, the musical instrument factory was disbanded in 1985, and the production technicians in the factory also returned to their hometowns. For this reason, the craftsmanship of musical instruments handed down from generation to generation has also been brought back to various villages in Miaoshan Town. Among them, more than ten villages have gradually developed small erhu production workshops, and most of these production workshops are concentrated in Lequan Village, where Gao Zhenbao is located. Although these production workshops are small in scale, they have a complete production chain from the purchase of raw materials to production and sales, and because of their pure manual craftsmanship, it is easy to form personalized and high-quality products. Today, more than 90 villagers in Lequan Village have been engaged in the production of huqin musical instruments all year round, and nearly 80,000 stringed instruments are sold to all parts of the country every year in Lequan Village. Lequan Village has finally developed into a veritable "Erhu Village". 

Waiting for a job with sincerity

Erhu has a long history, beginning in the Tang Dynasty. It originated from the ethnic minorities in northern my country and was named "Xiqin". It was renamed "Jiqin" in the Song Dynasty, and it was not named "Erhu" until modern times. Looking at the exterior of the erhu will give the illusion that its structure is not complicated. It is mainly composed of eight parts: headstock, pegs, piano rods, jins, piano yards, piano barrels, strings and bows. Compared with Western musical instruments, its structure is indeed relatively simple. However, making a handmade erhu is not so simple: the production of an erhu, from the selection of materials to the finished product, to the calibration of its sound to pure, is extremely complicated.

According to Gao Zhenbao, the production of erhu has extremely high requirements on raw materials such as wood and leather. The wood suitable for making erhu includes mahogany, red sandalwood, ebony, rosewood, and Burmese mahogany. The different materials used will also lead to different sound quality and timbre of the erhu. In addition to material selection and cutting, dozens of production processes such as chopping, sawing, planing, shovelling, cutting, filing, engraving, drilling, reaming, and polishing are complicated and cumbersome. This requires practitioners not only to be good at wood, but also to understand the rhythm, so as to make a high-quality erhu.

In addition to erhu, Gao Zhenbao's production workshop also produces huqin such as Jinghu, Banhu, Da and Xiao Sanxian. Due to the difference in materials, labor and time, the price of huqin produced by the workshop also ranges from 200 to 300 yuan to 30,000 yuan. But no matter the price is high or low, as long as it is a huqin made by Gao Zhenbao's production workshop, it will be guaranteed for life.

Since the beginning of his career, Gao Zhenbao has taken the motto of "being a man beforehand" as his life creed and abide by it. He firmly believes that for a craft and an enterprise, only high quality can survive. The quality of products must be carefully researched, and the management of customers must also be sincere. Although he is 73 years old, Gao Zhenbao, who is honest and responsible, is still striving for perfection in huqin production, seeking continuous development of his skills, and constantly requires his masters and apprentices to improve their craftsmanship in terms of materials, craftsmanship, style, artistic expression, etc., so as to provide customers with Higher quality musical instrument products.

It is with the superb huqin production technology and sincere marketing concept that Gao Zhenbao was awarded the honorary titles of "Inheritance of Erhu Making Skills of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Linyi City" and "Master of Arts and Crafts in Shandong Province". His production workshop has always been crowded, and even customers from Inner Mongolia and Jiamusi have come all the way, just to get a beloved huqin from Gao Zhenbao. The huqin produced by Gao Zhenbao's production workshop is also exported to Australia, the United States, Russia and other overseas countries with its sophisticated production technology, and has occupied a certain market share.

Intangible cultural heritage flows into the future

Today's Lequan Village, under the name of "Erhu Village", has more than half of the villagers engaged in the production or sales of erhu, and the erhu produced in Lequan Village has occupied more than half of the country's market share.

For Gao Zhenbao's family, it can be said that there are many talents and young people. Among them, Gao Zhenbao's son Gao Qingyin and his grandson Gao Xiang have undertaken the important task of inheritance and become important inheritors of the family's erhu making skills. Several younger generations are inheriting the erhu making skills, and the youngest great-grandson also has the intention to develop the erhu tradition, so he is not worried that this traditional skill has no successor. Gao’s family has a junior named Gao Tao. After market research, he found that the point-to-point marketing model that only relies on exhibitions to search for customers is not as efficient as the point-to-point marketing model of online stores. After a year of exploration, he opened up an e-commerce business. According to the needs of online customers, professional services such as musical instrument accessories retailing and musical instrument maintenance have been added, and the profit of the online store has grown to more than 60,000 yuan in 2016.

In terms of the inheritance of skills, Gao Zhenbao did not only pass down the family descendants, but recruited many apprentices, and taught the skills that have been passed down from generation to generation and that he has been pondering all his life. He believes that "being a person beforehand" is not only reflected in the craftsman's craftsmanship and product sales, but also in the inheritance of skills. As a craftsman of China's traditional intangible cultural heritage, he should stand on a higher level, not to hold his own craftsmanship for selfishness, but to let more people who are keen on huqin production join the industry and acquire professional skills at the same time, so that the The craftsmanship of the huqin has a long history.

Gao Zhenbao also realized that the inheritance of erhu craftsmanship should not only rely on the sales of production workshops, but also vigorously promote it through cultural activities. Therefore, as an industry leader, he actively participated in cultural exchange activities such as "Qingdao Tancheng Week", and promoted Lequan Erhu as a characteristic cultural product of Tancheng to Qingdao. In this event, the huqin he brought was sold out, and even some customers who participated in the exhibition drove to Lequan Village to buy erhu from Gao Zhenbao in the later period.

This matter inspired Gao Zhenbao to think deeply. He said that in terms of playing skills and timbre style, the erhu can be divided into two groups: the north and the south. Among them, the northern faction is represented by Beijing, and the southern faction is represented by Suzhou and Shanghai. Although Lequan Village's erhu making skills are inherited from Suzhou, due to its geographical location between the representatives of the two factions, it has integrated the needs of northern users in the inheritance of decades, so the erhu produced has both styles. Based on this, in the subsequent production process, Gao Zhenbao magnified this advantage, so as to promote the erhu in Lequan Village to a higher level of popularity with the unique erhu cultural symbol.

It is with such a conscientious craftsman spirit and undivided attention to the craftsmanship of huqin that Gao Zhenbao developed "one person's craftsmanship" into "one village's craftsmanship". Now erhu has not only become the pillar industry of Lequan Village, but also a cultural tourism project supported by Miaoshan Town. Relying on the cultural background of "Hometown of Chinese National Musical Instruments" and "Hometown of Erhu", Miaoshan Town also seizes the opportunity to develop cultural tourism in the province and build a characteristic tourist town to create a platform for erhu production professional villages. Erhu ancient rhyme town, promote folk music culture. Gao Zhenbao, who keeps moving forward with ingenuity, has also won numerous honors. In 2011, "Red Sandalwood Erhu" created by Gao Zhenbao won the "Yijing Yiren Cup" Shandong Province Arts and Crafts Excellence Award at the 3rd China (Shandong) Arts and Crafts and Household Products Expo Gold Award. In 2013, the work "Jinghu" won the "Luxiu Cup" Shandong Province Arts and Crafts Modern Creative Gold Award at the Fifth China (Shandong) Arts and Crafts Boutique and Household Products Expo. In 2015, it won the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" Shandong Province Arts and Crafts Industry Skills and Culture Inheritance Excellence Award. In 2021, he was selected by the Tancheng County Culture and Tourism Bureau as the inheritor of liuqin making skills, a representative project of county-level intangible cultural heritage.

An ancient city, an old man, ten thousand huqin, spread the national rhyme. Softness and rigidity are not only the sound quality of Erhu, but also the life of Mr. Gao Zhenbao. He is full of tenderness towards the production of huqin, and embodies the historical mission of inheriting the national rhythm. We believe that with the obsession with the huqin, Mr. Gao Zhenbao and his descendants will surely make the reverberation of Lequan's piano reverberate.