Our next stop is to one of the most visited domestic tourist spots in China, Gulangyu (鼓浪嶼), a car-free, bicycle free small island of less than a square mile just about 10 minutes by ferry off the the coast of Amoy which is home to some 20,000 locals. As a result of the signing of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 after Qing Government admitted defeat in the Opium War, Amoy was designated one of the Treaty ports and Britain established its consulate there and by 1903, it was designated an International Settlement and 13 countries established their consulates there including USA, France, Austria, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Holland, Denmark, Belgium and Japan as part of the then Chinese foreign policy of using "barbarians to control barbarians" (以夷制夷). .Some foreign churches and hospitals were also built there. In 1898, an English pastor established the first Western style Kindergarten on the island "The Kindergarten of Virtue"( 「懷德幼稚園」). Perhaps for such reason, the island has been called a living museum of foreign architecture (萬國建築博覽會). The island was occupied by the Japanese in 1942 during the Sino-Japanese war which started in 1937 and wasn't returned to China until 1949. It was thus exposed to Western influence quite early.. Because there's a piano museum and an organ museum on the island and the Xiamen Academy of Performing Arts and a Piano School of the Central Conservatory (中央音樂學院鼓浪嶼鋼琴學校), the island is sometimes called Home of Pianos(鋼琴之鄉) and "The Island of Music" (音樂之島). The island is the home of Chinese conductor 陳佐湟 and also that of the famous Chinese poetess 舒婷. The name "Gulangyu in fact means "island of wave drums" from the drum like echoes created by the seawaves within some of its sea-caves.
The island was first settled by people at the end of the Sung Dynasty and the start of the Ming Dynasty. Originally, it was called Round Sandbank (「圓沙洲) or Little Round Sandbank」(「圓洲仔」) but got its present name only during the Ming Dynasty. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Koxinga established it as a training ground for its navy for resisting the Manchus. Even today, we can still see the remains of the former navy training ground at Stone Bastion Gate (石寨門) and there's a statue of him guarding the harbor and looking over to Taiwan where he eventually went and settled.
View of the new Amoy from Gulangyu
A sight seeing boat
Moving in for the walkabout on the island
There are many new buildings on the island by the newly rich of PRC
This is an air raid and bomb shelter built during the the civil war between the KMT and the Communists during the 1950s'. In those days, there were bombings almost daily: a reminder of the split of China into two parts, separated by the Straits of Taiwan.
This used to be the residence of the taipan of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank built in 1876, evidence of the long history of this bank with Hong Kong and central and south China.
The gate of the old building
This used to be the British consulate
A comfortable looking courtyard
The court yards of one of the old buildings, many of which have now been turned into hotels.
One of the many 19th century red bricks buildings
There are gardens everywhere on the island
The road sign to the organ museum and the Sea World
This used to be the French area, the style of the lamp post marking the boundary between the different western nations. .
Nowadays, many of the old buildings have been taken over and converted into various small shops. This one sells what looks like spring-onion Chinese pan cakes.
Some colorful doors we passed by on our way to see some of the historic buildings
This is a popular snack on the island.
This is what they're called "star worm in jelly", a kind of snack which originated in Anhai, Fujian (福建安海), made with a kind of worm which grows in the muddy beaches but because of over-harvesting, such worms are now almost extinct there. These worms now probably arrive from the beaches of Kiangsu and Chekiang
Snacks on sale by the side of the road
Congee, wraps and long fried doughnuts
Small red crabs
Conch
small fishes
Various local fishes, crabs and shrimps and shell fish
Various clamps and other shell fish
Fujian produces lots of fruits: especially famous for its mandarin oranges (盧柑), grapefruit, pineapples and bananas.
popsies and fruit juices
A boutique specializing on hand-drawn maps and personalized name cards etc.
The biggest square on the island
Some Spanish steps
This old building has now been converted into the Bank of China with its Roman rotunda-like structure and terraced garden at its side.
And this one is now taken over the Kentucky Fry Chicken: the building has Greek Ionic columns with Palladian style arches, windows and gables.
This the the Park of a Ten Thousand Stones (萬石山), showing a strolling map of the tiny island
Another building converted into a hotel and restaurant now
This used to be a Methodist church: why are the three windows of different sizes: for purely esthetic reasons or do they symbolize some religious meaning or others eg.rising enlightenment from the left to the right, from intuition to reason?
A small monument on a park with the sides of the arch in the form of the outlines of two symmetrical Caucasian faces.
Another building built in Austrian style with its typical yellow color.
This used to be the Japanese consulate. We were told that many Chinese people died here during the war. It's now a haunted house.
The sealed windows at the base of the building were those of the torture chambers and prisons.
Three silent witnesses to the atrocities
this is the home of one of the prominent families surnamed Lau, an overseas Chinese
It has a spacious garden in front of the houses but nobody lives there now.
This is the house of another prominent local family surnamed Hui. They first emigrated to Vietnam and then to France. The French influence is evident.
No one seems to be living in this building now
The island is a favourite spot for taking wedding photos for many young couples: the bride and her friends or her photographer's assistants: dressed like a sprite.
Another bride in a mock early modern Chinese bridal suit in typical postmodern fashion, where the east and the west, the past and the present are indifferently juxtaposed
Another bride in her moment of glory
This is another house built in early modern style with elements of both European and Chinese architecture with its Doric columns in front and the capitals of its columns decorated with Chinese features at the side with some very original decoration on top of the central verandah.One feature of old Chinese architecture is that the weight of the roof should be supported by pillars rather than the walls. Hence the pillars of this building are visually emphasized.
This is the 海天堂構 by the famous Ng family, who started the Hoi Tin Tong chain of Chinese herbal tea like 24 flavors and guilingao (龜苓膏) (a Chinese medicinal jelly made from the three-lined box turtles (金錢龜) and some China roots called( 土伏苓) . It was first built in 1921 as a Western club premises for the foreigners living on the island and was later modified from the original design and which has typical Chinese roof with roof beams and curved corners (飛檐翘角) supported by the traditional brackets (斗拱) (but has brick instead of the traditional wooden beams and a western style main structure with symmetrical stairs. It's built on a raised platform with an underground cellar. We also saw there a typical Southern sound Chinese opera (南音) and a puppet show (木偶戲) in which the puppets were moved by very intricate finger movements of the artists who had to start training from age 7 onwards. We're told that at the pavilion on top of the roof, there is a Chinese Kwulu (葫蘆), a traditional vessel in the shape of a double gourd with the smaller gourd on top for holding wine or other chemical potions, presumably to honour the magical effect of the medicines the family sells.
There are three main buildings in this complex, one main building and one on each side to the entrance to the main building, for Ng's two wife and concubine. In Chinese architecture, the less important buildings are always positioned closest the the main gate to the building-complex. The two side buildings are substantially the same but do have minor differences according to the personal preference of Ng's mates.
The entrance to the puppet theatre with its Ionic columns
A look at the entrance from the inside: with yellow glass panes.
The real puppet stage: the logo of the Hoi Tin Tong in yellow is below the stage in typical traditional yellow and red color
The theatre is lit by this palace lantern
There were displayed a huge collection of puppet models of various characters in various different dramas featured in some of the Chinese operas.
There is a board listing out the 10 most famous consulates the 10 most important residential buildings on the island.
Reflections on the paneled floor of the first floor museum
At the hall on first floor, there is a statue of the Tin Hau with a steering wheel in her hands to protect the fishermen
But at the rear, we find that she wears a shawl which looks as if it were that of the Holy Mother, Mary, mother of Jesus.
Above her head, there is an octagonal shaped vault, like the traditional Chinese baqua (八掛) with floral patterns in each segment.
In this segment, we find a tripod and a flower pot: what is it supposed to signify? Is that the foot of a dragon which is lifting the tripod?
Behind the statue, there is a short corridor which separates the rooms on each side.
The columns of corridors outside are supported by Chinese looking brackets
On the roof is portrayed a Chinese dragon
The dragon on the eave is protected by the phoenix
From the balcony, we could see the corridor on the building opposite, the residence of the wife. It's not open for visits. Only the house of the concubine, which houses the museum and the puppet theatre is open to visitors.
old hand-wound mechanical clocks with or without pendulum: marker of time and our history.
Western table wares in the 1920's China
Chinese tea pot, western style jug and thermos. The two small china pots contain tooth powder. In ancient Rome, people believed that the urine of the Portuguese might help to clean their teeth and the rich Romans would import such urine directly for this purpose because they contained higher proportion of ammonia and this continued until the 18th century when tooth powder was invented. I remember that when I was young, we were still using tooth powder to clean our teeth. It wasn't until after the second world war that tooth paste was invented and it took some time before it reached the east.
This photo shows the soap used in the 1920s. Soap was invented quite by accident in ancient Egypt when a cook spilled some goat grease onto some ashes and tried to retrieve the grease and discovered to his surprise that when he washed his hands, some old dirt which had been sticking to his hands had disappeared! So he experimented further and then presented the first soap in the form of "grease balls mixed with ashes" for the use of the king. Later the Romans and the Greeks learned to do the same and this remained the practice until 1791 when modern soap was invented.
1920s perfume bottles.The word perfume comes from the Latin word, "per fumus", ( through fumes) and the art of making them first began in ancient Egypt and then was further refined by the Romans, the Persians and the Arabs. In India, the fragances are often incense based, rather than flower-based. The first modern perfume was invented by the Hungarians.Chinese women are known to have carried small bags of scented materials around them since the Tang Dynasty.
This is the sewing machine used in China in the 1920s. The earliest sewing machine was invented by an American in New York Statein 1802 but he didn't manufacture it because he thought that if he did, then many ladies would go out of work.Then some 40 years later, another technician spent 5 years to perfect it and then sold his patent to a Bostonian called Singer who made use of it to manufacture military uniform during the American civil war and made a great deal of money. The name "Singer" has since been associated with good quality hand/foot driven sewing machines until human power was replaced by electrical power. Seeing these exhibits bring back a flood of childhood memories: how when I was young my mother and my maid would sit in front of a sewing machine and set it in motion by moving the sole of their feet up and down on the foot pedal to make my pyjama and how they had to put charcoal inside the iron and use a mouth-driven spray to sprinkle water upon a starched shirt before it could be ironed on an ironing board!
Icecream cups, scoops and ice buckets in the 1920s. It's recorded that the Roman Emperor Nero (37-68) had ice brought in from the mountains to be combined with fruit toppings and ancient Persia would consume grape concentrates with ice and in about 400 BC invented vermicelli with rose water, saffron, fruits and other flavors served in ice to royalty during summers and Arabs did the same but would sweeten it first with sugar instead of fruit juice and flavored it with dried fruits and nuts. But it was the Chinese who first invented ice cream as early as 200 BC but it was made with frozen mixture of milk
and rice by mixing saltpetre in the metal vessel to
lower the freezing point and then mixing in the other ingredients into
it and when Marco Polo returned to Europe, he brought this secret back to Italy which now makes the best icecream in the world! But the modern ice cream scoop was invented in 1846 by an American woman. Whatever the truth maybe, it's my favorite!
A model of a 19th century Chinese sailing ship
The theatre of the Southern Sound (南音場)
According to a website established by aficianados of the Southern Sound in Fijian and Taiwanese:
(1) there are two types of Southern Sound, the Guangdong Southern Sound and the Fujian Southern Sound and Southern Sound is also called "Southern Songs" , Southern Music" ("“南樂), "Southern Winds " ("南管”), "Strings and Winds"("弦管") and may be considered the a "living fossil" of Chinese music. In the Tang Dynasty, musicians played the pipa (琵琶) with a pick ( 撥子) and they placed the pipa on their lap, holding it like a guitar, not straight up, just as depicted in the murals of Dun Huang (敦煌). This ancient way of playing is preserved in "the Fujian Southern Sound" and the way the musicians strike the rhythmic "beat" (“拍板) is also as depicted as in those murals. This way of playing instruments and singing songs is still quite popular in Quanzhou (泉州), Jinjiang (晉江), Lungqi (龍溪) and Amoy ( 廈門) and also in Taiwan and amongst the overseas Chinese in Malaysia, Singaporei and the Philippines.
(2) It's generally believed that this type of music making originated in the Tang Dynasty and became fully developed in the Sung Dynasty. In or about 885, two brothers 王潮, 王審知 brought their soldiers to help quell some local rebellions and brought with them a kind of music called "大麯" which combined with local music to produce what we now call "The Southern Sound".
(3) The vertical flute (筒蕭) now used in Southern Sound is 1 Chinese foot and 8 (尺八) inches with 10 holes and 9 sections is just like that in the Tang Dynasty's "Great leaven" (大 麯 ) many of the songs now still played all originated in the Tang Dynasty like such "the great leaven" ( 大麯) music as《 三台令》、《梁州曲》、《甘州曲》 and such Dharma music as 《 摩訶》《兜勒》、《子夜歌》、《清平樂》、《婆羅門》《太子游四門》《折柳吟》、《陽關曲》、《漢宮秋》、《後庭花》 were already there before the Tang Dynasty. Thus the true origin of the "Southern Sound" might have been India!
(4) Five of the most popular operas pieces of the Sung Dynasty are still being played like《荊釵記》、《白兔記》、《拜月記》、《殺狗記》 and《琵琶記》.
(5) There are three types of "Southern Sound", viz.
(a-) "full sets " (指 or 指套) ie. those ""great leavening" numbers with musical score ( 工尺譜) and lyrics (詞) and fingering method ( 骨) of the pipa all written out but the lyrics of which are not sung: they merely portray a story more or less the way programme music or symphonic poem in the West play out a story like eg. that what one does in Scheherazade; There were originally about 36 such pieces but now there are about 48
(b) "Scores" (譜 ) ie. originally 13 and later 16 suites of musical scores (each consisting of 3-8 songs) and pipa fingering methods (骨) only but no lyrics (詞) and
(c) "Songs" (曲) . Of this the 4 most famous are "四時景" "梅花操" "八駿馬"）and "百鳥歸巢" ."Songs" or "miscellaneous songs" ( 散曲) in fact make up most of titles of the "Southern Sound" because there are more than a thousand of them. There are long rolls (長滾), medium rolls (中滾), short rolls (短滾) , prelude rolls (序滾), big accompaniments (大倍), medium accompaniment (中倍) , little accompaniments (小倍) , working accompaniment (倍工) and under each roll, there are different song suites under different song titles (曲牌) and under each title, a number of songs (曲) thus one song suite could easily comprise several tens of songs. But in some southern sound of Quanzhou took their inspiration from dharma songs like 《南海觀音贊》and《普庵咒》, they also took inspiration from song Daoist music like in 《弟子壇. 》
(6) They have also nourished themselves upon other musical genres like the Chor Songs (楚歌) , the Wu Songs (吳歌 ) to enrich their style and their contents e.g from the Kunqu Opera (昆曲 ) which originated in Kunshan (昆山) of Suchow (蘇州) of Jiangsu Province (江蘇) ,) the Woryang style of singing (弋陽腔 ) which originated in Woryang of Jiangsi Province (江西弋陽) in the Southern opera of Sung and Yuan Dynasty( 宋元南戲), the Qingyang style (青陽腔). Thus in the song "Goose Down Snow" (《鵝毛雪》in 李亞仙》; the " Complaining to the Official" (《告大人》)in "The Story of Women" 《胭脂記》; the "You listen to me" (你聽咱》) in "Working for 9 Compounds" ( 《士九弄》)
(1) there are two types of Southern Sound, the Guangdong Southern Sound and the Fujian Southern Sound and Southern Sound is also called "Southern Songs" , Southern Music" ("“南樂), "Southern Winds " ("南管”), "Strings and Winds"("弦管") and may be considered the a "living fossil" of Chinese music. In the Tang Dynasty, musicians played the pipa (琵琶) with a pick ( 撥子) and they placed the pipa on their lap, holding it like a guitar, not straight up, just as depicted in the murals of Dun Huang (敦煌). This ancient way of playing is preserved in "the Fujian Southern Sound" and the way the musicians strike the rhythmic "beat" (“拍板) is also as depicted as in those murals. This way of playing instruments and singing songs is still quite popular in Quanzhou (泉州), Jinjiang (晉江), Lungqi (龍溪) and Amoy ( 廈門) and also in Taiwan and amongst the overseas Chinese in Malaysia, Singaporei and the Philippines.
(2) It's generally believed that this type of music making originated in the Tang Dynasty and became fully developed in the Sung Dynasty. In or about 885, two brothers 王潮, 王審知 brought their soldiers to help quell some local rebellions and brought with them a kind of music called "大麯" which combined with local music to produce what we now call "The Southern Sound".
(3) The vertical flute (筒蕭) now used in Southern Sound is 1 Chinese foot and 8 (尺八) inches with 10 holes and 9 sections is just like that in the Tang Dynasty's "Great leaven" (大 麯 ) many of the songs now still played all originated in the Tang Dynasty like such "the great leaven" ( 大麯) music as《 三台令》、《梁州曲》、《甘州曲》 and such Dharma music as 《 摩訶》《兜勒》、《子夜歌》、《清平樂》、《婆羅門》《太子游四門》《折柳吟》、《陽關曲》、《漢宮秋》、《後庭花》 were already there before the Tang Dynasty. Thus the true origin of the "Southern Sound" might have been India!
(4) Five of the most popular operas pieces of the Sung Dynasty are still being played like《荊釵記》、《白兔記》、《拜月記》、《殺狗記》 and《琵琶記》.
(5) There are three types of "Southern Sound", viz.
(a-) "full sets " (指 or 指套) ie. those ""great leavening" numbers with musical score ( 工尺譜) and lyrics (詞) and fingering method ( 骨) of the pipa all written out but the lyrics of which are not sung: they merely portray a story more or less the way programme music or symphonic poem in the West play out a story like eg. that what one does in Scheherazade; There were originally about 36 such pieces but now there are about 48
(b) "Scores" (譜 ) ie. originally 13 and later 16 suites of musical scores (each consisting of 3-8 songs) and pipa fingering methods (骨) only but no lyrics (詞) and
(c) "Songs" (曲) . Of this the 4 most famous are "四時景" "梅花操" "八駿馬"）and "百鳥歸巢" ."Songs" or "miscellaneous songs" ( 散曲) in fact make up most of titles of the "Southern Sound" because there are more than a thousand of them. There are long rolls (長滾), medium rolls (中滾), short rolls (短滾) , prelude rolls (序滾), big accompaniments (大倍), medium accompaniment (中倍) , little accompaniments (小倍) , working accompaniment (倍工) and under each roll, there are different song suites under different song titles (曲牌) and under each title, a number of songs (曲) thus one song suite could easily comprise several tens of songs. But in some southern sound of Quanzhou took their inspiration from dharma songs like 《南海觀音贊》and《普庵咒》, they also took inspiration from song Daoist music like in 《弟子壇. 》
(6) They have also nourished themselves upon other musical genres like the Chor Songs (楚歌) , the Wu Songs (吳歌 ) to enrich their style and their contents e.g from the Kunqu Opera (昆曲 ) which originated in Kunshan (昆山) of Suchow (蘇州) of Jiangsu Province (江蘇) ,) the Woryang style of singing (弋陽腔 ) which originated in Woryang of Jiangsi Province (江西弋陽) in the Southern opera of Sung and Yuan Dynasty( 宋元南戲), the Qingyang style (青陽腔). Thus in the song "Goose Down Snow" (《鵝毛雪》in 李亞仙》; the " Complaining to the Official" (《告大人》)in "The Story of Women" 《胭脂記》; the "You listen to me" (你聽咱》) in "Working for 9 Compounds" ( 《士九弄》)
(7) The musical notes of the "Southern Sound" are is also slightly different from those used in conventional 5--note Chinese music: C, D, E, G and A (宮車河事尺) They are written as " 工、六、x、乙、士 ) to represent "“宮、商、角、徵、羽) like they did in the Sui Dynasty (隋朝).
(8) The way they split the musical genre is also quite unique. They have what they call
(a) the "upper 4 winds" (上四管) ( which is further divided into "holed winds"( 洞管) which comprise the vertical flute, the 2-string, the pipa, the 3-stringed and the rhythm keeping "castanet" (—洞簫、二弦、琵琶、三弦、拍板) and "pipe winds" ( 品管) which is the same except that instead of having the vertical flute they use the horizontal flute 品簫 or pipe（笛).
(b) The "lower 4 winds" (下四管) or "Ten sounds" (十音) because they use 10 instruments viz. the medium note register Chinese horn called "suona" (南噯 or 中音嗩呐) , the pipa (琵琶) , 3 string (三弦) , 2 string (二弦) , resonant vessel or bowl gong or soup gong (響盞 , 湯鑼 or 碗鑼), "dog bark" (狗叫) ( a kind mini gong (小鐺鑼) , dok or wooden fish or Chinese temple block (鐸 or 木魚) , 4 treasures (四寶) , sing sing or little copper bells (聲聲 or 小銅鈴), little flat drums (扁鼓) ) In the Wai On county, (惠安) , they use in addition, the cloud gong, the copper bells and little haripin and the 'sang" (雲鑼、銅鐘、小釵和笙) .
(9) This type of music first started south of Quanzhou (泉州), because that's where the northern generals at the end of the Jin Dynasty (西晉) and southern Sung (南宋) first arrived. Just like in Tang music, the pipa was the "lead instrument" in the musical ensemble, occupying more or less the same role as the first violin in the Western orchestral musical tradition.The beat (拍) of "Southern Sound" is like the pre-Tang "jit" (節) and the "2-string" resembles the Haegeum (奚琴 or 稽琴) , a kind of two-stringed bowed instrument like an erdu (二胡). of the Wei and Jin Dynasties (魏晉) and the "3-string" is the successor to the string instruments used in the Qin and Han dynasties (秦漢). Thus singing in "southern sound" one gets a flavor of how Chinese words sounded in the Qin dynasty and how the music of that era was like because it developed from the Sui and Tang Dynasty's "3 Pure Melodies in the Key of Shang" (清商三調).
(10). Originally Tang music was based on the music of the imperial courts and of the aristocrats but the "southern sound" is largely based on the music of the "Great Leaven" (大 麯 ) of the Tang Dynasty. But in its later developments, the "Southern Sound" was also influenced by different musical genres like the Yuan Song (元曲) and Dharma Music (佛曲). Many of the songs written by the song and lyric writers of Quanzhou (泉州) carry the same titles as some Verses of the Sung Dynasty (宋詞) like “長相思”、“鷓鴣天”、“醉蓬萊”etc.
(11) In fact, many types of music like southern Fujian (閩南) e.g. the "songs of glory" "(錦歌" ) , the "Cage Blows) ("籠吹"), "Ten Sounds" of Po Tin ("莆田十音"), "The Southern Verse" of Nam Ping ("南平南詞" ) and many other types of musical drama like the "Big Pear Garden" (" 大梨園" ) "The High Mail-Armoured Drama" ("高甲戲" ) , "the Po Fairy Theatre" ( "莆仙戲" ) and "Country Drama"( " 薌劇" ) and the "Fujian Drama" (“閩劇 ") are intimately related to the "Southern Sound" .
(12)There are strict rules as to who would sit where on the stage. Usually the singer controlling the beat with his/her bamboo/wood percussive instrument will be in the middle, to his left rear would be placed the vertical flute (洞簫), below him would be the 2-stringed bowing instrument and to his right rear, there'll be the pipa, and below it the 3-stringed bowing instrument. The opera must start and end with an ensemble when all would play together. Each singer will sing his allotted song and between different songs by different singers, there will be some transitional music in which the previous singer will sing a "passing the lead song" ("過支曲) after which he/she will pass the "lead" to the next singer together with the rhythm controlling percussive instrument like the 木魚 during which the music will continue to be played by the instrumental musicians. In Quanzhou southern sound, there will be there will be 4 gate keepers (四個管門) and 7 leaders ( 七支頭). There are strict singing orders according to the requirements of the relevant songs and drama.For an introduction of the various instruments used in Southern sound, see http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTg3NjEwNjAw.html
(8) The way they split the musical genre is also quite unique. They have what they call
(a) the "upper 4 winds" (上四管) ( which is further divided into "holed winds"( 洞管) which comprise the vertical flute, the 2-string, the pipa, the 3-stringed and the rhythm keeping "castanet" (—洞簫、二弦、琵琶、三弦、拍板) and "pipe winds" ( 品管) which is the same except that instead of having the vertical flute they use the horizontal flute 品簫 or pipe（笛).
(b) The "lower 4 winds" (下四管) or "Ten sounds" (十音) because they use 10 instruments viz. the medium note register Chinese horn called "suona" (南噯 or 中音嗩呐) , the pipa (琵琶) , 3 string (三弦) , 2 string (二弦) , resonant vessel or bowl gong or soup gong (響盞 , 湯鑼 or 碗鑼), "dog bark" (狗叫) ( a kind mini gong (小鐺鑼) , dok or wooden fish or Chinese temple block (鐸 or 木魚) , 4 treasures (四寶) , sing sing or little copper bells (聲聲 or 小銅鈴), little flat drums (扁鼓) ) In the Wai On county, (惠安) , they use in addition, the cloud gong, the copper bells and little haripin and the 'sang" (雲鑼、銅鐘、小釵和笙) .
(9) This type of music first started south of Quanzhou (泉州), because that's where the northern generals at the end of the Jin Dynasty (西晉) and southern Sung (南宋) first arrived. Just like in Tang music, the pipa was the "lead instrument" in the musical ensemble, occupying more or less the same role as the first violin in the Western orchestral musical tradition.The beat (拍) of "Southern Sound" is like the pre-Tang "jit" (節) and the "2-string" resembles the Haegeum (奚琴 or 稽琴) , a kind of two-stringed bowed instrument like an erdu (二胡). of the Wei and Jin Dynasties (魏晉) and the "3-string" is the successor to the string instruments used in the Qin and Han dynasties (秦漢). Thus singing in "southern sound" one gets a flavor of how Chinese words sounded in the Qin dynasty and how the music of that era was like because it developed from the Sui and Tang Dynasty's "3 Pure Melodies in the Key of Shang" (清商三調).
(10). Originally Tang music was based on the music of the imperial courts and of the aristocrats but the "southern sound" is largely based on the music of the "Great Leaven" (大 麯 ) of the Tang Dynasty. But in its later developments, the "Southern Sound" was also influenced by different musical genres like the Yuan Song (元曲) and Dharma Music (佛曲). Many of the songs written by the song and lyric writers of Quanzhou (泉州) carry the same titles as some Verses of the Sung Dynasty (宋詞) like “長相思”、“鷓鴣天”、“醉蓬萊”etc.
(11) In fact, many types of music like southern Fujian (閩南) e.g. the "songs of glory" "(錦歌" ) , the "Cage Blows) ("籠吹"), "Ten Sounds" of Po Tin ("莆田十音"), "The Southern Verse" of Nam Ping ("南平南詞" ) and many other types of musical drama like the "Big Pear Garden" (" 大梨園" ) "The High Mail-Armoured Drama" ("高甲戲" ) , "the Po Fairy Theatre" ( "莆仙戲" ) and "Country Drama"( " 薌劇" ) and the "Fujian Drama" (“閩劇 ") are intimately related to the "Southern Sound" .
(12)There are strict rules as to who would sit where on the stage. Usually the singer controlling the beat with his/her bamboo/wood percussive instrument will be in the middle, to his left rear would be placed the vertical flute (洞簫), below him would be the 2-stringed bowing instrument and to his right rear, there'll be the pipa, and below it the 3-stringed bowing instrument. The opera must start and end with an ensemble when all would play together. Each singer will sing his allotted song and between different songs by different singers, there will be some transitional music in which the previous singer will sing a "passing the lead song" ("過支曲) after which he/she will pass the "lead" to the next singer together with the rhythm controlling percussive instrument like the 木魚 during which the music will continue to be played by the instrumental musicians. In Quanzhou southern sound, there will be there will be 4 gate keepers (四個管門) and 7 leaders ( 七支頭). There are strict singing orders according to the requirements of the relevant songs and drama.For an introduction of the various instruments used in Southern sound, see http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTg3NjEwNjAw.html
ladies costumes
Another ladies costume
Male costume with flags at the back
This is one of the male
characters featured in the puppet show we saw downstairs. It forms part
of the exhibits in the puppet museum there. The production of such
wooden puppets by the artists of Zhangzhou forms part of the first batch
of China's non-material cultural heritage. Chinese puppet shows first
began in the Jin Dynasty, developed during the Sung Dynasty and became
popular in the Ming Dynasty. There are 3 types of puppets: those
controlled by strings (提線木偶 or 嘉禮), those controlled by sticks (杖頭木偶) and those whose manipulation is hidden behind a cloth bag . It's because of the need to hide the fingers which control their movements underneath the wide bottomed costumes of the puppets of the last that they are called "the bag theatre" (布袋戲). What distinguishes the puppet theatre of Zhangzhou from others is that it pays a great deal of attention to characterization of the heroes. The puppets are very finely crafted and their faces display all kinds of exaggerated and stereotypical emotional expressions.The
art of making such puppets was developed mainly in Zhangzhou (漳州),
Xiamen(廈門) and Quanzhou (泉州). The puppets of Zhanzhou stress the features on the
pupppet''s head, its limbs, its costume and its headwear. The art of
making them is usually transmitted from father to son. There are now a
number of masters eg. Tsui Nin Chung (徐年松)、Hsu Sheng Fong (許盛芳). The puppets of Tsui( a 6th generation puppet artist of the Tsui family, his father Tsui Tsz Qing (徐子清) being already a famous artist in the Qing Dynasty) have herores
with broad foreheads, tilted eye-brows, dreamy eyes and smiling faces
while his heroines have willowy eyebrows, cherry-like lips, high hair and subtle coloring, thus retaining the artistic style of the Tang Dynasty,
have received very good reviews in international exhibitions in America,
Australia, Taiwan and Hong Kong in the decade following 1979. The
puppet shows of Zhangzhou usually features the hero (生) either old and young, either the scholar or fighter , the heroine
(旦) either young or old and either educated scholar or fighter, the Northern/Pure (北/ 淨) characters with painted faces, minor characters (末) and fairies (仙), monsters (怪獸) and animals (動物) including many
traditional characters in Chinese operas like Lord Guan( 關公) , Cao Cao (曹操) and various characters from the Water Margin (水滸傳) and The Romance of the 3 Kingdoms (三國演義), the sundry/comic) characters (雜/丑) either old and young and some shows feature only 36 types of images.
It's said "36 characters will stand for a million soldiers". Zhangzhou puppet artists specialize in
depicting a character's two eyes, one mouth, two nostrils (五形), eyebrow and ears and the bone
structure of the eye-sockets, the forehead, the cranium, the cheek and the jaw (五骨) and the outlines of their faces. Each puppet has to be colored
tens of times with methods which are closely guarded family secrets.
An old general?
Another character in red robe
a more colorful male character with a painted face
Another young warrior
An old scholar?
another young warrior
another warrior with a painted face in black
a young female fighter in red and yellow
Another Warrior with a painted face in multi-color
Another warrior with a painted face in multi-color
An angry man or Lord Guan?
Another angry man or Lord Guan?
A half angry man with a painted face ?
Another young female warrior
A young male warrior?
One of the old scholar-officials?
A black face manor Lord Guan?
An old hero
another old hero
A young hero
A young sundry character
A comic character
A man servant sundry character ?
Another comic character
Another old comic character
and another comic character
Another old comic character
A last comic character
a young maid?
a young fighter heroine
a young lady
a young lady in both educated and fighter roles ?
A female go-between or gossip?
A young educated couple?
A young man
a young woman fighter?
The heads of various monsters
Various fierce monster-like characters
More heads of chicken monsters or comic characters
The heads of fierce characters
The busts of sundry characters or comic characters
The busts of various characters, both friendly and hostile
surprised men or comic characters ?
The heads of ladies and men, some modern and more traditional
various young ladies
various men
Young and old
More male characters
The corridors leading down from the rooms on the first floor
This is an image of a famous building in Gulangyu: the 8-Trigram Building (八掛樓) , the site of the present Amoy Museum, built by one Lam Hok Sau (林鹤壽) who made his fortune as a contractor. It was designed by a Dutch-American in 1907, combining the styles of Islamic , Greek, Italian and Chinese architecture: the red roof imitating the dome of Al Masjid Al-Aqsa Mosque of Jerusalem, Palestine, the 82 columns in either doric or Ionian style imitating those of the Temple of Hera in 5th century Greece, the beams from the Temple of Helios in Athens and the cruciform plan taken from Greece and later used in Roman churches. His aim was to build a Chinese villa at the highest point on the island which would be superior to all the European architecture he found on the island both in terms of size, beauty and variety of styles but the his efforts exhausted all his means and its construction caused his financial ruin. He never set foot on it before it was fully completed: literally a monumental failure.
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