The ''fou'' ( 缶 or 缻; pinyin: fǒu) is an ancient Chinese

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

consisting of a

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...

or bronzeware crock, jar, pot, or similar vessel, which was struck with a stick. Its origin dates back to the Xia or

Shang The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...

dynasties, where it was used in ritual music. It later became a standard instrument in

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...

ritual ensembles. It was first confirmed in 2004 that the is an instrument, with the discovery of nearly 500 musical instruments in the Tombs for Nobles of the Yue State,

Wuxi Wuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou. In 2017 it had a population of 3,542,319, with 6,553,000 living in the entire prefecture-level city a ...

City,

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with it ...

Province. Also found there were nine other varieties of instruments, including the (a type of bell) and (chime stone) from the Central Plain, (a metal percussion instrument), (a bell with a handle), ''duo'' (big bell) and (little bell). It made its modern appearance during the

2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony The 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the ''Bird's Nest''. It began at 20:00 China Standard Time ( UTC+08:00) on Friday, 8 August 2008, as the number 8 is considered to be auspicious. ...

in Beijing. Towards the beginning of the ceremony, 2,008 dancer/percussionists staged a synchronized presentation, striking large square with glowing red sticks.photo
/sup> Those instruments had a white square LED array surrounding each drum, allowing them all to produce both music and a dazzling display, which included

Chinese character Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...

s and shapes created in tandem. The Chinese character ( 缶 or 缻) is used to refer to containers. The character has fallen into disuse in Chinese; however, it is still used to refer to cans in Japanese. Since the Xia and

dynasties, some types of those containers were used as musical instruments known as "percussion fou" ( 击缶). Since its publicity, there has been some scholarly disputes on whether the used during the Olympics were actually musical instruments, as they could simply have been containers. In the Confucian ritual music of Korea, a musical instrument made from a clay pot, called the (hangul: 부; hanja: 缶), which is derived from the , is used.

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Instrumental in spreading the word
China Daily
The Square Drum Used in the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympic GamePhoto of used in 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony
{{Traditional Chinese musical instruments Chinese musical instruments