''Kouxian'' () is a general
Chinese term for any variety of
jaw harp
The Jew's harp, also known as jaw harp, juice harp, or mouth harp, is a lamellophone instrument, consisting of a flexible metal or bamboo tongue or Reed (mouthpiece), reed attached to a frame. Despite the colloquial name, the Jew's harp most like ...
. The jaw harp is a
plucked idiophone in which the lamella is mounted in a small frame, and the player's open mouth serves as a
resonance chamber.
Chinese jaw harps may comprise multiple idiophones that are lashed together at one end and spread in a fan formation. They may be made from
bamboo
Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...
or a metal alloy, such as
brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...
.
[Li, Yongxiang. ]
The Music of China's Ethnic Minorities
'. Taiwan, China Intercontinental Press, 2006. 2. Modern ''kouxian'' with three or more idiophones might be tuned to the first few tones of the
minor pentatonic scale.
The jaw harp likely originated in
Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
. Although played throughout China, it is particularly popular among the non-
Han ethnic groups
An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, rel ...
of
Southwest China
Southwestern China () is a region in the People's Republic of China. It consists of five provincial administrative regions, namely Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Xizang.
Geography
Southwestern China is a rugged and mountainous region, ...
, such as those in
Yunnan
Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...
,
Guangxi
Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...
, and
Guizhou
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption =
, image_map = Guizhou in China (+all claims hatched).svg
, mapsize = 275px
, map_alt = Map showing the location of Guizhou Province
, map_caption = Map s ...
. The
varieties of Chinese
There are hundreds of local Chinese language varieties forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan language family, many of which are not Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the m ...
have numerous
vernacular
Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
names for the instrument; one such name is ''hoho''.
External links
*
*Kate Torgovnick May (2013)
Mouth music: Wang Li at TED2013, ''Blog.Ted.com''.
*Tsioulcas, Anastasia (2012).
Wang Li: globalFEST 2012, ''NPR.org''.
References
{{Plucked idiophones
Chinese musical instruments
Heteroglot guimbardes and jaw harps
zh:口弦