BC Boston Center for Chinese Arts & Heritage
MUSIC · LIVING TRADITIONS · CULTURAL EXCHANGE

Wu's Wind Instruments

A living tradition of Chinese wind instruments rooted in a multi-generational family practice of making, performance, restoration, teaching, and cultural exchange.

INSTRUMENT MAKING PERFORMANCE RESTORATION EDUCATION EXCHANGE
ABOUT THE PROJECT

From culture
to encounter.

This project centers on music as a living cultural practice—carried by people, shaped through performance, and experienced directly by audiences.

Rather than treating Chinese music only as historical material, the project creates opportunities for audiences to hear, experience, discuss, and learn from a tradition that continues to live through its practitioners.

Its program formats can include public performance, lectures and demonstrations, educational experiences, and opportunities for musicians and audiences to engage across cultures.

WHAT THE TRADITION INCLUDES

A craft tradition
that is played.

INSTRUMENT MAKING

Hongyin Zhai's Sheng-and-Guan instrument-making tradition is a national-level intangible cultural heritage practice. The official national heritage record describes the craft as a five-generation Wu family tradition connected to Qing court instrument-making.

PERFORMANCE

The tradition is inseparable from sound. Wu Jingxin learned both performance and instrument making from her father, Wu Zhongfu, and the family tradition has continued to develop instruments for professional musicians and ensembles.

RESTORATION & RESEARCH

The Hongyin Zhai tradition has also included the reconstruction and restoration of historical instruments, including instruments associated with the Temple of Heaven's Divine Music Administration and instruments depicted in Dunhuang materials.

INNOVATION & TEACHING

Wu Jingxin has developed new instruments and established exhibition, performance, and instrument-making training programs. Her work demonstrates that safeguarding a tradition can include research, adaptation, teaching, and new creation.

THE PEOPLE & THE PLACE

See the tradition
in practice.

They show the tradition as a living practice carried by makers, performers, teachers, and audiences.

Wu Jingxin working with Chinese wind instruments
Wu JingxinRepresentative inheritor of the national-level intangible cultural heritage project Hongyin Zhai Sheng-and-Guan instrument making.
Wu Tong portrait
Wu TongMusician and performer from the Wu family tradition.
Musicians and visitors with Chinese wind instruments
Performance & encounterVisitors experience Chinese wind instruments in a working cultural setting.
Participants learning Chinese wind instruments
EducationHands-on learning connects people directly with instruments and sound.
Instrument collection and demonstration
Instrument cultureA collection and demonstration setting showing the breadth of the Wu family's work.
Chinese wind instruments displayed
Craft & collectionChinese wind instruments presented as objects of both use and heritage.
Chinese wind instrument display
Material heritageInstrument forms, materials, and craftsmanship are part of the story.

Explore the story
behind the project.

Discover the people, traditions, ideas, and cultural context that make this project more than a single event.

Read the Story