The piano used to be a rare foreign import in China, now four in five are made here. Much of this can 【小题1】   (trace) back to the tiny Chinese island named Gulangyu.

After the first Opium War in 1842, foreign powers forced the emperor to permit their residents 【小题2】 (live) in several “treaty ports” (通商口岸). One of those was Xiamen. Gulangyu, which lies just 【小题3】 5-minute ferry ride offshore, was an international settlement. Expatriates (侨民) helped make the piano an everyday amusement. There was soon 【小题4】 (hard) a family on the island that did not host or go to hear an evening recital (独奏会).

It was the largest number of pianos per person in China 【小题5】 led to a stream of outstanding musicians. The island’s most celebrated musician is Yin Chengzong. In 1969 he arranged an earlier revolutionary cantata (大合唱) into the “Yellow River Piano Concerto”. It remains China’s first-class 【小题6】 (compose). Where once Western classical music 【小题7】 (flow) into China, pianists are pouring out. Of the 50m children 【小题8】 (learn) the instruments worldwide, as many as 40m may be Chinese.

The government invests generously on orchestras, 【小题9】 now number over 80, and new concert halls. Fastidious parents and cool young things crowd 【小题10】 (they) to hear the latest wunderkind, Lang Lang and Yuja Wang, to name just a few.

On Oct 4, Gong Linna and her musician friends gave a concert, performing 【小题1】(public) the new album at the Divine Music Administration, one of the five major structures at the Temple of Heaven.

【小题2】 her first qinge album, featuring classic songs played on the guqin, this new album, Song of the Barbarian Reed-Whistle in Eighteen Stanzas,【小题3】(present) a guqin piece written by Cai Wenji, 【小题4】 female poet and composer from the Han Dynasty. 【小题5】(divide) into 18 parts, the guqin piece expresses the composer’s emotion on her way back home 12 years after she 【小题6】 (take) prisoner by the Xiongnu nomads (游牧民族), becoming a chieftain’s wife and bearing two children.

On the album,【小题7】 was recorded in Beijing in February, Gong worked with Lin and Wang again. She also invited more friends, sheng player Nie Yunlei and percussionist Li Shang,【小题8】(play) with her.

According to Lin, the new album is quite different from 【小题9】 was presented on Gong’s first qinge album, which sounded diverse and displayed the singer’s ability to master different music styles. This recording is of an independent work of great 【小题10】(long), consisting of 18 parts and it takes around 40 minutes to perform in its entirety.

Yang Liping became known as the “peacock princess” after her 1986 award-winning dance piece, Spirit of the Peacock, a work【小题1】(inspire) by the graceful hand movements of the bird-related dance of the ethnic Bai people. Born in a Bai family in Dali, Yunnan, she never received formal dance training but displayed a talent【小题2】dancing since she was a child. Later, she left her hometown and【小题3】(perform) at grand theaters and festivals in China and overseas, as well as winning a number of 【小题4】(award). Dynamic Yunnan is her significant work, which【小题5】 (stage) more than 7,000 times so far.

On April 27, two days before International Dance Day, Yang appeared in Beijing【小题6】(attend) a public event marking her career.【小题7】(wear) a long pink dress with a hand-embroidered tiger in the front, Yang released her new work, a 12-minute dance film, The Tiger’s Roar. It is the second project Yang has done based on animals. In 2021, she produced a dance piece, Spring Ox Picture. The ox symbolizes hard work, a【小题8】(tradition) virtue.

Yang is not foreign to films. In 1995, she played【小题9】role in the film, Warrior Lanling, directed by Hu Xuehua. Last year, with a heavy heart, she shared news of breaking up the team, because of the COVID-19 pandemic,【小题10】has affected the performing arts scene.