Xu Wenjing and Choi Chang-sau

Xu Wenjing and Choi Chang-sau

Similar to other traditional crafts, the skills and techniques of qin making have been passed down through generations of qin players and makers via hands-on, mentor-apprentice instruction.

Xu Wenjing

Xu Wenjing, a native of Zhejiang, is the most significant figure in bringing the art of qin making to Hong Kong. Xu learned how to play and make qin from his elder brother, Xu Yuanbai, and his brother’s teacher, the Buddhist monk of Tianpingshan in Suzhou, Daxiu. Xu moved to Hong Kong in 1949 and passed on the techniques of qin playing to Tang Siu-wa and qin making to Choi Chang-sau in the 1950s, thus planting the root of the Xu’s lineage in the art of qin making in Hong Kong.

In addition to the art of qin, Xu Wenjing was also proficient in calligraphy, painting, poetry and seal carving. Xu published a book on philology titled Guzhou Huibian (Collection of Ancient Seal Script) and a collection of poems called Xihu Baiyi (A Hundred Memories of the West Lake).

Choi Chang-sau

Choi Chang-sau is a native of Chaozhou. His grandfather, Choi Chun-fook, and his father, Choi Wai-king, operated a family business in musical instruments. Between the 1950s and 1960s, the Mainland was enforcing an “instrumental reform”, or remodeling of musical instruments. The traditional qin was criticized for both its form and its musical tradition. By the time of the Cultural Revolution, qin as a musical art was at its trough. Fortunately, its timely transplant in Hong Kong ensured its continuum, through Choi Chang-sau who kept practicing qin making according to the traditional methods and continued to serve both local and overseas qin musicians.

Now in his eighties, Choi Chang-sau still insists on transmitting the art of qin making to Hong Kong’s qin musicians every week by passing down the skills he learnt from his teacher, Xu Wenjing through verbal teaching plus demonstration. He has thus reinstated the tradition of creating one’s own instrument among qin players and ensured its status as an ongoing heritage.