🌍 World Music — Chinese

Traditional Chinese music includes many regional systems and does not uniformly rest on a single pentatonic scale. The erhu, guzheng and pipa are emblematic, but the qin, dizi, suona, sheng and multiple percussion instruments also hold an essential place. Peking opera, kunqu, the silk-and-bamboo ensembles of Jiangnan, Cantonese music and minority traditions each have their own particular forms. Pentatonic scales are common, but heptatonic modes, chromaticism and various tuning systems are also used. C-pop today brings together distinct industries of Mandopop, Cantopop and Taiwanese pop, alongside rock, rap, electronic music and a vast mainland market.