Beijing Huguang Guild Hall is hosting an exhibition featuring traditional Chinese stringed instruments.

The exhibition opened on Tuesday. The exhibits include art works, which highlight jinghu, produced and collected by Liu Zhenghui, a performing and producing master of the instrument.

Much like the role violin plays in a Western symphony orchestra, jinghu, a two-stringed bowed instrument with a very high pitch, is a fundamental instrument in Peking Opera.

The jinghu is regarded as one of the world's most- difficult instruments to play. It is widely considered to be the violin's equal.

Liu, who plays the jinghu, has been making the instrument for more than three decades. He is now considered to be a master.

In addition to making instruments for China's established jinghu musicians, he also produces works of art highlighting the jinghu with touches of calligraphy, sculpture and Peking Opera face paintings.

Among the 30-plus jinghu on display are a dozen that feature sculptures of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac.

By bringing the jinghu from the back of the stage into the limelight, Liu says he hopes to attract more people to Peking Opera.

That is the main reason he decided to join the show in Huguan Guild Hall, which is Beijing's best known and most prosperous opera theater.

The exhibits also include some precious instruments - such as the pipa (lute), yu-kin and guqin, the seven-stringed instrument proclaimed as masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO in 2003.

To give visitors a better understanding of how such instruments are made, some simple tools are on display.The exhibition concludes at the end of February.

Beijing Huguang Guild Hall is located at 3 Hufangqiao, Xuanwu District.

Telephone: 6351-8284.

(Beijing Weekend January 31, 2005)