Zhejiang Cheng Yi In Shanghai

This paper is a summary of the author's three year study under the supervision of Prof.Sun. Zheng, as a uniquely traditional Chinese musical instrument, has witnessed many changes as a performing art, going through origin, development, propering and modernization. The Zheng art from different areas in China has been heavily influenced by its respective local culture, tradition, custom, sentiment, dialect and other forms of folk music. As a result,different Zheng Schools have different local features. Nevertheless, not every local Zheng art can be called a School. To be a School, a Zheng art must have distinctive characteristics, wide recognition, multiple pieces and a good number of representative artists. To put it another way, "Zheng Art" is a broader term while "Zheng School" would be a more distinctive and accepted Zheng art. The author makes a detailed study of the development of Zhejiang Zheng art into a muture School.During the research, the author has studyed many reference materials and also visited many Zheng artists, most notablly Mr.Sun Wenyan. Mr. Sun is student of Zhejiang Zheng School master Wang Xunzhi and is one of the co-authors of the very first Zheng textbook of Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Under their guidance, the author has been able to greatly enrich the contents of the paper while having a first hand experience of the Zhejiang Zheng School performance art.This paper proposes that the difference of Zhejiang Zheng School from other major Schools is that other Schools came into formation in the first half of the 20th century while the Zhejiang School occurred more lately. Mr. Wang Xunzhi brought Zhejiang Zheng Art into Shanghai Conservatory of Music and added new musical elements. This paper also referred to multiple Zheng pieces to prove that the Zhejiang School has developed from folk art into a more professional performing art in this more academic environment.Under the sub-titls "introduction to traditional Zheng Schools", "traditional Hangzhou Zheng Art", "modern evolution of Hangzhou Zheng Art", "contribution of Zhejiang School on modern Zheng performance" and "development of Shanghai Zheng Art", the author elaborated on the formation, inflow to Shanghai and development of the Zhejiang Zheng School. The paper explains that Zhejiang Zheng School had come through a different path from those of other major School. The other four major Schools were shaped by natural evolution, but the Zhejiang School was influenced by Shanghai culture, academic theories, western musical tradition and the performing technique of other instruments. It is already not a School in the traditional sense but rather a result of the convergence of multiple schools and styles. Its formation and development finds a successful path for traditional Chinese musical instruments to come up to modernity.