The museum has a collection of more than 3,200 harmonica pieces, showing the development and changes of the world's harmonica history, including a number of world-class unique pieces and four treasures of the museum...... Located in Zhutang Town, Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Province, the Oriental Harmonica Museum combines physical exhibitions and video materials to sort out the harmonica culture of China and the world into a clear context, connect the history of the harmonica in China and the world, and play the movement of oriental culture.
Four treasures of the town
Reproduce the century-old history of China's harmonica
The harmonica, which belongs to Western musical instruments, originated from the "sheng", one of the "eight tones" of ancient Chinese musical instruments. Starting with the "Sheng", the Oriental Harmonica Museum showcases the vast world of the "Piano in the Pocket".
At the beginning of the 20th century, the harmonica was introduced to the mainland as a new Western musical instrument. Around 1920, China began to train and study local harmonica, and compiled and printed harmonica teaching materials. In 1930, China had a harmonica organization. After that, harmonica music quickly became popular in China. The Oriental Harmonica Museum takes the timeline of harmonica development as the axis, sets up eight venues, and displays a series of physical objects, pictures, books, video materials, etc., to show people a century-old history of Chinese harmonica. The four treasures in the museum present the century-old development path of Chinese harmonica manufacturing from scratch, from small to large, from imitation to originality.
"In the exhibition of this museum, there are four collections that we are most proud of, they are all unique harmonicas left in China, which are displayed separately at the front of the exhibition area as the treasures of the museum." Kong Wenzhong, the head of the Oriental Harmonica Museum, introduced that the first harmonica made in China was produced by the China New Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company on March 3, 1933, under the brand name of Pagoda. On the same day, Shanghai's "Declaration" also specially published advertisements for the sale of domestic pagoda brand harmonicas and the first harmonica performance conference of Mr. Pan Jinsheng, the "father of Chinese harmonica", which is the only one seen in the world.
The second stand-alone display case in the museum displays China's first chromatic key harmonica, the mass brand harmonica produced by the Central Harmonica Factory in 1954. What is particularly valuable is that the case of this harmonica is complete. The third stand-alone showcase showcases China's first chord harmonica, specially made for Guoguang and produced by the China New Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company in 1937.
"Among the treasures of the town, the most precious is the harmonica presented to Deng Yingchao by international friends, which has been preserved for 60 years." Kong Wenzhong said, "When we were collecting and researching materials, we also found a moving story about this harmonica. ”
The harmonica given to Ms. Deng Yingchao by international friends, and later Deng Yingchao gave it to Zheng Shuyun
Next to this harmonica, there is a group photo and a precious handwritten letter "Remembering a Past" from Deng Yingchao's health nurse Zheng Shuyun. The letter wrote: "At the beginning of 1958, Deng Ying's eldest sister decided to go to Guangzhou to recuperate due to illness, and the former prime minister talked to me and said: 'I handed over the little super sister to you. ’…… One day during the Spring Festival, we were resting in the small living room, when Sister Deng looked at me and said, 'What do you want!' Stunned all the time? I said I seemed to hear the sound of a harmonica in the next room. Sister Deng stood up and said, 'I'll go get something.' In this way, Sister Deng put a paper bag on the table in front of her: "Open it and take a look." I opened it and it was a harmonica. She said, 'Look at your smile so sweetly, from now on, it's yours.' ’…… This harmonica is a treasure to me, and when I talked to my eldest sister in 1984, I told her that the harmonica was still there, and my eldest sister laughed and said, 'You are really careful. ’…… Decades have passed, and today I handed over this harmonica to the group, and it has a home, and I am relieved. ”
On May 11, 2005, Zheng Shuyun (first from left) transferred the harmonica to the Beijing Harmonica Orchestra
On May 11, 2005, Zheng Shuyun transferred this harmonica to the Beijing Harmonica Orchestra. On May 11, 2018, the Beijing Harmonica Orchestra was transferred to the Harmonica Professional Committee of the Public Music Association. Now, this harmonica lies quietly in the Oriental Harmonica Museum, and the weather-beaten little body carries a heavy friendship.
Inherit cultural genes
Blowing the musical dreams of generations
As the world's largest, largest and richest harmonica museum, the Oriental Harmonica Museum can be called the "encyclopedia" of the world's harmonica. From the origin of the harmonica, the spread of the harmonica, the harmonica family to the early Chinese harmonica, as well as the development of the harmonica and modern harmonica in the Asia-Pacific region, the history spans 3,600 years, and every piano and every book in the museum has witnessed the butterfly changes of harmonica culture.
Since the harmonica was introduced to China, many patriots used this small and light instrument to express their feelings and play a patriotic movement in the stormy war years. At the age of 20, the famous musician Nie Er composed two famous harmonica pieces - "March" and "Waltz". When General Yang Jingyu, an anti-Japanese national hero, was sacrificed, he was found carrying three harmonicas by his side. On April 1, 1935, under the leadership of the underground party of the Communist Party of China, the "Harbin Harmonica Society" was established, with Yuan Yacheng as the president, and Hou Xiaogu, Ren Zhenying and other underground members of the Communist Party of China as members. This is a peripheral organization of our party, which resisted the Japanese puppet rule, propagated the idea of patriotism and salvation, and became a fighting force and a literary and artistic front on the cultural battlefield in Northeast China......
In today's rapid economic development, China's harmonica culture is even more vibrant, and has been integrated into the development of world harmonica culture. In 2015, the mainland founded the first national harmonica festival - the Chinese Harmonica Art Festival, which has been successfully held for three times; The Asia-Pacific Harmonica Festival is the largest harmonica event in the Asia-Pacific region and even the world, and the 14th Asia-Pacific Harmonica Festival will also be held in Jiangyin in August this year.
The world's largest harmonica
"A cultural history of the world harmonica, a live harmonica concert, a harmonica production line, an introductory harmonica class, a do-it-yourself harmonica...... In recent years, Zhutang Town has strengthened the protection and excavation of the Jiangnan cultural context, so that the harmonica museum can not only be visited, but also become a new carrier of cultural activities. Kong Wenzhong said that the purpose of building the Oriental Harmonica Museum is to promote the history and culture of the harmonica in Zhutang, Jiangyin, and even China to the world, so that the harmonica culture can be heard, felt and touched.
There are more than 2,500 volumes (pieces) of harmonica video materials and books in the museum, which include almost all the existing harmonica-related documents and video materials. "They have nourished our ancestors for a long time, and although some of them have been dusted by history, their cultural genes are still active." Kong Wenzhong said that in order to better preserve the archives, these documents and images have been entered with cultural relics restoration and protection and scanning machines, and the database has been established through text recognition and file management technology, and the next step is to build a "harmonica cloud archive".
Since its birth, the harmonica has received more and more attention and support. On September 17, 2018, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China issued the "People's Republic of China GB/T 36723-2018 National Standard Number", in which "harmonica" was included in the examination catalogue of "music-other-wind performance-professional musical instruments", which is the first time that the mainland has listed the harmonica as a formal musical instrument, completely realizing the dream of several generations of harmonica people.
With the support of the Jiangyin Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Television and Tourism and the Zhutang Town Government, the Oriental Harmonica Museum will be built into a cultural tourist attraction and a cultural practice base for young people.
(Zhang Ruitian, Ma Xiaokang)