Recommended YouTube Videos

Instruments

Zheng
Being played in a mall, but has good visuals.

Pipa

Qin

Japanese koto

Vietnamese dan tranh

Transverse flute

Ensemble also features zheng, erhu

Erhu

Gu Zheng Solo

Pipa
Played by Yu Liangmau

Gu Qin

Gagaku

Aak

Japanese Koto

Erhu Performance

Xiao flute

Other

Traditional Beijing Opera

Houguang theatre
Beijing opera

Leehom Wang
Chinese R+B star music video featuring Beijing Opera, jinghu, and erhu

“The East is Red”
Classic 1960s communist propoganda film

Tiananmen Square Protests
Documented by an American journalist in 1989

Hope-to-despair
Music video collage history of Chinese communism leading up to Tiananmen Square massacre

BBC report
On Tiananmen events in 1989

8th Congress of Chinese Communist Party

Revolutionary Opera
Short clip of “The Department of Red Woman.”  Was performed for US President Nixon when he visited China in 1972.

Beijing Opera

Autumn Moon over the Han Palace

We are Successors to Communism

Spring on Snowy Mountains

Paper Concerto
By Tan Dun

Sheng solo

Cui Jian

Live Concert
Hard driving funk; starts with a guaguanco conga groove

“Fake Monk”
Live concert with zheng player in band

English Interview

Documentary Biography

“Fake Monk”

Voice of a Generation
Jian’s words narrating the 1989 protest at Tiananmen Square

Performance at French Embassy in Beijing

“Nothing But My Name”
Graphic slideshow of violence at Tiananmen Square set to Jian’s song; puts his song in the context of social significance.

Tibet

Drepung Gomang Monks

“Varja Sky Over Tibet”
Movie trailer, some historical context

J-Pop Music

“Murasaki no Yukari” (Rin)

“Sakura Sakura” (Rin)

Japan – Koto

“Koto Song”
Dave Brubeck, 1966

Traditional song performances

“Aoku”

Western music on koto

Japan – Gagaku

Good visual performance

Hawaiian Gagaku Society concert

Gagaku Etenraku

Japan – Sankyoku

Performance at the Pink Cow
Shamisen, Shakuhachi, and Koto

Tan Dun

“Farewell”
From Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Bei Bei (Chinese American Zheng Rock)

“Hot Thursday”

“East”

Performance on Zheng

Uighur

Rawap

Dancing

Uighur pop

Folk Music Conservatory

Dancing 2

Uighur Pop-folk
Following about a minute of preliminaries, this might be described as a Bollywood-meets-Uighur-folk kitsch video.

Uighur Rawap with Orchestra

Boy playing Rawap

Account of the Silk Road