I. The history of the huqin down the ages
The word huqin refers to all the bowed Chinese instruments, and covers the most commonly known variants in the same family: the gaohu, erhu, zhonghu and jinghu. However, in conventional parlance, the huqin is the erhu with silk strings, which has a wooden (or bamboo) cylinder with a long neck and pegs, and a piece of python skin stretched over the cylinder. The bow is made of horse-tail hair stretched on a thin stick of bamboo which produces sound by bowing the two strings. In his work, The Mengxi Notes, Shen Kuo, who lived in the Song Dynasty, mentioned the huqin in this poetic way, "the horse-tail haired huqin followed the Han carriage, and produced a plaintive tune reprimanding the nomad chief." The Record of Rites and Music in the Yuan Chronicles speaks of its specifications: "It is made and shaped like the huobusi (a musical instrument), with a scrolled neck decorated with a dragon head finial. There are two strings which are bowed, and the bow is stretched with hair from the tail of a horse." In the Ming Dynasty, the painting An Autumn Banquet at the Lin Hall by You Ziqiu depicts a boy playing a huqin in a standing posture, and the instrument already looks very similar to its modern day descendant. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, regional opera emerged in various parts of China and the huqin, being the principal melodic instrument to accompany these new art forms, developed into different varieties and shapes and many are still extant. As the cylinder is covered with a piece of python skin, the sound thus produced often gives the listener a sense of sorrow, grief and misfortune. It is a good medium for plaintive expressions of hardship and sadness, and is particularly congenial and convincing for people who have suffered failure and vicissitudes in life. Liu Tianhua and Ah Bing the Blind, two recent master exponents and advocates of the instrument, have both written in such styles. And before the 1950's, people tended to call the erhu 'the beggar's instrument', linking it to itinerant musicians who played it to beg for alms. This tells us that, in those days, both the erhu and its player belonged to the lower strata of society.

However, dramatic reforms took place after the 1950's, and the huqin has had a reversal of fortune. In the newly established Chinese orchestra, the huqin assumes the position of the violins in the western orchestra. Thanks to the efforts of several generations of reformers, many great performers have appeared, and there is a much enlarged repertoire and an enormous increase in people who want to learn to play the instrument. The silk strings have been replaced by metal strings, and the structure of the instrument has undergone a series of changes. Performing techniques have been complemented by compositional devices and the expressiveness of the instrument has been greatly enhanced. Today, the huqin is the soul of the Chinese orchestra, and when Chinese musical instruments are mentioned there are very few who are not aware of the existence of the huqin. Its subtle timbre and rich expressiveness are much loved by the Chinese people, making it one of the most representative of all ethnic instruments in China. In a full-configured Chinese orchestra, the gaohu, erhu, zhonghu, gehu and bass gehu are generically referred to as the huqin family, and they all use the python skin as the vibrating film.

II. The Python Skin - the Point of Contention
Over 500,000 huqins are produced in China every year. Assuming that a piece of python skin four metres long is sufficient for 12 erhus (or 3 to 4 for the high-end version), 60,000 pythons have to be killed every year to produce the skin required for the erhu market. The figures are indeed alarming. Furthermore, the United States, Australia and Japan have already prohibited the import of python skins, a ban that will have direct impact on our cultural exports. The Chinese Government began to impose strict control over the import of python skins and a licensing system is in place. Action against the unlicensed skin is pursued vigorously, and it can be anticipated that regulatory measures will be even more stringent in the days to come.

It takes traditional craftsmanship to stretch a piece of python skin on the huqin, but python skin, as a material, carries with it many intrinsic problems which affect the tone quality of the instrument. It does not take to humidity very well, while it is hot and damp most of the time in the south of China. This has resulted in a lack of tension in the skin and brings about a dull and miffed sound. On the other hand, the dry and cold winter weather in the north makes the membrane brittle, which turns the sound dry and bitter. A huqin does not have a long working life, which is normally about 10 years. When a new instrument comes into use it takes three to four years of 'breaking-in' for its timbre to be developed, but then in six to seven years the tone colours begin to turn dry because the membrane, having gone through successive expansion and contraction under hot and cold conditions, has aged and gradually loses its suppleness. Another issue is that raw python skin invariably contains fat and protein which make the material highly susceptible to moulding and bacterial growth. The tone quality depends on the skin, which itself hinges on the elasticity of the tissues inside. Thus the quality of each python skin is determined by the species of the python, where it is from and other habitat-related factors. Then there is the human factor of strict control on the thickness and evenness of each skin adapted for use on a huqin. With all these issues, it can only be understood that the standardization of tone colour and tone quality of huqins is hard to achieve. As a solo instrument, the non-standardisation is not too much of a problem, but as a tutti instrument, the absence of uniformity results in blurred tonal effects, inadequate dynamics and insufficient togetherness overall. It is to be noted that artificially raised pythons produce skins that are even less lasting than those from pythons caught in the wild, and never find themselves on a huqin of any quality.

III. The Necessity of Improving the Performance of the Huqin Family
Owing to the natural characteristics of python skins and the non-standardisation of huqin craftsmanship, which varies widely with the individual maker's skill and experience, the gaohu, erhu and zhonghu, as standard components of a professional orchestra, suffer from a severe and fundamental problem: a distinctive tone quality that tends not to blend well with other instruments. This is because huqins matured in form in the 1950's. That was a time when aesthetic values and musical works alike were very basic, demanding little beyond uniformity of rhythm and tone, expanded tonal range and increased volume. Since the progressive 1980's, however, a large amount of Chinese symphonic music that showcases the tonal idiosyncrasies of traditional instruments has appeared. If the performing functions of the instruments are not improved, the development of Chinese symphonic music will be hindered. As China's economy continues to scale new heights, traditional Chinese music is also reaching an increasingly global audience. What artistic qualities, then, should we present the world through our music? How can music represent our advanced culture? How to improve the functions of our musical instruments is a pressing issue. Under the worldwide trend towards environmental consciousness, the use of python skin in huqin-making has become a particular point of contention, forcing us to decide between adhering to tradition and adapting for the future. In 2005, under the supervision of Mr. Yan Huichang, Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, we began a challenging and wide-ranging project of redesigning huqins. We hoped to use new design concepts and techniques to correct the flaws of traditional huqin craftsmanship and to replace python skin with modern, eco-friendly materials that do not compromise or alter the musical qualities of huqins.

IV. The Huqin Reform: Concept and Implementation
'Moving one's position without changing one's form' is a standard technique in Chinese drama. Our reforming of huqins follows this technique in both concept and implementation. The unique tone quality of the huqin family has, for the past fifty years, become deeply ingrained with the public's hearing experience. Thus the 'form' could not be altered. How, then, could we move our 'position,' that is, improve the performance of huqins while preserving their musical identity and adhering to environmental principles? We had to forge new paths on our own. Although research on artificial python skin, ongoing in China since the 1960's, has in recent years yielded a considerable number of products, they are mostly made from non-biodegradable plastics and are not eco-friendly. That these products have not been adopted in huqins has to be because they cannot achieve the musical qualities of real python skin. We understood this situation clearly, and we focused our efforts on two fronts: finding an eco-friendly substitute for python skin and redesigning the structure of the vibrating box. Through continuous experimentation, we hoped to create a new huqin family, including the gaohu, erhu, zhonghu, gehu and bass gehu, that has improved performance characteristics, is suitable for standard orchestral use, maintains the individual qualities of each instrument and achieves a harmonious acoustic effect within itself as well as with the rest of the orchestra. We needed the higher register to be clear and crisp, the middle register to be rich and elegant, and the low register to be robust and generous. The entire family would be a seamless synthesis of all these qualities. This new sound system, centred on the vibrating film, would be similar in mechanics to Western string instruments, which are built around the vibrating board, but the musical qualities of the two would be completely different. Following the design vision outlined above, we redesigned the huqin instruments one by one, assessed our results in the Orchestra's rehearsals and performances while adjusting our goals along the way. The preliminary new design for every instrument, after approval by Mr. Yan, the Concertmaster and the Principal, was immediately incorporated into the orchestra and tested with traditional instruments. If a new design proved a success, we gradually increased its presence within the orchestra; if not, we returned to further exploration and readjustment. We like to describe our process as 'feeling our way across the river from one stone to the next'. The one-and-a-half years of rehearsal, performance and design in tandem ensured both functional improvements and the preservation of the tutti tone quality.

V. Creating the Eco-gaohu
To maintain the tone quality of the gaohu, we continued to use zitan and suanzhi (mahogany) woods to fashion the sound box. But to ensure an appropriate volume, we based its design on the following formula, which gives the vibrating frequency of the air inside the box:

f	=	C
		2(L+ar)

Then, in order to find the dimensions necessary for the ideal base tone, we tested our design by maintaining its volume but varying the size of the opening of the sound box, the length of the neck, the internal curvature of the sound box, as well as the thicknesses of its inner and outer walls. Afterwards, we further tested vibrating membranes of various tensions and thicknesses so as to find the one that behaved most closely to python skin. Our substitute skins were made from eco-friendly PET products from Dupont. To simplify our experiments, we created a machine that mounts membranes to sound boxes, a step that is completely different from the traditional way of mounting python skin. Equipped with a digital tension meter, the machine allows membranes to be attached with specific, quantifiable, and adjustable tension levels that are uniform across the surface. The process is similar to tuning the timpani. It minimizes the potential of irregular vibrations on the membrane and of deformations of the sound box caused by lopsided tensions in tuning and other situations. Since PET membranes are several times more tensile than python skin, they vibrate more uniformly and more energetically for any given tension level. So, in theory, a huqin with a PET membrane produces sounds that are louder and have less expiration than one made with traditional materials, and is thus functionally superior to the latter. Given the same raw materials, the mechanically and digitally controlled manufacture process is capable of producing a batch of products with essentially identical tone qualities and effects. The redesigned gaohu that we produced is called the HKCO1 Eco-Gaohu. After the prototype was completed in October, 2005, Mr. Yan Huichang invited the famous gaohu performer, Yu Qiwei to give a solo recital at a concert in November. Mr. Yu played the traditional Cantonese tunes, Autumn Moon on a Placid Lake and the ancient melody Autumn Meditations in the Boudoir. Could the modern gaohu, hardly one month old, handle these traditional tunes? To ensure the quality of Mr. Yu's performance, he and I did a recording and interview at the Radio Television Hong Kong, in which Mr. Yu played the same piece of music with a python-skin gaohu and then an HKCO1 Eco-Gaohu. Listening to the recordings, we were surprised to find ourselves unable to differentiate between the two, and became much more confident that our new design was a success. In a concert held in November of the same year, Mr. Wong On-yuen, our Concertmaster, performed for the first time with the HKCO1 Eco-Gaohu prototype ¡X and as the lead gaohu, no less.

VI. The Gaohu Design Team 'Has Crossed the River'!
Although the HKCO1 Eco-Gaohu debuted to very favourable response from our audience as a solo, lead, and accompanying instrument, Mr. Yan remained cautious about its implementation, only introducing it one at a time into the gaohu section in ensuing concerts to let them mingle with traditional python-skin gaohus. Only after ascertaining that there was no conflict between the sound qualities of the two did he begin to phase in an entire group of redesigned gaohus. Aside from those who frequented our performances most often, our audience was generally not even aware of the change. In the year and a half or so that has lapsed since then, our gaohu section, by 'feeling their way across the river from one stone to the next,' successfully realized our principle of 'moving one's position without changing one's form'. We verified in practice that the new gaohu has a balanced volume in the high-pitched region between g4 and g6, a higher volume than the python-skin gaohu and an overall cleaner and crisper sound quality. As accompaniment, the redesigned gaohu has a stronger cohesiveness and mass volume with the rest of the orchestra. Because its higher registers have a lower sense of expiration, they are fuller and brighter. A quick succession of semiquavers on the new gaohu is easily executed, with the granular notes enhanced, and therefore adds a wonderful texture to the music. For example, the nimble, dancing notes in the quick bow passage in Full Moon and Blossoming Flowers, written by Huang Yijun and arranged by Peng Xiuwen, can be rendered with greater passion and vigour using the HKCO1 Eco-Gaohu.

VII. Redesigning the Zhonghu and the Gehu
Our redesign of the zhonghu followed that of the gaohu in conception and implementation. Therefore, with the former we achieved also cleaner, fuller sounds that far surpass the traditional zhonghu in volume. As PET membranes vibrate robustly, the sounds they generate have low expiration and a strong sense of cohesiveness. Slow melodies executed with long, unbroken bow movements on the new zhonghu recall the complete and self-sufficient quality of wind instruments. The more generous tone quality we achieved in the zhonghu also increases its ability to accommodate other instruments, enriching the orchestra's overall sound quality.

Regular gehus have a diameter of 35 cm, and bass gehus 52 cm. In the past, their vibrating membranes could be extracted only from large pythons, and these tend to cause discomfort among Western audiences. Environmental concerns aside, the sluggish, indistinct sounds of traditional gehus, at times bordering on inarticulate, had been begging for improvement. Using Mr. Yang Yusen's 1964 gehu design as our blueprint, we adjusted the dimensions of the sound box, the materials used for the neck, and the shape and size of the umbrella-shaped skeleton joining the membrane within the sound box, among other things, and of course again substituted PET for python skin. After a total of eight design iterations, we created the HKCO1 Eco-Gehu, the membrane and board of which vibrate in harmony. It can produce higher volumes than the cello. The advantages of our design have prompted the Guangzhou Zhujiang Group to begin mass-producing it. The Science and Education Department of the Ministry of Culture, as ever encouraging research and development of bass ethnic string instruments, generously expressed its support for our efforts even when they were just beginning, back in 2005.

VIII. The Superior Man Never Rests in His Self-improvement
Environmental protection is an important global trend - the development and even survival of the human race hinge upon it. Musical instruments, ultimately a means to the end of making art, naturally evolve along with people's aesthetic values. That instruments should change with the development of society is thus a matter of course. The traditional huqin craft of today is the result of a continual process of reform and development, in which every crisis is also an opportunity for renewal. Following the worldwide environmental consciousness of our age, the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra took a successful first step in creating an eco-friendly family of huqins. We invented a membrane-mounting machine, substituted PET for python skin, and refined the technology of the sound box with modern science. Insisting upon the maintenance of traditional tone qualities, instrument formats, and playing techniques, we followed the principle of 'moving one's position without changing one's form' and achieved superior performance characteristics in our designs. Although we are still perfecting the erhu and the bass gehu, the six members of our Gaohu Section, the eight members of the Zhonghu Section, and another eight members of the Gehu Section are already equipped with huqins from the HKCO1 Eco-Huqin family. The fruit of our endeavours to improve traditional instruments with innovative use of modern science have made us fully confident that the future holds much potential for development.

Under the unwavering support of our Council, the Artistic Director and the Executive Director, as well as the dedicated efforts of our administrative staff and our musicians, the HKCO1 Eco-huqin family is steadily geared for success. On the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, and the 10^th Anniversary of the Hong Kong SAR, we would like to present our best wishes on the future of Chinese music. We hope that ecology concerns and the traditional art of the huqin will be in a mutually beneficial relationship. As the Book of Changes famously states, 'Just as the heavens have their ways of self-rejuvenation, the superior man ought never to rest in his self-improvement.'