Zheng Music in the “Opening Up and Reform” Era

In the late 1970s, the People’s Republic of China re-engaged with the West and international trade while altering domestic political and economic strategies. These changes had a telling effect on the zheng and its music. The instrument grew in importance and zheng players were more and more numerous, both in the reopened Chinese conservatories and among the broad public. The zheng’s repertory continued to expand, with new compositions reaching new heights of difficulty. The zheng’s enlarged musical repertory also included traditional works adapted for the zheng, most of them based on music collected in various regions of China. Method books proliferated. Zheng ensembles and new groups of mixed ensembles featuring the zheng were founded, along with mass zheng festivals. A journal devoted to zheng study was established.