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I like Yuan Sha 袁莎 alot. She’s is very skilled (she is regularly ranked 1st for competitions and examinations in China, and that’s a big deal!), and she is so beautiful - a poster girl! ♥♥ Look at this picture ♥♥

Image from tv.sohu.com

You can read a little about her on this baidu page. I’m surprised that she doesn’t have a wikipedia page yet, but I’m sure she would soon due to her genuine passion to proliferate guzheng to the masses. And one of the ways she has done that is to set up a school 中国筝乐会所（袁莎古筝艺术中心) to mass-produce qualified guzheng teachers.

Here’s a video interview of her, talking about her ideas to grow guzheng’s popularity (袁莎对古筝新的理念):

Although I’m not very fluent in mandarin, I gathered some points from it.

“…More western symphonies/bands are beginning to include guzheng into their music, I believe it affirms the standing of Chinese instruments in modern day contexts… As such, the guzheng players MUST have a high standard, high quality of playing in order to be a good representative for the instrument. Otherwise it would not have a positive effect… Guzheng used to have a traditional, elegant and quiet image for solo-playing. I believe it has greater potential than that. However, holding on to traditional ways will not bring the guzheng the masses… One important area of growth is the music pieces/scores for the guzheng, and I am working on more pieces that can played like the piano (or duet with the piano), as well as having scores for popular music (pop-music), music that is familiar to the masses, as this familiarity pulls the masses to truly listen and attract them to the instrument…”

“We now also have alot more students, and alot more teachers… In my guzheng-vocational school, I have mass produced quality teachers. In the past, music conservatories only take in 1 student per year, after a decade, you can only produce 10 teachers. How could we bring guzheng to the masses as such? (Her school has produced 1000 teachers in three years.) Also with so many of us, duets, group guzheng, and a variety of duets with other chinese or western instruments would have more regular occurances…”

袁莎姐，我好喜欢你的中国古筝学院的 idea。我不知道有没有机会飞到中国在你的学院学习，也不知道有没有机会让你指导，和你一起演奏……我又不富，也不年轻了，现在飞到中国学习古筝有点不实际。

Yuan Sha (together with her sister Yuan Li) also performed for Obama in his recent trip to China. You can check it out on her blog. She’s the one in light pink; her sister is in a light purple dress.

Anyway, here’s a performance by Yuan Sha, Yuan Li, and her protégé: 3 sisters who are called the 水晶石: