Guqin in popular culture

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Xu Kuanghua playing an ancient qin in the film, Hero.

Being a symbol of high culture, the guqin has inevitably been used as a prop in much of Chinese popular culture to varying degrees of accuracy. One can find references to the qin in a variety of media, most notably television serials and film. Mostly, the actors may not know how to play the instrument and mime it to a recorded piece by a qin player who may have recorded it specifically for the project. At other times, the music that is mimed to is guzheng music, rather than qin music. We also see the rather stereo-typical hybrids of qin and zheng psuedo-instruments of Kung Fu Hustle, to the more faithful and loving representation of the qin in Hero.

[edit] Recent examples

In the 1960s Hong Kong fantasy horror film, Deadly Melody (六指琴魔), one of the villains' weapon is a qin.
In the 1967 Louis Cha novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer (笑傲江湖), the guqin was featured prominently in the story, as the hero of the novel Linghu Chong inherits a manuscript Xiao Ao Jiang Hu (which happens to also be the title of the novel) from Liu Zhengfeng and Qu Yang which was a masterpiece that features a duet between the guqin and the xiao (a Chinese flute).
The sound track of the 1979 Hong Kong feature film House of the Lute (慾火焚琴), by John Thompson, is almost exclusively solo qin music he adapted and played. This ghost story features an old man who considers himself a scholar, so he engages in the skills of qin, chess, calligraphy and painting.
In the 1987 Hong Kong fantasy horror film, A Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂), the ghost, Nie, plays a qin and she breaks a string (a common metaphor for a troubled heart or being surprised) when the man Ning steps into the pavillion.
In the 1996 historical drama The Emperor's Shadow (Qin Song; 秦頌), Gao Jianli, a famous qin maker and performer uses his music to gain favor with the Emperor's daughter.
In the Hong Kong fantasy serial adaptation of Fengshen Bang (封神榜) (English title: Gods of Honour), the character Bi Gan plays a (historically inaccurate) qin. Another character (the Queen of the last Shang emperor Di Xin) actually grabs it and smashes it on a table. Qins are also used in scenes in a teaching academy.
In the Hong Kong animated series adaptation of Shendiao Xialü (神鵰俠侶) or The Return of the Condor Heroes, the character Xiaolongnü plays a qin when Yang Guo first sees her. She also plays the qin again in the second season.
In the 2002 Zhang Yimou film Hero (英雄), Xu Kuanghua plays an ancient version of the qin in the courtyard scene in which Nameless (Jet Li) and Long Sky (Donnie Yen) play go. He in fact mimes it to the music composed which is actually played by Liu Li, formerly a professor at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. ^[1] It is suggested that Xu made the qin himself. ^[2]
In the 2004 film Kung Fu Hustle (功夫), the main weapon of the Killers', a couple with the title of Greatest Assassins in Circulation, was a pseudo guqin-guzheng hybrid instrument (body structure of a qin, bridges and sound of a zheng). It has the unique ability to form swords, fists, and even undead warriors once certain notes are played.
In the 2004 Hong Kong historical drama called The Prince's Shadow (御用閒人), a guqin with an inscription on the surface is involved in a murder case, and another is played by the empress of the Qianlong Emperor, who breaks a string. The qin is depicted the wrong way round in this serial (i.e. played with the hui side towards the player rather than away from). The piece played was Feng Qiu Huang ("The Phoenix Seeks his Mate").
In the 2005 Chinese rock music compilation album called the Gift (禮物), commemorating over 25 years of rock music culture in China, and paying tribute to the Beijing-based prog-rock band Tang Dynasty's 10-year passing of bassist Zhang Ju (張炬), who died in a traffic accident while on his motorcycle; lead vocalist of Tang Dynasty Ding Wu (丁武) performs a guqin-solo in the title-song of the album.