The new signs for China Music Island in Jiangyin

In 2008 Jiangyin was declared the home town of Chinese folk music by the Chinese Ministry of Culture due to its special commitment to the continuation and further development of Chinese folk music. Jiangyin is home to almost 70 different orchestras, 30 music schools and 9 examination institutions for Chinese folk music. More than 3000 people regularly and actively take advantage of this offer. In addition, renowned institutions such as the Liu Tianhua Research Association and the Jiangyin erhu society established. Jiangyin wants to inspire young people for music with this centre. China Music Island wants to preserve, promote and develop traditional Chinese music.

What is music? What does music mean to us?

The oldest known instruments are about 35,000 years old. But we can assume that music was part of people's everyday life much earlier. Why man has acquired musical abilities in the course of his evolution is unclear. Music has been part of the rite and cult of early civilizations for a long time. Often its formed a unity of singing, poetry, instrument and dance. Only later did music become independent as an autonomous art form and became much more complex, versatile and expressive due to the influence of arithmetic. 

Chinese folk music is one of the oldest musical traditions in the world. Although much of traditional music has been lost in the last hundred years, thanks to the popularity of some classical instruments, interest in the associated history has been reawakened and the Chinese musical tradition is experiencing a renaissance.