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Qin, or guqin in modern term, is one of the oldest instruments in the history of Chinese music. It was widely agreed as the most important part of literati music, which represented characteristics of scholars as well as intellectuals. The main discrepancy between guqin and other types of traditional Han instruments in China was the aesthetics and the philosophy associated with the former one. It was also a symbol of elite culture. The development of guqin culture in Taiwan began in 1949 in the wake of the immigration of some Chinese musicians to the island along with the ROC government, giving rise to the later spreading of this type of music. Guqin culture and its music, however, have both varied due to various changes in Taiwan’s political, societal, and economic environments in past decades. To explicitly discover guqin culture, the method of literature review is adopted by the research to analyze the origin in China and the development of guqin culture in Taiwan. Fieldwork and in-depth interview are then utilized as two additional measures to examine the changes and the development of the forms of guqin performance in Taiwan’s society under multiple influences. The transformation and innovation of guqin, as well as its performing fields, are also discussed.
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