LEARNING THROUGH MUSIC: Chinese educator says music can offer insight into cultural differences

Hong Shao moved to the United States 10 years ago from China and speaks in broken English, but her ideas about using music to create cultural understanding are quite easy to grasp. 

Shao is Wednesday’s featured Lunch with the Arts presenter, and will use her skills on the pipa, a traditional Chinese instrument, for far more than entertainment. 

“Music is a very good way to teach others about another culture,” Shao says. 

A professionally trained musician and music educator, Shao works to enlighten others about Chinese culture. Music, she says, is a universal language everyone can understand. 

She grew up in a family of musicians, so learning to play instruments was something impressed upon her at an early age. She is also a pianist, but says the pipa is something so unique and so difficult she wants to share its characteristics with others. “I am the only person in my family who plays it,” she says. 

Similar to the banjo but much more difficult to play, and with difficult scales, Shao says the sound is too unique to describe in words.

“You must hear it for yourself,” she says. “It’s an interesting instrument, smooth like guitar. But you use all your fingers in a different way.” 

The photo Shao provided shows her right hand picking the strings as one would on a guitar, but her left-hand fingers are spread apart, stretched as far as possible from each other. 

“It’s just more complicated, but it’s very beautiful, soothing,” she notes. 

Shao hopes that by attending the lunch series, participants will understand just a bit more about Chinese culture — a professional and personal goal of her own. 

“There are so many American families that adopt Chinese children,” she points out. “ … And they want their children to continue to learn and understand Chinese culture. To know their heritage. It’s important.” 

Wednesday, Shao will play some traditional, or folk, music on the pipa. 

“There will be some beautiful solos. This instrument is used in Chinese operas and orchestras,” Shao says. 

For Shao, language has been the biggest hurdle of living in the U.S., and the culture is far, far different. 

“That’s why I’m thinking for people to learn more about the music,” she says. “Different cultures should understand the other. And then they will understand the people of the culture more. And maybe there will be no war. So it’s important.” 

IF YOU GO 

Lunch with the Arts 

Noon-1 p.m. Wednesday Community Arts Center

$10 with lunch (register at www.communityartscenter. net by 6 p.m. Monday) 

$5 at the door, bring your own lunch

SO YOU KNOW

Hong Shao grew up in Harbin, in the northeast part of China, a big city with about 8 million people. Shao says, “It’s cold in the winter, as much as 30 below zero, but it is good for making beautiful ice sculptures.” She has a bachelor’s degree in music education from the School of Music at Harbin Normal University. 

Previously, she was a host, editor and producer with the music department for Heilongjiang Radio Broadcast. After relocating to the U.S., she was an instructor for the University of Kentucky School of Music. Now, she is a Kentucky Arts Council Education Roster and Performing Arts Directory artist, and employed as the Patron Service Coordinator at the University of Kentucky’s Singletary Center for the Arts. She is a certified K-12 music teacher, and offers workshops and residency programs about Chinese and Asian cultures for students and teachers in schools across the state, including music, art and dance performance.