Liu Jiaxi: In my Introduction to International Business first class at Sanming University in Fujian Province, I introduced myself and shared that I have been playing the guzheng, a traditional Chinese musical instrument, for over 10 years. To my surprise, my Bangladeshi teacher, Dr Mohammad Saiyeul Islam, had also tried to learn the guzheng for a week while he was a Ph.D. student at Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics.

This shared interest sparked my curiosity about the guzheng's role in international cultural exchange. My teacher, despite his enthusiasm for Chinese culture, encountered difficulties that made him stop learning. Even a passionate foreign scholar faces challenges with the guzheng, raising important questions about its accessibility and reception abroad.

To solve this puzzle, I talked with him further and asked why he had stopped learning. Besides his extremely busy schedule, he mentioned that pressing the strings accurately and quickly was quite difficult, and coordinating both hands felt challenging. He also pointed out that numbered musical notation is highly unique and very different from the five-line staff.

From my own four years of piano learning, I understand the standard staff well, so I can objectively say that the guzheng's numbered notation feels much easier to me. Even so, I fully agree that guzheng techniques can be quite demanding, especially for beginners from different cultural backgrounds.

These challenges demonstrate how the guzheng’s unique features can hinder international learners, sharpening the need to address its accessibility in cultural exchange. To assess these barriers, we should first introduce its basic characteristics and cultural background.

The guzheng is a traditional Chinese plucked string instrument with a history of over 2,000 years. It is one of the most representative musical instruments in Chinese culture, widely loved for its clear, soft, and expressive sound.

A typical modern guzheng has 21 strings stretched over a long wooden body. Players wear fingerpicks on their right hand to pluck the strings, while their left hand gently presses the strings to change pitch and tone. Its sound can be as peaceful as flowing water, as lively as a spring breeze, or as deep as a quiet ancient poem.

Beyond being a musical instrument, the guzheng carries the aesthetic ideas and emotional expressions of traditional Chinese culture. It represents gentleness, harmony, and the beauty of nature, making it an important symbol for understanding Chinese art and culture.

Nowadays, the guzheng still holds irreplaceable value amid the development of global culture. For China, it is not only a carrier of an excellent traditional culture that preserves the nation’s historical memory and artistic wisdom but also a vital cultural symbol that conveys Chinese aesthetic concepts and spiritual pursuits.

In international cultural exchanges, the guzheng serves as a bridge, helping to overcome cultural barriers. My experience with Dr Mohammad Saiyeul Islam highlights how this instrument connects people across cultures, while also revealing the real obstacles international learners face. This underscores the importance of making the guzheng more accessible worldwide.

Additionally, the guzheng keeps pace with the times by integrating with modern music elements, injecting new vitality into traditional folk music. It enriches the diversity of world music, proving that traditional musical instruments can still glow with unique charm in contemporary society, and plays an active role in promoting the diversified development of global music culture.

The author is a student, majoring in Business English in the School of Overseas Education (School of Foreign Languages) at Sanming University, Fujian province.