Saturation Of Chinese Er-fu Melody In Japanese Cultural Background

These several years Chinese ethnic musical instruments became very popular in Japan. Especially favored is Er-fu which attracts people's attention so widely. Appreciating Er-fu music, as well as practicing the instrument, is in unprecedented booming fashion in today's Japan.This boom of Er-fu emerged so rapidly to win extraordinary popularity so widely. This thesis makes analysis of and describes cultural phenomena of Chinese Er-fu that attracts extensive attention among Japanese people.We can see various reasons that explain why Er-fu gained such popularity in Japan so rapidly during the recent few years. Firstly, I have to mention the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship signed in 1978, as a basic factor of the background. This triggered increased numbers of Chinese ethnic music artists coming to Japan. Japanese musicians who found Er-fu music so enchanting adopted its melody so aggressively into their own performance, which expanded Er-fu music very actively in the Japanese musical circles.Commercialization of Er-fu and related instruments developed over Japan, which gave more and more of Japanese people chances to access Er-fu and learn how to play it.At the background of recent Er-fu popularity in Japan, there exist such psychological factors as " admiration of Chinese culture as the historical roots of the Japanese culture" and " latent aspiration to seek for mental heal and mental peace" amongst very busy hustle and bustle style of daily life in Japan. Japanese culture has been developed by adopting and adapting the Continental culture since ancient times. While Japanese economy has highly developed materially as we see it nowadays, people are inclined to seek for more of mental value in their cultural activities and also in their busy daily lives.Er-fu music meet their psychological desire and Japanese people are en-chanted by its comforting tone and try to enjoy Er-fu melody more and more positively in their lives.The melody of Er-fu has thus been deeply saturated in the mind of the Japanese and is now beginning to establish a certain form of its own in the Japanese culture.