Go Deep in Lijiang: Life-long dedication to Sugudu

'Sugudu’ is a traditional four-stringed pluck instrument popular among the Naxi people in northwest Yunnan’s Lijiang city. He Zhanhuan is a provincial inheritor of the Sugudu making.

He has loved the ancient music of the Naxi people since his childhood, and at the age of twenty-four, he attempted to make his own Sugudu.

Zhanhuan is so dedicated to making and playing Sugudu that he has been recognised by the international community. Friends from more than ten countries, including Hungary, Brazil, Germany, France and Japan, have come to Lijiang for a documentary on the making of Sugudu.

In 2017, the technique was listed as an intangible cultural heritage of Yunnan province.

Reporting by He Lixin (Gucheng Digital Center); Trans-editing by Li Jingshuo