Self-taught maker of Chinese musical instrument the erhu takes us inside his Hong Kong workshop
- Tong Man-hak, 76, taught himself to make erhus after his was stolen on a trip to China
- His erhus can sell for almost US$3,000 and one was used by star player Hsin Hsiao-ling, but he worries about the future of the craft in Hong Kong
Inside a small workshop packed with cupboards and a carpenter’s bench, 76-year-old Tong Man-hak carefully measures pieces of wood and places them precisely before using an electric saw to cut them. His meticulousness is crucial in making an erhu, a traditional two-stringed Chinese musical instrument.
“A good erhu resonates well and won’t sound out of tune,” he says. Tong should know. The erhu maker, one of the few left in Hong Kong, has been learning and mastering the skill over the past decade all by himself through trial and error. That he worked as a carpenter making Chinese furniture for 30 years helps.
His love of the instrument began as a teenager in Guangxi in southwest China, where he watched others play the erhu.
“A group of people playing together sounds so beautiful and I wondered if I could play it too,” he says.
Hong Kong erhu craftsman spent decade learning to made perfect traditional Chinese instruments
“In the school dormitory on the weekends I learned how to play the erhu on my own. I first learned to play very simple tunes and then figured out how to get the sound right. Even if there was a teacher available, I wouldn’t have been able to afford to pay him or her.”