Purple Pheonix Ladies' Ensemble

Last night I went to see the Purple Phoenix Ladies' Ensemble. Yeah, I wasn't exactly sure what it was either other than that it’s some kind of Chinese Orchestra show. The ensemble was made up of 13 Chinese girls and the show was a combination of dance, singing, and Chinese instrument playing which all made for such an entertaining show (minus the horrible local emcee and some local singer that sang two songs). They started and ended with traditional Chinese songs which I really liked, but in-between they had some interpretations of more modern songs which I didn't really care for at all. I found out I really like the stringed instruments called huqin. Huqin is actually a family of two-stringed instruments with many different versions all over SE Asia; the most common is called the erhu. I was told that it's a difficult instrument to learn- like a violin but with only two strings and you hold it vertically resting in your lap. I also learned that the phoenix is the Chinese symbol for women and the dragon is the symbol for men.