Assignment 4 The Ecological Sustainability of Chinese flute______ Liu Yushuo

Flutes, which are widely found in all regions of the world, use a wide variety of materials. The first bone flute appeared in the world after primitive people discovered by chance that leftover bones could be played from a certain angle, and after some time of exploration. (A flute made from the wing bone of a buzzard or the leg bone of a crane.) With the improvement of human existence in later times, people found that bamboo or wood as the raw material for making musical instruments had the advantages of being easy to take and having a large selection margin. The material of the flute also changed. Next I would like to focus on: the Chinese flute, which is one of the most commonly played instruments in China. From ancient times to the present, the Chinese flute has been a favorite instrument of the Chinese people. The Chinese literati often included the Chinese flute in their poetry and writings.

The selection of materials for a Chinese flute is very important. The production materials have used white bamboo, black bamboo, red bamboo, reed bamboo, and so on. Selecting high-quality old bamboo that meets the production requirements is one of the keys to making flutes. Bamboos that are 3 to 5 years old are usually used. The so-called good material refers to the material with a large specific gravity and a good feel; then the thickness, length and roundness must meet the production requirements. When choosing bamboo materials, factors such as pattern, pitch and color, should be considered. Usually, the maker has already selected the bamboo material suitable for making the bamboo flute in the origin of the bamboo.

I also observed that the flute has used materials, such as mahogany and plastic, in addition to bamboo as the raw material for the bamboo flute. The use of different materials for a flute can have an effect on its sound, but it is not significant. From the analysis of the material cost, they are ranked from highest to lowest price: mahogany flute > bamboo flute > plastic flute. However, it is easy to see that the most used raw material for flutes is still bamboo. China has a wide range of bamboo production areas and many varieties. Bamboo plays a very important role in daily life. In terms of ecological sustainability, bamboo is an herbaceous plant that divides and grows automatically. So not only is the rational cutting of bamboo forests not damaging the environment, it will make them more beautiful and make them stronger. A bamboo forest grows new bamboo every year. Compared to trees, which are the raw material for mahogany flutes, the exploitation of bamboo forests does not cause any ecological damage.

However, bamboo flutes have an obvious flaw, which is that they are more prone to cracking. This is because there is moisture in the bamboo and as the environment changes, the moisture slowly dries out and the bamboo shrinks as it dries, cracking the bamboo. Most of the flutes that break down due to cracking are thrown away and thus produce garbage, but bamboo only takes a maximum of two to three years to degrade, and from an ecological point of view, it does not destroy ecological sustainability.

One obvious advantage of plastic flutes over bamboo flutes is that they do not crack or break easily. Also, the sound quality of a plastic recorder is better than that of a bamboo recorder at the same price point. But from the ecological perspective, this is a double-edged sword in relation to the environment, since it can be said that plastic flutes protect the ecology to a certain extent (reducing the number of trees and bamboo cut down), but in most cases people who buy plastic flutes probably do so out of novelty and curiosity, and after the novelty is over, they tend to choose bamboo flutes to play. The degradation time of forgotten or discarded flutes made of plastic is indeed 50 to 100 years.

Here is a video. Since the comparison of flutes is not available at the moment, I put a comparison experiment of a similar instrument “shakuhachi". A plastic shakuhachi of more than 10,000 yen and a bamboo shakuhachi of 200,000 yen were used for comparison by playing them separately.

In summary, as an instrument with a long history, the bamboo flute is not harmful for ecological sustainability, and even stimulates the growth of new bamboo to some extent. Therefore, I believe that people should be encouraged to use bamboo flutes more for musical activities than mahogany flute and plastic flutes or other types of Chinese flutes.