A Chinese intellectual named Sun Deng was dissatisfied during the "Three Kingdoms" period (AD 220-280) and chose to become a hermit on Sumen Mountain near today's Xinxiang of Central China's Henan Province.

It is said that Sun liked to pour out his heart through whistling, and his melodies often attracted groups of birds.

The place on Sumen Mountain where he used to whistle was later called "Xiaotai" or "whistling platform," and because of that, Sun is regarded as the forefather of musical whistling in China.

Wang Minglei, a 38-year-old middle-school teacher in Xinxiang, became fond of whistling three decades ago. Since then he has not stopped practicing and researching it.

"We have a long tradition of whistling in China," said Wang. "It is a special music phenomenon and a symbol in the history of Chinese culture."

Author of a book titled "Happy Whistling," Wang is also founder of the Xiaotai Whistling Art Research Society, and organizer of the first Whistling Competition of China, held in Xinxiang in September 2004.

Nineteen whistlers from around China took part in that competition. For them, it was not only a chance to compete but also an opportunity to exchange techniques and tricks with other whistlers.

One of their most unforgettable memories was whistling as a chorus while touring Sumen Mountain at Xiaotai.

There have been a number of such spontaneous events of whistling enthusiasts in recent years, such as the national whistlers' get-together held in Beijing last January, and the Music Festival of China Whistler Net in Shijiazhuang of North China's Hebei Province last October.

On the Internet, whistlers are communicating every day.

"Anyone with a sense of music can whistle," said Hong Bo, who founded the "Whistling Exchange" online chat room, the first of its kind in China. "You can do it without knowing how to read the score, and it's a free instrument."

The "whistling exchange" started with Hong two years ago, and now whistlers from all over China gather in the virtual forum to learn from each other.

Another popular online whistling chat room is "Sweet Whistling." Its founder Cao Qingyao is a staff member of the China Aviation Oil Holding Company's branch in Qingdao of East China's Shandong Province, but he is better known as a whistler.

Cao has released three albums and in 2002 held a concert of whistling music with the Qingdao Hisense Symphony Orchestra.

Cao's repertoire consists of both Chinese and foreign works. The former includes such pieces as "The White-haired Girl" and "Butterfly Lovers," while examples of the latter are the "Love Theme" from the film "The Godfather" and Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance."

Cao also plays the Chinese bamboo flute and trumpet, so he can borrow techniques from them to aid his whistling.

Almost every night Cao spends several hours in the "Sweet Whistling" chat room. Because of his mastery of whistling techniques, many whistlers consult him on the Internet.

Around 40 to 70 people gather at "Sweet Whistling" every day, and Cao often uses the chat room's visual device to demonstrate various whistling techniques.

The Internet not only provides resources for those wanting to learn how to whistle, it is helping to establish whistling as a form of art in China.

Li Lizhong, an employee at the Agricultural Bank of China in Shijiazhuang, founded "China Whistler Net" at www.cnwhistler.com, which is the most complete website about the development of musical whistling in China. Its content includes news, articles and Chinese whistling music available for downloading.

Li has long enjoyed whistling, but he didn't know that whistling could be an art until he read an article about it in a newspaper over 10 years ago. After reading that, he realized there was a lack of information about whistling in China and decided to do something about it.

In 2000, Li set up his site, in which he has collected materials about the history of musical whistling in China and information about the contemporary development of musical whistling.

The China Whistler Net has an English version for the international whistling community in China.

Li was invited to take part in the International Whistlers Convention, held annually in Louisburg, North Carolina in the United States, years ago. But due to financial limitations and passport restrictions, Li didn't make it at that time.

"Now these barries aren't problems any longer," said Li. "I am planning to participate in the convention, but I want to go with some comrades, so that we can represent whistlers from China at the international stage."

Though there are numerous whistling enthusiasts in China, it is more of a hobby than a vocation to live on, and whistling is largely unrecognized as formal music.

The first person who treated whistling as a serious performing art in modern China was Zhang Dihe, a retired oboe player who used to play in the former Central Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1984, Zhang released a cassette tape titled "Whistling and Orchestra," which inspired many of today's Chinese whistlers.

In that album, in co-operation with the orchestra of National Ballet of China under the baton of famous conductor Hu Bingxu, Zhang used whistling as a solo instrument to perform pieces such as Schubert's Serenade, Dvorak's Humoresque and Hua Yanjun's "Moon Reflected in the Erquan Spring."

On that cassette was also "Yearn" by Ji Cheng and Xiao Ou, which is one of the few works composed especially for whistling.

Zhang went on to release four other whistling albums in the 1980s, and in concerts he often played an encore of whistling after an oboe solo.

"Due to the limitation of whistling in terms of timbre and expressivity, it is destined not to have as much development as vocal or instrumental music," said Zhang. "However, it is a highly popular form of music among the people, and it can not be judged only from the artistic perspective."

Some whistlers are trying to establish a national whistlers' association, in hopes of promoting musical whistling further.

At the same time, many are doing more practical work. Wang is going to record his first CD this year, while Li and Cao are preparing to take part in international whistling events.

Qiu Ming, a woman whistler from Southwest China's Sichuan Province, is planning to form a women's whistling band.

There is a Chinese saying that "the silk can not compare with the bamboo, and the bamboo can not compare with the flesh," which means that blown instruments sound better than plucked instruments, while singing sounds still better than blown instruments.

Whistlers believe that whistling also belongs to the category of "flesh," for it is produced by a person's own body.

"The sound of whistling is natural and affectionate, and it is easy to arouse people's sympathy," said Li. "It is a music that you can perform any time, anywhere."
 
(China Daily June 19, 2006)