CHAPTER 5: Dulcimers in other countries since 1800 > Far East

Mongolia, Buryat Republic

Dulcimers are referred to in A.L. Lloyd and Grove 6, 'Mongolia'.

Japan

Discussed in Norlind (1936); one museum example, New York 2006, san-gen-dakin ("three-stringed struck kin") (84), 42 strings (14^III?), two bridges.

Vietnam

A butterfly harp, having 14" (alternatively 11^III + 3^I) is shown by Trân Và´n Khê (1962); he describes it as little known, and in the South considered Chinese, occasionally played solo, never in ensemble.

He gives the name dúóng cam (from yeung kum) (names are discussed in Chapter 2), but in his later work, 1967, (85) the instrument is not mentioned at all.

Thailand

Kim? - oral source, unconfirmed.

[later] In 1999 my brother brought back from a visit to Bangkok a carved wooden model of a dulcimer player, some 14 cm high.

Malaysia

One oral informant mentioned in conversation that the yang ch'in was played in Singapore cafes, by Chinese, who as a group comprise 60% of the townsfolk.