The ''tihu'' ( 提胡; pinyin: tíhú) is a two-stringed bowed vertical fiddle in the ''

huqin ''Huqin'' () is a family of bowed string instruments, more specifically, a spike fiddle popularly used in Chinese music. The instruments consist of a round, hexagonal, or octagonal sound box at the bottom with a neck attached that protrudes up ...

'' family, used in ''

Chaozhou xianshi Teochew string music or Chaozhou xianshi ( also called "string-poem music") is classed as a type of music (chamber music for strings and woodwind, literally 'silk/bamboo') although it typically uses stringed instruments only. It is found in northe ...

'' music of the

Chaozhou people The Teochew people or Chaoshan people (rendered Têo-Swa in romanized Teoswa and Chaoshan in Standard Chinese also known as Teo-Swa in mainland China due to a change in place names) is anyone native to the historical Chaoshan region in south ...

. It is an adaptation of the ''

gaohu The ''gaohu'' ( 高胡; pinyin: ''gāohú'', ; Cantonese: gou1 wu4; also called ''yuehu'' 粤胡) is a Chinese bowed string instrument developed from the ''erhu'' in the 1920s by the musician and composer Lü Wencheng (1898–1981) and use ...

'' used in

Cantonese music ''Cantonese music'' may refer to: *The music of Cantonese-speaking peoples, especially: **Music of Guangdong **Music of Hong Kong ** Music of Macau *Cantonese language music, especially Cantopop Cantopop (a contraction of "Cantonese pop mus ...

. It has a tubular hardwood body that is covered on the playing end with

python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

skin. It is used in the Chaozhou people's original homeland of

Chaozhou Chaozhou (), alternatively Chiuchow, Chaochow or Teochew, is a city in the eastern Guangdong province of China. It borders Shantou to the south, Jieyang to the southwest, Meizhou to the northwest, the province of Fujian to the east, and the Sou ...

and

Shantou Shantou, alternately romanized as Swatow and sometimes known as Santow, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern coast of Guangdong, China, with a total population of 5,502,031 as of the 2020 census (5,391,028 in 2010) and an administrative ...

, in eastern

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, as well as in regions where Chaozhou people have immigrated, such as

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. The ''tihu'' is generally held with the resonator between the knees. It is considered a supporting instrument in the ''Chaozhou xianshi'' ensemble. It is tuned lower and plays in a slower, more lyrical fashion than does the leading fiddle, called ''

erxian The ''erxian'' ( 二弦; pinyin: èrxián; literally "two string") is a Chinese bowed string instrument in the ''huqin'' family of instruments. It has two strings and is used primarily in Cantonese music, most often in "hard string" chamber e ...

''.

Gallery

File:Chaozhoutihu3.jpg, Side view of a Chaozhou ''tihu'' File:Tiqinback.jpg, The carved back of a Chaozhou ''tihu'' Bowed instruments Continuous pitch instruments Huqin family instruments Chinese musical instruments Teochew music {{China-music-stub