Henan is a central province of China, known for an unusual way of playing the guzheng

Guzheng

The guzheng or "gu zheng", also called zheng is a Chinese plucked zither. It has 18-23 or more strings and movable bridges....

; the technique, known as you yao, consistings of using the right hand to pluck the strings, starting from the movable bridge to the fixed bridge, while using the left hand to press the strings at the other end, creating a rich and dramatic sound effect. Guzheng music evolved over time to what is now known as Qu opera.

Henan's folk heritage includes ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

s and is characterized by large position changes and gliding vibrato

Vibrato

Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...

. A popular form of narrative singing, which is accompanied by a bowed lute called zhuihu

Zhuihu

The zhuihu is a two-stringed bowed string instrument from China. In construction, it resembles the sanxian, and likely evolved as a bowed version of that musical instrument...

, is called zhuizi.