The Han Chinese, who make up some 92% of the population of China, play heterophonic music in which the musicians play versions of a single melodic line. Percussion accompanies most music, dance and opera.

Instrumental pieces played on an erhu or dizi are popular, and are often available outside of China, but qin, pipa and zheng music, which is more traditional, are more popular in China itself. The qin is perhaps the national instrument of China, and its virtuosos are stars. These include Zha Fuxi, Wu Wen'guang, Lin Youren, Wu Jinglue, Wu Zhaoji, Guan Pinghu, Zhang Zijian, Li Xiangting and Gong Yi. The zheng, a form of (A musical stringed instrument with strings stretch over a flat sounding box; it is laid flat and played with a plectrum and with fingers) zither, is most popular in Henan, Chaozhou, (A dialect of Chinese spoken in southeastern China; this form of Chinese is not well known outside China because few of the Hakka people have migrated) Hakka and Shandong. The pipa, a kind of (Chordophone consisting of a plucked instrument having a pear-shaped body, a usually bent neck, and a fretted fingerboard) lute, believing introduced from (The Semitic language of the Arabs; spoken in a variety of dialects) Arabic area during 6th century and improved, is most popular in (The largest city of China; located in the east on the Pacific; one of the largest ports in the world) Shanghai and surrounding areas.

Folk musicHan (The traditional and typically anonymous music that is an expression of the life of people in a community) folk music thrives at weddings and funerals and usually included a form of (A slender double-reed instrument; a woodwind with a conical bore and a double-reed mouthpiece) oboe called a suona and percussive ensembles called chuigushou. The music is diverse, sometimes jolly, sometimes sad and often based on Western pop music and TV theme songs.