Borrowing and Local Practice: How "Assimilation" Leads to Innovation in Modern Pipa Performance

Pipa performance constitutes a symbolic system of "dots and lines" through the techniques of "finger rotation", "pushing and pulling" and so on. The traditional performance of the pipa is based on the "unity of man and the pipa", which realises the transmission of emotions to the outside world. However, the technological innovation in the creation of modern pipa music has led to the separation of traditional emotion and technology, and the degradation of the player's ability to "make up for the sound with rhyme" has further aggravated the technical deviation from the "technique-artistic-doctrine". The technical deviation of "technique-art-dao" is further aggravated by the degradation of the performers' ability to "make up for the sound with rhyme". At the same time, the traditional Chinese teaching model of "teaching by heart and mouth" reconstructs the symbiotic relationship between "technology, symbols and emotions" through imitation of physical experience, thus realising the "visualisation of life forms" for pipa music. It provides practical guidance for pipa music to realise the "intuitive presentation of life forms". This paper takes Susan Langer's "assimilation theory" as the philosophical framework to discuss the practical dilemma between the symbolic and emotional assimilation in modern pipa performance and the theoretical orientation of assimilation theory in pipa teaching.