"The pipa (Chinese: \u7435\u7436; pinyin: p\u00EDpa, [p\u02B0\u01D0p\u02B0\u01CE]) is a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the Chinese lute, the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12 to 26. Another Chinese four-string plucked lute is the liuqin, which looks like a smaller version of the pipa.The pipa is one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has been played for almost two thousand years in China."@en . . . . .