Nan Weidong and Nan Weiping live and work in a small Beijing apartment (公寓房间). They come from Anhui Province. They go to the local market in Beijing to buy lots of vegetables and they are used for making musical instruments.
The two grew up with vegetables around them. Their music teacher father taught them to learn traditional instruments from a young age. When they were teenagers, they joined a local music group.
But it wasn't until two years ago that they thought of making instruments out of vegetables, and they have been interested in it ever since. They make holes in different kinds of vegetables and get different kinds of instruments.
"The deeper the hole, the lower the pitch (音调). Theshallowerthe hole, the higher the pitch," said Nan Weiping.
The two have taken part in lots of talent shows (达人秀) in China and often get 30,000 to 50,000 yuan for a performance. Each show needs making a whole new set of instruments.
Though the size and shape of the vegetables is important, the most importance is placed on freshness, said Nan Weidong.
"If the water content (含量) in vegetables loses, the tune (曲调) will become higher, or even out of tune. So we choose vegetables with as much water content as possible," he said.
"The vegetables have to be hard. We can't use vegetables left over for days. They are too soft to be played."
