Here we are at the southeast Shasheerian seaside town in which the story of Wong Leisu is taking place. It is the subject of a comic or highly illustrated short story which I am desperately trying to get out past this gosh-dam making-a-living crap. (As one can see, I am no fan of making a living!)
Well, ahem; Anyway...
So, the comic has a scene in a panel in which Wong Leisu, the gal on the left, is in a class where they are taught the guzheng.
The comic piece is here (click).


As you can see, the ocean is mere meters away. The class is ventilated by the sea breeze.
The gal on the right is using an electric guzheng. The gal in the rear has a conventional one. Wong Leisu built her own.

Okay, artist's blah blah blah:
The picture was penciled WAY back in 1976 or there abouts. At that time, I did not know quite how to draw a guzheng.

The guzhengs in the picture were completely drawn wrong before.
After erasing, erasing, erasing and then redrawing, I fixed the worst of the errors. But it is still not quite right.
The left-most lady has a guzheng which is "almost" right. But the strings are not "bowed up" enough by the zhengma and the zhengma are too small. The hand positions were VERY wrong on one side, and kind of wrong on the other. It was too much to fix the hands, so I drew lamps over them to block the view (hee hee!).
There are other errors, but I would have torn up the paper with all the erasing!
Also, there are fewer than 21 strings, but if I drew 21 strings, my hands would drop off!

Anyway, my FINEST excuse is: All the pictures on my gallery depict another world. So, those are not guzhengs at all! They are an ALIEN instrument! They just resemble guzhengs somewhat.

Also note, one lady has an electronic guzheng with an amplifier; I thought that was cool. But a guzheng traditionalist would probably faint at the sight!
Finally, the lady on the right and the one in the rear, their "guzhengs" appear to have a number of shorter, auxiliary strings, in the manner of the short string of a banjo. Well, like I said, they are not guzhengs, they are an ALIEN instrument.

Sometime, I have got to make a nice, new, up-to-date, correct-for-once picture of a guzheng (or yangqin) player. I have a really good drawing guide now! The 12-Girl-Band (click here) has excellent photographs of many Chinese instruments!

Covering up the wrong hand-positions with lamps might be considered a bit of a stretch until I remind you of where this scene is taking place.
It is Shasheer (muscle women planet), on which there is NO petroleum. (YAY! NO POISON, er, uh, that is, pee-troleum! ) They do have electricity that comes from solar energy and wind generators. However, there is not a whole lot to spare.

Okay, so this (above) is a class room...
Usually, in USA and Canada, even if it is daytime, there are usually a whole bunch of fluorescent light fixtures flood lighting the class room to as bright as day.
Well, they don't do that in Shasheer. At night, there are only a few small lights, just enough to see by. During the day, they are most assuredly OFF.

Playing a guzheng, especially when just learning, is close work. So each student brings a small white-light-LED light, if they want, for the close work.
Whew! Gads, explaining stuff like that takes a lot of writing...

Lets see, what else... Oh yes, those 3 are not the only students in class. They are the rear most ones. There are perhaps another 10-15 students who are not in the scope of the picture.

There is another picture, next to this one, which is very similar, but there is someone peering in the window. Just an interesting little twist or something. So you kinda sorta have a choice.

Closeup of the gal in the middle is here (click)