Abstract

Background: Chinese national instruments have carried millennia of cultural heritage from Chinese civilization, yet they confront severe preservation challenges amid Western cultural penetration and the homogenization trend in modern popular music composition, as the dominance of Western instruments has disrupted their inheritance. Purpose: To explore effective pathways for the organic integration of Chinese national instruments with modern popular music, and to deconstruct the underlying logic of instrument arrangement and the mechanisms of aesthetic inheritance in fusion works. Methods: Taking Jay Chou’s “All Night of Drizzling Rain” as the core case, this research adopts literature review, case analysis, musical analysis, and in-depth exchanges with professionals, supplemented by the deconstruction of musical scores and arrangement files. Results: The integration has evolved through four stages—Enlightenment, Pioneering, Expansion, and Diversification—while facing issues like homogenized creation and commercial distortion. The case song achieves a seamless fusion of tradition and modernity via precise arrangement, adaptive tonal adjustments, and adherence to cultural core values. Conclusion: The creative philosophy of “preserving essence while seeking innovation” is central to successful fusion. Establishing precise arrangement logic and culture-oriented concepts provides a feasible model, offering valuable reference for the living transmission of Chinese national instruments.