Five female musicians are bringing to life the elegant scenes and music of ladies playing traditional Chinese instruments in ancient times. They call themselves Oriental Glamor.

For many people, young women wearing traditional Chinese dress and playing traditional instruments - scenes from paintings by late artist/designer Chen Yifei - are their vision of Oriental beauty.

For Wang Long and her four female musical partners, however, the elegant scene is more than just a painting: They are recreating it in real life. Beautiful women, beautiful clothes, beautiful music - the whole evocative tableau.

Oriental Glamor, led by Wang, is an all-female traditional Chinese chamber music ensemble. The members, aged from 24 to 37, wear traditional dresses like qipao and long-sleeved gowns. They play traditional instruments the yangqin (dulcimer), pipa (Chinese lute), erhu (two-string fiddle), dizi (side-blown bamboo flute) and guzheng (Chinese zither).

In an effort to promote traditional Chinese music, they play the classics as well as new music adapted from pop tunes and folk songs.

Founded in 2003, the ensemble has performed at home and abroad. It took part in the 2003 Shanghai International Music Festival and China tour concerts with French pianist Richard Bright.

The ensemble began fortnightly performances at Shanghai Oriental Art Center in September. They will continue through February.

The musicians: Wang, 37, yangqin Ma Xianghua, 34, erhu Li Jia, 28, pipa Li Luoyang, 24, dizi and Wu Yang, 24, guzheng.

Wang, Ma and Li Jia are experienced artists who were part of the ensemble since its founding. Li Luoyang and Wu are fresh graduates from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. They joined Oriental Glamor this year.

All of the musicians began studying music when they were children and entered music schools. Both Ma and Li Jia taught at the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing after they graduated from that school Wang joined the Shanghai National Music Orchestra.

An invitation from Tan Yaozong, chairman of the Hong Kong Longyin Record Production Co, brought the three original members together in 2003. Tan, former principal erhu player of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, is enthusiastic about traditional Chinese music and tries to promote it.

Establishing Oriental Glamor is one of his strategies. As professional musicians, the three were impressed by Tan's idea as they were well aware of the charm of Chinese traditional music and its declining popularity at home.

"The Western music that swamped China together with Western culture for decades has almost pushed traditional Chinese music to a dead end," says Wang.

Many Chinese at her parents' age can play one or two traditional Chinese instruments, she says, but today most parents choose piano for their children. Western symphony orchestras and Broadway musicals are usually more popular than concerts of traditional Chinese music today.

"Many people claim that they don't like or cannot understand traditional Chinese music," says pipa player Li Jia. "But actually, they simply do not give themselves the chance to know it."

Everybody has the ability to appreciate music and for Chinese, it is supposed to be even easier for them to understand and appreciate traditional Chinese music because of their culture.

Li cites the famous composition "Shi Mian Mai Fu" ("Ambush from All Sides") based on a great battle during the Chu-Han Battle (206-202 BC). "Most Chinese know the story well and that makes it easier for them than for foreigners to visualize the story while listening to the music," she says.

The sad state of affairs of traditional music results not only from the popularity of Western music but also from the failure in China to develop its own music over past decades, she adds.

Traditional Chinese musicians have changed in their search for wider popularity. Assembling a symphony orchestra for traditional instruments is one way.

But the Oriental Glamor musicians believe that a chamber ensemble with fewer than 10 performer in a relatively small and intimate room  is the traditional way to present Chinese music, and the best way.

The smaller size, smaller sound and smaller setting help the audience enter the artistic conception more easily, according to Ma, the erhu player.

Oriental Glamor performs in the traditional way and performs traditional songs, but the ensemble also plays new music. The musicians play classics such as "Chun Jiang Hua Yue Ye" ("Moonlit Night of Spring River") and "Yu Zhou Chang Wan" ("Nocturne in the Fishing Boat").

New music is either adapted from pop songs like "Ye Lai Xiang" ("Night Jasmine") and folk songs from Dunhuang (Dunhuang grottoes) in Gansu Province.

"Traditional music is ancient, but not aged," says Li. "Emotion and creativity of young players can inject youth and vitality to the tradition."

Date: through February 28, every other Saturday, 7:45pm

Address: 425 Dingxiang Rd, Pudong

Tickets: 50-300 yuan