I am in a similar situation where I do not know that much about traditional Chinese music. On top of what Jillian said:

-I think that drums / percussion in general play a large role in traditional Chinese music.
-The same goes for bells, gongs, and other large metalic instruments.
-I think that stringed instruments that make almost shrill sounds are pretty common too. One of the more common ones is called the pipa.
-I am a singer and my choir was invited to go over and sing at various festivals before the 2008 Olympics. This gave me an interesting opportunity to see that while music from the West is widely enjoyed in China, it needs to be in the right context. The way that it was received was also very different. For example, during some concerts, people in the audience would stand up and start applauding as soon as they decided they liked the song.. even if we had just started singing it.


I entirely agree about the different genre clips in the presentation. With the instruments, we could also do something where we put up two similar Chinese instruments on a ppoint slide and then we could play a clip of each to see how their sounds differ.

The following website gives a good overview of some Chinese string instruments. I think that some of these should be included in the powerpoint with clips of them playing.

http://www.philmultic.com/home/instruments/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueJcRmfweSM

Here is a clip of an Western orchestra.