ONE ORCHESTRA PLAN - IDENTIFICATION AND ORIENTATION
Orchestra / event / work / arrangement:
Original plan URL or document reference:
Document date, if actually shown:
Date I checked the document:
Audience edge and stage front:
Whose facing direction defines left/right:
Conductor position and facing arrow:
Section or instrument label being followed:
Symbol meaning: player / chair / desk / part / zone / unknown:
Related staffing number and its exact scope:
Doubling, divided-part or special-player note:
Unresolved mismatch and the document needed next:

FOUR SECTION EXAMPLES
Bowed strings | Erhu, gaohu, zhonghu; lower instruments selected by the ensemble. | Bowing is a playing clue, not a permanent melody assignment.
Plucked-section group | Pipa, ruan and zheng; yangqin can be grouped with this orchestral section. | Yangqin is normally struck with beaters; organization and sound production differ.
Winds | Dizi, sheng, suona and instruments required by the programme. | A section label does not identify every variant or featured instrument.
Percussion | The percussion instruments and players required by the score. | One player may use several instruments; a symbol need not mean one person.

ORIENTATION REFERENCES
Audience looking towards players | Faces from the bottom towards the upper stage. | Audience-left is the left side of Example A.
Conductor in Example A | Also faces towards the players. | The facing direction agrees with the audience’s orientation.
Performer facing the audience | Faces towards the lower edge of Example A. | The performer’s left corresponds to audience-right.
Same plan rotated 180 degrees | Audience is now at the upper edge. | Front/back and left/right both change on the paper; identities do not.

OBSERVED STAFFING NOTES - NOT SEATING POSITIONS
Xiaoruan / Liuqin | 3 in a combined labelled row. | Do not read this as three xiaoruan plus three liuqin.
Erhu I / II | 14 in the combined row; one player can double banhu. | Do not duplicate the 14 for each Roman numeral.
Timpani and percussion | 1 timpani plus 6 percussion; stated total including timpani is 7. | The total note is not seven additional players.
Zhongruan | 6; one player can double yueqin. | A doubling note need not add another simultaneous player.
Konghou / Harp and Guqin | Each has 1*; the asterisk says Part-time Musician. | The footnote changes how the staffing entry is read.

INTERPRETATION QUESTIONS
1. The audience and conductor both face the players in Example A. Must conductor-left be the opposite of audience-left?
No. Their facing directions agree in this example.
A role name alone does not determine a mirror. Check position and facing direction.

2. The bowed zone appears on the opposite side of Example B. Have those players physically changed places?
No. The same original arrangement was rotated 180 degrees on the page.
Audience edge, front/rear and both paper axes rotate together; the labelled zones retain their identity.

3. HKCO’s displayed Xiaoruan / Liuqin row says 3. May you count three of each instrument?
No. It is one combined labelled staffing row.
Its division requires the actual roster or score; duplicating the row’s number invents players.

4. Timpani is 1 and percussion is 6, with a stated total of 7 including timpani. Does the total add seven more?
No. The stated seven includes the timpani player.
Read the total’s scope before adding figures from component rows.

5. One of six zhongruan players can double yueqin. Does that note automatically require a seventh person?
No. The note describes a player’s additional instrument assignment.
Doubling does not itself establish simultaneous parts, a new player or every concert’s needs.

6. A diagram has coloured section boxes without chairs, dates or scale. Can you use their areas to allocate real players and risers?
No. Check the actual event plan, roster and symbol legend.
Original zone diagrams orient reading; they do not establish staffing, physical dimensions or a mandatory layout.

SOURCES
https://timbreandorchestration.org/resources/instruments/ensembles/chinese-orchestra
https://www.hkco.org/en/Instrument-Rd/Chinese-Instruments/Bowed-String-Instruments.html
https://www.hkco.org/en/Instrument-Rd/Eco-Huqins.html
https://www.hkco.org/en/Concerts/Music-Of-Character.html
https://www.hkco.org/uploads/docs/63d225e2b7a841.jpg