Erhu is one of the most important contemporary Chinese folk musical instruments.It plays an important role in today’s music creation and music life.However,as a centuries-old musical instrument,it was unable to develop rapidly until the twentieth century.Since the 20th century,especially with the promotion of the May Fourth New Culture Movement,owing to Liu Tianhua and Liu Wenjin’s great effort,erhu gets a comprehensive upgrade in music creation,music performance and emotion expression and its social status has also been improved.It is significant for the further research on erhu to recall the several stages of the reform of erhu during the 20th century and to think about its cultural implication.