Pressing the clappers, she softly began to sing a tune.
Tips
culture
Traditional 红牙 are paired wooden boards struck together to keep time for singing - strongly associated with refined urban music of the Song and after. Often used metonymically in poetry to evoke a singer or a song.
register
The 'red sandalwood' sense is literary and archaic, named for the wood's reddish color; the clapper sense is the one learners meet in classical poetry.
