I've made previous searches for Oriental scale information without much success. My current search (Google), however, for "Chinese+Music+Scales" turned up quite a lot of pretty good stuff. Unfortunately, it would take several pages to post all of what I found interesting.

The "short version" is that Chinese music uses two 7-note scales and five 5-note scales. The 5-note (pentatonic) scales are most common.

All of the pentatonic Chinese scales use notes in approximately the same relationship as C, D, E, G, A. They differ only in which note is taken as the starting point.

The "approximately" above is a rather crude one. Chinese scales are based essentially on a Pythagorian calculation of frequency ratios, and the frets ain't in the right places on your guitar to play them accurately. The differences, however, are not likely to be too apparent except to one "immersed" in Chinese music. So "wing it" with what you've got.

Depending on how "authentic" you wish to be (or how "authentic" your songs are) you should forget about "how to chord" them. Chinese music doesn't use chords. (They do use some polyphony, but not anything like the triad/quartet stuff common in western music.) If you want to "westernize" them, to make them a little more "user friendly" for your intended audience, just try to stick to chords that use the notes in the scales, or that sound good with them. (My impression is that you're trying to pass on your experience with Chinese music, so what sounds ok to you should be the appropriate thing.)

I'd think that the advice from Don Firth, above, should work well.

Most readable site I found (and read most of) on the Chinese scale structure is Pitches, Scales and Modes.

A site I've bookmarked, Music Notation, appears to have a wealth of information about notation for ethnic music of many kinds, tab for strange instruments, etc. I got tired of scrolling and didn't get to the end of it. Someone with some knowledge on this stuff should give us an opinion whether it's as good as it looks. For now, I'm about "surfed out."

Note that the above comments are based on a couple of hours of web research. I can't claim to actually know anything about Chinese music. The topic has come up recently in other threads, though, without anyone producing much information - hence the current search.

John