Mail Call: What is this? (Qinqin)

I get a lot of "who made this?" and "what is this?" emails and I'm going to start posting them as references.

The supplied information was that this was bought in Spain in the 1970s. As soon as I saw it (there are very few 3-string banjos in Euro-Centric societies) I said "oh, it's one of those Hong Kong banjo-sanxian things." I see variations on this theme (with frets, modernized top-tension rim, and "English zither banjo" construction) pop up on eBay somewhat frequently.

Well, I was more-or-less correct at first glance: the Wikipedia entry has the full info on what this really is -- a Qinqin.