Performers › Musicians
Sun Wenming
Blind erhu player and composer from Shangyu, Zhejiang, who wrote his own pieces as an itinerant musician, among them Flowing Waves, Tanle and Four Directions
Also known as Pan Zhiwang
Sun Wenming was born into a farming family in Shangyu, Zhejiang, in 1928 and was blinded by smallpox at the age of four. He learned the erhu as a boy and made a living as an itinerant fortune-teller and street musician across the Jiangnan region, developing his own technique and pieces along the way. In 1952 he married into the Pan family of Nanqiao in Fengxian, Shanghai, took the name Pan Zhiwang and played in teahouses. He took part in a national music and dance festival in 1957, taught at the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra and the Shanghai Conservatory from 1959, and in 1961 recorded a set of his own compositions. His works include Flowing Waves, Tanle (1951), Four Directions and Flute Sound in the Quiet Night. He died of illness in the winter of 1962.
Life and times
Dates 1928 CE–1962 CE