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Ren Tongxiang
Suona player from Jiaxiang, Shandong, who became famous in 1953 with Hundred Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix and later played as soloist with the Shanghai Opera House
Mural of the cultural record “Suona and Drum-and-Wind Bands”, which this person is tied to.
Ren Tongxiang was born in 1927 in Jiaxiang, Shandong, a county known for its suona players. As a boy he learned the suona from his uncle Ren Baopan, a folk musician, and later from other masters. Recommended by the county cultural centre, he played his own version of Hundred Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix at the first national folk music and dance festival in 1953 and caused a sensation; that year he also won a silver medal in the folk-music competition of the fourth World Festival of Youth in Bucharest. From 1954 he was suona soloist of the Shanghai Opera House and also taught at the Shanghai Conservatory. He arranged pieces such as A Spray of Flowers and Carrying the Bridal Sedan, and in 1989 published a collection of his suona music. He died of illness in Shanghai in December 2002.
Life and times
Dates 1927 CE–2002 CE