Du Huan

Also known as Known as Master Guai

Du Huan, known as Master Guai, was a blind singer of dishui nanyin from Jinli in Zhaoqing, Guangdong. He learned nanyin from Sun Sheng in Guangzhou in 1923, moved to Hong Kong by way of Macau in 1926, and first sang for a living around Temple Street. From 1952 to 1972 he sang on Radio Hong Kong's dishui nanyin programme, usually with the blind fiddler He Chen on coconut-shell huqin. In 1975, at the invitation of Bell Yung, he performed for about three months at the Fu Lung Teahouse in Sheung Wan, accompanying himself on the zheng; the more than forty hours of live recordings are now held by the University of Hong Kong and the University of Pittsburgh. His repertoire included Sorrows of a Traveller in Autumn, The Man Burning Paper Offerings and Sighing Through the Five Watches. He died in 1979.