Liu Bannong

Also known as Born Liu Shoupeng · Given name Fu · Hao Qu'an

Liu Bannong, born Liu Shoupeng in Jiangyin, Jiangsu, later took the name Fu and the sobriquet Qu'an. Teaching at Peking University, he helped launch its nationwide folk-song collection in 1918, co-founded the Folk Song Research Society in 1920 and edited the Jiangyin Boat Songs. In London in 1920 he wrote the poem Jiao wo ruhe bu xiang ta, the first poem to use the new character for 'she'; set by Zhao Yuanren, it became one of the best-known Chinese art songs. In 1926 he published Wafu ji, poems in folk-song style. In later years he studied phonetics and ancient tuning, and he died of illness in Beiping in 1934.