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Jiang Xianwei
Dizi player and composer from Weihai, Shandong, whose Kunqu-flavoured Gusu Xing became a signature piece of the southern qudi style.
On a flat rock above a waterfall, a seven-string zither and a bamboo flute lie on a spread of blue-green cloth; beyond, a waterfall pours into a churning teal pool among misty peaks, with pine branches arching at the top left.
Jiang Xianwei was born in 1924 in a Peking-opera-loving village near Weihai, Shandong, and learned jinghu, dizi and suona from his elder brother before spending four years with the Fuji troupe in Dalian. From 1947 he played in song and dance troupes, and from 1955 he was for many years a dizi player with the Qianxian Song and Dance Troupe in Nanjing, staying until retirement. In the early 1960s he wrote Gusu Xing, a flute piece on Kunqu melodies depicting a stroll through Suzhou; its Jiangnan flavour made it popular at home and abroad, and it was later arranged for Western flute. In 1962 he co-wrote Jiao Ta Shuiche Chang Fengshou with Long Fei and Zhu Nanxi. He died in 2014.
Life and times
Dates 1924–2014