Yao Shaolin
Lineage & School of Heritage
Born into a family of suona players, he began learning the instrument at the age of nine and became the sixth-generation bearer of the Yao family suona tradition.
Mastery, Signature Works & Repertoire
His technical signature includes the reversed wrist, the dot, the scoop, forward and reverse rubbing, and single and double hand-over, among other devices. He not only inherited in full the techniques of Tangshan flower-blowing (Tangshan huachui) but also developed them further: blowing, mouth-cracking (ka), whistling and juggling held no difficulty for him, and the suona, his principal instrument, seemed to work magic in his hands as he played and juggled at the same time, leaving the audience dazzled. He maintained a proper demeanour on stage and high artistic integrity, able to mobilise the collective strengths of the ensemble to the full; at the climax he would play six suonas simultaneously. He persisted in taking on disciples and passing on his art, handing the flower-blowing tradition to the next generation.
Honors & Recognition
Male, Han ethnicity, born in July 1949, died in March 2011, a native of Luannan County, Hebei Province. A national representative bearer of Suona Art (Tangshan Flower-Blowing), a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. In 1990 he appeared on China Central Television's programme China's Unique Art; in 1992 he won the special prize for flower-blowing at the National Suona Invitational Competition; and in 2008 he was awarded the title of Suona Performer of National Instrumental Music of Hebei Province.
References & Archival Sources
Representative Items of This Bearer
Profile
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。