Zhou Guangren
Author/Lam Kit Wah
Zhou Guangren was born in German and later follow her parents moved back to Shang Hai. At that time many refugees from western countries moved to Shanghai and brought with piano culture to China. Zhou was a good students with distinct academic performance in school, however she quitted from school and learned piano in professional school. Since her dad opposing her decision and refused to sponsor her the tutor fee, Zhou had to teach 20students per week and gained money for fee.In 1948 she was able to perform with a famous Chinese String orchestra and since then her fame was boost.
Zhou did not learn piano with one teacher as the political and social context iwas unstable and people did not stay long in Shanghai. Yet this made a good opportunity for Zhou to enrich her piano knowledge with different cultural background. She later went to exchange for teaching and learning, and performed many personal concerts in Europe countries. She became the representative for Chinese pianist.
However she experienced two major tragedy event: the suicide of her husband and the accident which smashed three fingers of her hand. Zhou took a whole year to recover from the injuries with painful rehabilitation of her fingers. From then she switched her focus on popularizing piano education to teenagers and also other amateur piano tutors by establishing a piano school and a piano art center. She believed that only when the nation has high level of art but not just economic development, the nation can stand on the worldwide stage straight.