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Artist
JIA PENG FANG (Chinese name:贾鹏芳 Traditional Chinese name:l賈鵬芳) was born in the year 1958 in the town Jams in the Helong Jiang Province of China, and got his first Erhu at the age of eight in 1965 - the year that marked the start of the Cultural Revolution. Jams, a town about thirty hours by train from Beijing, situated close to the Russian border, was not excluded from the ravages wrought by the Cultural Revolution. In fact, how Jia chanced upon the Erhu was through his enlistment into the Maoist Propaganda Corp. When he was sixteen, he was helped by his brother to travel to Beijing to study with professional Erhu players. At that time in China, people were not permitted to move their registers, and it was not possible for someone in the village to simply move into the city. From the ages of sixteen to eighteen, Jia could not get his food rations but made himself a small enclosure, about a meter big on his aunt's veranda and devoted himself to practicing his Erhu day in and day out. He was determined to become a professional Erhu player. In time, he became good enough to play the sub for the teacher he was studying under. But on the date of the exam for enlisting in the Navy Song and Dance Band, the great Karasan Earthquake struck and the exam was canceled, destroying Jia's hope of joining. About half a year later, as a part of the Cultural Revolution Policy, he was forced back to his homeland Jams to labor on the farmland. After the Cultural Revolution blew over and the c