The Canadian and his traditional Chinese instruments

Having long been fascinated by Chinese folk music, Canadian musician Jeremy Moyer loves to play traditional Chinese instruments.

Moyer, who was born in Waterloo, Ontario, had his first contact with Chinese folk music in the mid-1990s when he was living in Taiwan, where he learned to play the erhu with a local teacher. After that, through playing the traditional Taiwan coconut shell fiddle, Moyer found a brand-new world of folk songs, folk opera tunes, ancient court and religious music.

His pursuit of Chinese folk music continued when he moved to Shanghai in 2004. In a 2007 interview with Shanghai Daily, Moyer said he was collecting Chinese farm songs in Qingpu District’s Zhujiajiao water town. However, he later found that he would have had to go to other provinces to dig deeper into the project. The experience inspired him in his later works.

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