Mother doesn't like me - Blues from the Streets of Xian

Last spring on the Streets of Xian I heard two musicians who were within a half mile of each other.  An erhu player on a freeway overpass that in 1985 was a little not-too-busy intersection.

In my novel Farewell the Dragon, my main character encounters an old, poor erhu player, about 1/4 mile from where this fellow was playing.  My erhu player would eventually become a sensation in pre-internet China - but that was just fiction.

"The next morning when the blind erhu player arrived at Xiao Zhai, I broke away from my breakfast of tea and lamb and barbecued pork on unleavened bread, and cold noodles with vinegar and cheap white liquor and found a spot to sit. He was dressed like a monk, except for his porkpie hat and fifty cent-piece sized dark round glasses. He alternated from very sad to madcap delight, matching the mood of the piece he played...I was put in a trance by the music, it was something so different from my past reveries that I was almost able to shed my so-called objective view of life.  There really is a Dao (道)...and the erhu music rode on the currents of the Dao, pulling me in..."

Click links below 

Erhu player in Xiao Zhai, Xian China

妈妈不喜欢我

And just down the street - a kind of Chinese blues - My mother doesn't love me...

Xian-blues