Father and son's good vibrations

Last July, when Ray Wong was eating at a restaurant in Beijing, he struck up a conversation with a chef. When the chef learned that Wong's father was Wang Guotong, a celebrated erhu master in China, he was very excited, saying he had seen his father playing old songs on the television the other night.

'It's like that every time I returned to Beijing,' said Wong, 28, also an accomplished erhu player.

'Strangers would come up to me and say how much they admired my father.' Born in Beijing, Wong - who sometimes uses the name Wong Hae - grew up with his father's music. When he was two, the erhu - a two-stringed Chinese instrument - came up to his neck, so his father fabricated a mini-erhu out of wood and cans and gave him lessons playing it.

'When my father first taught me erhu, he was not thinking of making me into a great musician but just hoped to nurture in me an appreciation of music,' Wong said.

It was, of course, an advantage to have a famous father who gave him direction in his musical career. However, as for getting into music school and later getting concert bookings, he had to rely on himself.

In the early days, while other children played in the alleyways, young Ray would play erhu in his home. 'The erhu is my toy. I didn't feel lonely playing it by myself. I enjoyed every minute of it,' Wong said.