WHEN HOLLYWOOD PRODUCERS need an erhu player - and they need one surprisingly often - they call Karen Han. The Chinese-born musician has played the ancient two-stringed instrument on everything from The Joy Luck Club to Anna and the King and the controversial hit The Passion of The Christ.
'The erhu has a special sound,' Han says from her home in Los Angeles. 'It's close to a human voice - to a woman's voice, in fact. The bow is much looser than a violin one, and this means that you can get very strong tones. It's a heartfelt sound. There's no other instrument quite like it. It's my goal to raise the profile of the erhu in the west.'
Han looks to be in luck. Chinese culture and films are hot right now. And so is the erhu, because it can be used for any sort of 'exotic' movie music. On The Passion Of The Christ soundtrack, Han's playing was used to represent the devil. Han says she was surprised when she was invited to play for the film.
'The composer called me and said he wanted to try to fit an erhu into the score,' she says. 'I thought that would be interesting, but I wasn't sure how they were going to do it. When I got there, he told me that they were looking for an instrument that could make a very sad sound. I just played some music which expressed those feelings for myself.
'The composer played it to Mel Gibson, and he loved it. I'm pleased that so many people have heard the erhu in the film, even though they may not know it's an erhu.'
Anna and the King, which starred Chow Yun-fat and Jodie Foster, 'was an interesting project', she says. 'The composer went to Thailand to research the movie, and heard a lot of Thai instruments. There are some instruments that are similar to the erhu there. But he thought they sounded a bit too funky for his score. He wanted a more regal sound for the king. So he decided to use the erhu, instead.'
Han began playing the erhu when she was six, at her home in the town of Bengbu, in Anhui province. 'I loved to dance and sing when I was little,' she says. 'My father knew how to play the erhu, and he thought it might make a good career for me. I didn't like it to start with. I preferred to sing and dance. He forced me to practice, and found me a good teacher in a music school in town.