Forget melancholy mountain sounds - the modern erhu is for you

While waiting to have his photographs taken, Ray Wong Hae picks up his erhu and starts playing a number of tunes: Autumn Feeling, Birds Chirping in the Mountains and Reflection of the Moon on Water. Not that he picked them at random. They're works of which the 34-year-old is particularly proud.

Autumn Feeling, for instance, is an original composition that won the Beijing-born musician a Composer and Authors Society for Hong Kong (Cash) award in 1998. Birds Chirping in the Mountains, composed by Liu Tianhua, and Hua Yanjun's classic Reflection of the Moon on Water are signature pieces of his father, erhu master Wang Guotong.

'My dad broke new ground in the 1960s and 1970s when he introduced new ways to play the traditional Chinese instrument,' says Wong, after his impromptu performance. 'He showed that erhu music didn't need to sound melancholy all the time. It could also be energetic and uplifting.

'At the time, many traditionalists didn't agree with his views or new techniques. But today you see the erhu being played the way my dad pioneered it years ago.'

Wong, an only child, says his 68-year-old father continues to be a major influence and inspiration in his life and work. 'My dad is great. He's very open-minded and has worked incessantly to promote erhu music.'

It's no surprise then that popularising erhu music is also Wong's main life mission. He wants to show people that the art form isn't only performed by old men - nor does it have to sound traditional or Chinese for that matter. 'You can use the erhu to play any kind of music,' says the former prodigy. With his original compositions, he says he hopes to give the instrument an image makeover.