There was a time when the erhu was perceived as an instrument for the poor. Wang Guotong says he remembers it well.
'In the 1920s, Hong Kong people looked down on national music - they worshipped everything that came from foreign places,' says the erhu master, who learned to play the instrument when he was 10 and has been teaching it since 1960.
'They thought it was only a tool for making money - for beggars. They thought the erhu could only play melancholic sounds. This has been in people's minds since that time and has been reinforced by TV series and movies. It's just that people didn't understand the erhu.'
These days, the president of the Hong Kong Erhu Arts Centre continues his crusade to erase the stigma by promoting what he calls genuine erhu music. He has organised a seven-day erhu summer camp in Beijing, which starts today. And his son, Ray Wong Hae, also an erhu player of note, is holding concerts next month at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and Hong Kong City Hall.
'The most important activity of the camp will be the erhu lessons and seminars every morning,' says Wang.
But it won't be all work and no play. In the afternoons, the campers will have time to go sightseeing around the capital and there'll be more personal coaching and musical sessions in the evenings. On the last day of the camp, participants will sit an erhu examination approved by the China National Orchestra Society.
Wang, 68, will be sole tutor for the 60-odd participants. 'If people are interested in learning the erhu, they're welcome to join us,' he says. 'But they have to make their own travel arrangements.' Applicants so far are from Hong Kong, Japan and the mainland.