Haiwang YUAN

A blind man plays an erhu on the streets of Beijing. Players hold the erhu in their laps and pull the bow between the strings. PHOTO BY TOM CHRISTENSEN.
The erhu is a bowed, fiddle-like stringed instrument that originally came from Central Asia; it can be played solo as well as in an ensemble or an orchestra performance. The erhu’s sound box is usually hexagonal or octagonal in shape, while the