This biographical documentary film is the result of collaboration among its 80-year-old subject, Dai Shuhong, an eminent Shanghai-based performer of Chinese bamboo flutes and qin zither; his students, friends, and family; and two UCLA-based filmmakers, one his longtime student. 

Shot over 2016–2017, it incorporates interviews, performances, lessons, historical photographs, archival video footage, and scenes of daily life. Dai, a born raconteur, tells his own life story, highlighting his longtime relationship with the illustrious Shanghai Conservatory of Music and his musical partnerships with renowned Tibetan singer Tseten Dolma (b.1937) and legendary qin master Zhang Ziqian (1899–1991).

Credits

Co-directors: Helen Rees and Aparna Sharma

Producer: Helen Rees

Historical footage: Rulan Chao Pian 

Helen Rees is a professor of ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She studied Chinese bamboo flutes with Dai Shuhong and qin zither with Lin Youren at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music over 1987–1989. Most of her publications focus on traditional musics of southwest China and Shanghai, evolving concepts of intellectual property and intangible cultural heritage, and organology. Her most recent book is the edited volume Instrumental Lives: Musical Instruments, Material Culture, and Social Networks in East and Southeast Asia (U. Illinois Press, 2024). She has also collaborated on 13 ethnographic CDs of music from southwest China, and frequently interprets and presents for Chinese musicians touring abroad, including for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the Amsterdam China Festival, and England's Asian Music Circuit.