Early years: Yang began playing the guitar at the age of seven, and began formal tuition when she was ten, studying under the famous guitarist Chen Zhi, later Chairman of the China Classical Guitar Society. Her public debut was at the First China International Guitar Festival where she met immediate acclaim. At the same time, she was presented with her first foreign guitar (a "Pepe" children's guitar from Aria), by the celebrated Japanese guitar maker Masaru Kohno.