Yu Hongmei (于红梅) is among the Chinese instrumentalists who play the erhu--one of China's top string instruments for centuries. Born in China's Shangdong Province in 1971, Hong-Mei was only eight when she began studying the erhu under Su An-guo. In 1984, a 12-year-old Hong-Mei entered China's High School of the Central Music Academy and continued to study the erhu under Zhang Shao, who was considered a master of the instrument. In 1990, she