Background
She was born into a military family in Beijing, the youngest of four children. Her father came from Shanxi, and her mother, who is half Miao, came from Hunan.
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Han Mei
Edit Profile韩梅, 韓梅
Education
She graduated with a degree in English from Beijing Workers" University (北京市职工大学). She studied guzheng with Zhang Yan (张燕) and Gao Zicheng (高自成).
Career
Her maternal grandfather was a scholar, calligrapher, and educator named Long Zhancen (龙湛岑, 1889–1969). Han began playing the zheng at the age of eleven. Han"s primary instrument is the 21-string zheng, but she also plays zheng with 16, 23, and 26 strings, as well as the liuqin, a high pitched small lute.
She performs in traditional, contemporary, and cross-cultural contexts.
She has recorded with Paul Plimley, Orchid Ensemble and Randy Raine-Reusch and performs internationally with her Chinese instrumental quartet Red Chamber, which was established in 2005. With Red Chamber, she recorded two albums: Redgrass (2008), which combines Chinese music with elements of bluegrass, and Gathering (2014).
She holds a Doctor of Philosophy and two master"s degrees in ethnomusicology: from the Musical Research Institute of the Chinese Arts Academy (中国艺术研究院音乐研究所) in Beijing (1995) and from the University of British Columbia (2000, 2014). She wrote the "Zheng" article for the second edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001), and New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (forthcoming).
She came to Vancouver in 1996 and met Raine-Reusch at the University of British Columbia in 1998, marrying him in 2001.
She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio. She has recorded one solo album, entitled Outside the Wall (2005). Mei Han interview
Listening
"China"s Long Song", from Canadian Broadcasting Company Inside the Music program
