Zhang Yadong

b. 1965, Shanxi

Record producer

With well over a hundred productions to his credit, Zhang Yadong is China’s most prolific record producer. Yadong grew up in a family of musicians and began his musical training early, mastering instruments such as the erhu and Chinese dulcimer. Later training in cello and Western classical music led him to learn guitar and experiment with pop music.

In 1993 Zhang Yadong moved to Beijing in search of bigger things and got his wish when Cantopop-diva and Beijing-native Wang Fei (Faye Wong, see Wong Fei) invited him to produce several tracks on her album Restless (1996), a record which generated the quirky ‘out-of-line’ chic that is now the trademark of Wang Fei’s musical persona. Riding on the acclaim that came with his association with Wang Fei, Zhang Yadong was hired to produce a string of ground-breaking rock and pop records for the Beijing record company Jingwen Records. His first solo album, Zhang Yadong (1998), prompted the Hong Kong Standard to proclaim it, ‘1998’s most important record of new Chinese music’. In recent years, Yadong has focused on television and movie soundtracks. He maintains a working partnership with Wang Fei, and his second solo album is due out in 2004 on Warner Music.

Further reading

http://www.zhangyadong.net

MATTHEW CLARK