Dan Changzhou, a 63-year-old farmer in Lushan county, Sichuan province, stands out in this community of 120,000 people. Whenever a stranger mentions his name, locals cannot seem to resist the chance to tell stories about him.
With a long gray beard, Dan looks like an artist. In a place where few farmers have a name card, Dan is quick to produce his - it reads "Chinese farmer-turned-saxophonist."
Dan has considered himself something of an avant-garde artist since the mid-1980s.
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Dan Changzhou, the farmer-turned saxophonist.
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In 1986, he was the first among the county's farmers to buy a black-and-white camera, which he used to take pictures for the residents of nearby villagers.
"I charged 0.5-0.7 yuan for one picture and could support my family of five people," he said.
But his true passion is of the musical variety. Dan, a great lover of the urheen, a traditional Chinese musical instrument, laid eyes on his first saxophone at a dance hall in 1997 and fell instantly in love with the powerful sound.
He went to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, with several friends to buy a saxophone for 2,300 yuan (about $325), a considerable sum for any farmer in a county with an average monthly income of about 100 yuan, Chen Heyan, a journalist in Ya'an, the county seat, said.
Dan learned to play the instrument on his own, with the occasional bit of help from musicians in the provincial capital. After he could perform several songs, Dan would perform for onlookers for a small fee.
When the World Horticulture Exposition was held in Kunming, Yunnan province, in the autumn of 1999, Dan made his way there and played for those willing to pay him.
One day, he was playing in front of the World Horticulture Exposition Garden when an American woman approached and asked in heavily accented Chinese where he came from.
"After I told her I came from Sichuan, she asked if I knew the Southern Silk Road, which started in Chengdu, passed Sichuan and Yunnan and entered India in ancient times," Dan said.
He told her the road passed Lushan, and she said she was planning to walk along the road and would visit Dan. She said she was from Philadelphia, in the American state of Pennsylvania, and had majored in Chinese in Taiwan province in the 1970s.
"I only know her Chinese name, Jia Hepu," Dan said.
On February 21, 2000, Jia finally made it to Lushan and visited Dan. For two days, he showed her around famous sites along the Lushan section of the Southern Silk Road.
"I became a celebrity in the county after the story about Jia's visit appeared in a national newspaper, for not many foreigners had visited the county," Dan said.
Since then, he has hung a poster promoting Lushan whenever he gets out his saxophone to perform.
"Because of his efforts to promote the county, Lao Dan was nominated as a candidate for the title of 'People Moving Lushan' earlier this year. Although he was not one of the 10 winners, his contributions to the county were recognized by the people of the county," county magistrate Wu Hong said.
Since last year, Dan has been preparing for a trip to Beijing to coincide with the 2008 Olympic Games.
"I want to play my saxophone at Tian'anmen Square and in front of the National Grand Theater to show the world Chinese farmers can also appreciate art," he said.
He initially planned to walk to Beijing, earning a living with his music and promoting both his home county and Ya'an on the way. However, his family opposed the idea, so he offered to ride a motorcycle instead. This struck his family as dangerous, given Dan's age.
He told China Daily with a sob that his wife, also a farmer, did not understand him and thought his dream of performing in Beijing was a waste of money.
"Anyway, I will take a train to Beijing in July and stay until the Olympic Games are over. With 3,000 yuan I have earned, I will perform to earn extra money to make up for the shortage of funds during my stay in Beijing. Currently, I earn 50 yuan for one performance," he said.
(China Daily, March 28, 2008)