Liu Yijun

Liu Yijun (simplified Chinese: 刘义军; traditional Chinese: 劉義軍; pinyin: Líu Yìjūn; affectionately known as "Laowu" (Chinese: 老五; pinyin: Lǎo Wǔ; born 1962) is a Chinese heavy metal guitarist and member of the band Tang Dynasty.

Liu was born in Tianjin, China, the younger of two children, with an older sister who also pursued a career in performance arts. The guitar was his second instrument; his first was the Guqin. In 1976, his family moved away from Tianjin in hope to raise enough for him to go to college. Eventually he raised an interest in playing the guitar and got his first one in 1978. Despite the fact that his father opposed him in playing music, Lao Wu continued to practice the guitar 15 hours a day without lessons. Upon failing the cutoff line for the Chinese college admission test, Lao Wu realized that music was the only way he can make a living. His family moved to Beijing in 1984 where he continuously fails to find a stable job. Entrusted by his father who witnessed him every morning at 4 a.m. practicing the guitar, he continued to support his son as he pursued his own career. For years, Lao Wu lived in poverty, living on instant noodles and was repeatedly sent to the hospital for malnutrition. Lao Wu was eventually accepted into Beijing's top music organization and was deemed a "lightning guitarist" and the first in China to master playing the guitar pressing the fingerboard over the neck much in the style of modern guitarist Herman Li. Lao Wu eventually picked up the seven string guitar and the erhu, as heard in the song, "The Sun."