On November 10, renowned Chinese pianist and composer Guo Zhihong, who served as a consultant for the Piano Association of the Chinese Musicians’ Association and a professor in the piano department of the Central Conservatory of Music, passed away suddenly due to a heart attack at the age of 92.
Guo Zhihong, the son of Guo Moruo, was a well-known pianist, composer, and educator in China.
Born in 1932 in Japan, Guo Zhihong lived in Chiba Prefecture, just across the river from Tokyo. At the age of 5, his mother, in line with Japan’s emphasis on education, overcame great difficulties to have him and his sister learn the piano. Initially, his older brother, who played the violin, taught him, followed by a female teacher surnamed Tanaka, a graduate of Ueno Music School. He studied for about four years.
In 1948, he left Japan, first for Taiwan and then Hong Kong before returning to Beijing in March 1949 to study at Huabei University (now known as Renmin University of China). In May 1950, he enrolled in the piano department of the Central Conservatory of Music of the CPC, under the guidance of Hong Shimai. In 1973, he was temporarily transferred to the composition department of the Central Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1989, he returned to teach at the piano department of the Central Conservatory of Music.
Guo Moruo had three marriages in his lifetime, with his first lasting only 5 days before he left home. He then went to Japan where he fell in love with a Japanese woman named Sato Tomiko, with whom he had four sons and a daughter. Guo Zhihong was the fourth son between Guo Moruo and Sato Tomiko. However, this relationship did not last long, and Guo Moruo left them to return to China. Sato Tomiko had to raise Guo Zhihong and the other four children alone. Guo Zhihong mentioned in interviews that his childhood memories were from their life in Japan before reuniting with Guo Moruo who had remarried again.
After Guo Moruo’s passing, it was discovered that he had a romantic relationship with his own brother-in-law, indirectly causing his sister-in-law’s death. Devastated upon learning this, at the age of 63, the sister-in-law chose to take her own life while sorting through the inheritance.
(For further reading, see: The Tragic Deaths of Two Sons of Guo Moruo, the Writer favored by the Chinese Communist Party)