He grew up during China's Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and had to practice with the windows closed because Western music was forbidden.
His father was able to purchase, at great expense, a Telefunken reel-to-reel hybrid tube and transistor based tape deck so he could copy any of the recordings that were circulated underground.
In 1979 he played for Boston Symphony concertmaster Joseph Silverstein who recommended him to the Curtis Institute of Music where he was admitted without a live audition.
He started a performance career after graduating from Juilliard, but found the lifestyle lonely and unsatisfying.
After six months he was asked to fill in for a sick engineer who was recording Bach Partitas for violinist Eugene Drucker of the Emerson Quartet.