唱北京奥运会主题歌《我和你》的歌手刘欢去世，享年63岁

At 9:52 a.m. on September 25, the musician Liu Huan died of illness in Shanghai, at the age of sixty-three.

After the news broke, the Chinese Musicians' Association, his alma mater, and the university where he worked for more than thirty years all published tributes.

For many Chinese people, Liu Huan's voice is the memory of an era.

Liu Huan was born in Tianjin in August 1963.

In 1981 he got into the University of International Relations in Beijing, where he majored in French.

In his first year, he found a piano on campus that nobody used.

From then on, every day at noon he ate lunch quickly and practiced from twelve to two, then went to his afternoon classes.

With no teacher, he practiced on his own, little by little.

In 1985, still a university student, he won first prize in both the English-song and French-song contests for Beijing's universities.

In 1987 he sang "No Sorrow for the Young and Ambitious," the theme song of the TV drama "Plainclothes Police," and became famous across the country overnight.

In 1998 he sang "Hero's Song" for the TV drama "Water Margin."

Its line "storming across the land like wind and fire" became a shared memory for a whole generation.

At the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he sang the theme song "You and Me" with the British singer Sarah Brightman.

The song is slow and its lyrics are simple, yet it made audiences around the world remember that voice.

But Liu Huan had another identity: teacher.

After graduating, he stayed on to teach at the University of International Relations, lecturing on Western music history with a tape recorder he brought himself, from Beethoven to Mozart.

In July 1991 he moved to the University of International Business and Economics, later became an associate professor, taught there for over thirty years, and retired in September 2023.

His Western Music History course was one of the university's most popular, and he also composed the music for the school song.

A fellow alumnus recalls that Liu Huan once turned down a performance so he could teach his class on time.

In 2019 he put up his own money, together with a TV station's charity fund, to set up an original-music charity fund supporting young people writing their own songs.

In line with Liu Huan's wishes, his funeral will be simple: no funeral committee, no farewell ceremony and no memorial service.

A singer who sang on the Olympic stage chose such a quiet goodbye.

His songs are still here, and his students still remember his classes.

If you were introducing Liu Huan to a friend who had never heard a Chinese song, which one would you have them hear first?