The Beti-Pahuin are a group of related peoples who inhabit the rain forest regions of Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe. Though they separate themselves into several individual ethnic groups, they all share a common history and culture. They were numbered at an estimated 3,320,000 individuals in the late 20th century. Their languages, from the Bantu subgroup of the Niger–Congo language family, are mutually intelligible and are thus sometimes considered to be dialects of a single tongue, called Beti.

The Beti-Pahuin are made up of over 20 individual ethnic groups. Altogether, they inhabit a territory of forests and rolling hills that stretches from the Sanaga River in the north to Equatorial Guinea and the northern halves of Gabon to Congo to the south, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the west to the Dja River in the east. Due to a long shared history and a great deal of intermarriage between the various groups, distinguishing different peoples can often prove difficult. Nevertheless, a northern-southern distinction is sometimes drawn, or the peoples are classified along linguistic lines.^{[citation needed]}

Fang Fang (in Chinese:方方, born 11 May 1955) is a Chinese writer who won the Lu Xun Literary Prize in 2010. She was born in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. She went to Wuhan University in 1978 to study Chinese. She has written a lot of excellent work. In 1975, she began to write poetry and in 1982, she launched her first novel Da Peng Che Shang (大篷车上). In 1987, she released her masterpiece "Feng Jing"(风景), and won the 1987-1988 national outstanding medium-length novel award. Her other work, including Qin Duan Kou (琴断口), and Xing Yun Liu Shui(行云流水),"Jiang Na Yi An"(江那一岸),"Yi Chang San Tan"(一唱三叹), have been well received as well. Since she cares much about the poor, many of her work reflect their genuine lives.

Dance of the Yi People (simplified: 彝族舞曲; traditional: 彞族舞曲; pinyin: Yízú Wǔqǔ; sometimes also called Dance of the Yi Tribe or Yi Dance) is one of the most popular solo compositions for the pipa, a four-stringed pear-shaped fretted lute used as one of the primary traditional musical instruments of China. Unlike the martial-sounding Ambushed From All Sides (十面埋伏; pinyin: Shí Mìan Maí Fú), the other most widely performed solo pipa piece, Dance of the Yi People is predominantly lyrical in character.

Dance of the Yi People was composed in the 1960s by the Chinese composer Wang Huiran (王惠然; b. 1936), presumably based on traditional music of the Yi people of southern China.[1]

As with many Chinese compositions for traditional instruments, in the late 20th century Dance of the Yi People was also remade into a Chinese popular song entitled "999 Roses" (九百九十九朵玫瑰), sung by Samuel Tai (邰正宵; pinyin: Tái Zhèngxiāo).^videos

The Yi or Lolo people (Nuosu: ꆈꌠ [nɔ̄sū]; Chinese transcription: 诺苏, pinyin: Nuòsū; Chinese: 彝族; pinyin: Yízú; Vietnamese: Lô Lô; Thai: โล-โล, Lo-Lo) are an ethnic group in China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Numbering 8 million, they are the seventh largest of the 55 ethnic minority groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They live primarily in rural areas of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi, usually in mountainous regions. As of 1999, there were 3,300 "Lô Lô" people living in Hà Giang, Cao Bằng, and Lào Cai provinces in northeastern Vietnam. Most Yi are farmers; herders of cattle, sheep and goats; and nomadic hunters.^{[citation needed]}

The Yi speak Yi, a mixture of Tibeto-Burman languages closely related to Burmese. The prestige dialect is Nuosu, which is written in the Yi script and Chinese transliteration.

Of the more than 8 million Yi people, over 4.5 million live in Yunnan Province, 2.5 million live in southern Sichuan Province, and 1 million live in the northwest corner of Guizhou Province. Nearly all the Yi live in mountainous areas,^{[citation needed]} often carving out their existence on the sides of steep mountain slopes far from the cities of China.

Liu Fang (simplified Chinese: 刘芳; traditional Chinese: 劉芳) (born 1974) is one of the most prominent pipa players in the world. Described in the media as the "empress of pipa" (L'actualité), "divine mediator" (World), "the greatest ambassadress of the art of the pipa" (La presse), Liu Fang is known as “possessing virtuoso technique, grace and a unique empathy toward the music she plays – whether it is a traditional and folk tune or a modern Western composition” (All Music Guide). "She has an extraordinary focused, poised presence in her manner and her playing. In a lesser player this is just a trained formality; the body of material and techniques for her instruments is extremely highly developed, passed down through centuries. But Liu Fang’s total devotion to her playing has moved her beyond perfect execution to the creativity and flexibility that marks a true musician."(in the fRoots Magazine, 06.2006).

Born in Kunming in the Chinese province of Yunnan, she began playing the pipa at the age of 6. Her first solo public performance was at the age of 9. In 1986, at age 11, she played for Queen Elizabeth II. Her studies at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music broadened her musical range and allowed her to study the guzheng. At the age of 22, Liu Fang immigrated to Canada and is now a Canadian citizen, currently residing in Montreal. The decision to move to Quebec allowed her virtuosic playing to reach a wider international audience. Since 1999, she has performed hundreds of solo concerts featuring Chinese traditional and classical music on her two solo instruments - pipa and guzheng. Her profile has risen due to her rich and deeply spiritual performances as well as a wide ranging repertoire that features music from Chinese classical and folk traditions (including pieces rarely heard) as well as contemporary works from both east and west.