Originally named Na Risong, San Bao comes from the beautiful Inner Mongolian prairie. His mother won the respect of the Mongolian and Han peoples for her epic work "Ga Da Mei Lin". Born into a family of musicians, he started playing the violin at the age of four and the piano at the age of eleven. During the 1980s, he attended the renowned Central Music Conservatory in order to study conducting.

San Bao was seemingly born for music and the prairie is the niche of his soul. Each of his musical scores conveys the prairie's characteristics of constringency, quietness, fortitude and lenience, all details found in San Bao's music.

The epic dance-drama "Searching for Shangri-la" has been a major hit around China since it debuted earlier this year. It has brought fame to the lead dancer and choreographer Yang Liping, but the credit for its success must also go to the celebrated composer San Bao, whose rhythmic compositions accompany the exciting dance.

36-year-old San Bao is a prolific composer whose catalogue numbers more than a thousand musical works! Most of his music was written for TV serials and films.

Before becoming a freelance musician in 1997, San Bao worked for a number of symphony orchestras, including orchestras in Wuhan, Hubei Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region as well as the famous Central Ballet Symphony Orchestra and the China National Symphony Orchestra.

San Bao writes in a wide range of styles, and his works are always unpredictable. Sometimes classical, other times folk or pop, there are many different influences in his compositions. For instance, an electronic piece named "Idiot" (or "The Idiot",) is the theme song for Feng Xiaogang's blockbuster "Big Shot's Funeral". The film was one of the acclaimed director's most successful comedies and starred Kiefer Sutherland alongside the mainland's most famous male actor, Ge You. To top of the list of stars, the theme song was sung by Hong Kong singer Faye Wong.

The composition San Bao wrote for the film "Tea", the first feature film by young director Wu Bing, is quite different in style. Unlike his peers who preferred more sensational topics, Wu Bing chose elderly people and their feelings for the theme of his first work. The melodious and melancholic background music is perfectly in step with the message of the film.

"Paradise Lost" was the first Chinese TV series to deal with people suffering from the AIDS virus. It follows the life of a successful businessman who becomes HIV sufferer after receiving an infected blood transfusion. His career, his family and his relations with his friends are all affected by the accident, and the director of the series invited famous actors and actresses to take part.. San Bao was invited to write the music for the series.

Besides writing music for the TV series "Paradise Lost", San Bao also composed and wrote "Hold My Hand Tightly," the theme song for the play. The song goes; "A happy face, a sound night's sleep, I used to have these so easily, but suddenly I was told that the color of my life is was turning black with the endless night." Yang Kun, who sang the song, became well known about a year ago, as his hoarse voice and emotional performances have established him as an up-and-coming star on the Chinese pop scene.

San Bao describes himself as a pessimist, and most of his works are colored with traces of sadness. Even when he wrote a piece for the comic series "My Father Hong Qi", this characteristic still came through. The play features the simple but colorful life of insurance salesman Hong Qi. Li Xiandong sang the haunting lyrics to the theme song: "I want to fly high as a bird, I want to run on the rainbow; sometimes, tears come with laughter, but I always believe laughing is better than crying."

The composer also wrote the theme song for the TV series "Let Love Come Back". The plot depicts the story of an adopted daughter and her beloved father. Again, San Bao composed all the music for the series, and many audiences were moved by the music, performed by the young singer Zou Rui.

Although San Bao has a solid fan base in domestic music circles and almost all of his compositions become hits, his work seldom wins awards. San Bao says he cares little about prizes, and that his biggest dream is to write an opera.

"Prairie in Heaven" is a film set against in the Mongolian grasslands, and San Bao, a native of the land, infuses the piece with his memories of music from the grassland. This is music from the film.