Yao Henglu, born in 1951 to a music family in Beijing, China, is a composer and music theorist. He teaches as a professor and doctoral advisor at Central Conservatory of Music.

The subject of this paper, Impression on Yan Bei, a piano suite, is his debut work composed during 1980 – 1981 when he returned to hometown Beijing after the Culture Revolution. Yan Bei is a geographic concept covering a vast area north of Yanmenguan, the first pass of the Great Wall in Datong, Shanxi Province. In his reminiscences of the experience and memories in Shanxi, Yao seamlessly blended the two opposing elements: outback ballad and the Western technique to create this nostalgic composition.

This dissertation consists of five chapters. Introduction, the first chapter describes the motivation, methodology and literature review of the research. The second chapter discusses the historical development of piano in China, as well as the life and creation timeline of the composer. In the third chapter, an in-depth analysis on each of the pieces is given by using Yao’s creation method as a cut point. Whereas, in the fourth chapter, the author aims to reveal Yao’s inner world in the most intimate manner, by shifting the roles, face to face interview, and personally playing the pieces. Finally, the fifth chapter concludes the entire research.