Yang Erche Namu was born in a small village near Lugu Lake , in northern Yunnan province , but left at age thirteen ; after arriving in neighbouring Yanyuan County , she joined a singing troupe and won a scholarship to study music in Shanghai . She began receiving attention outside of China as early as 1991 , when she was featured in an article in '' National Geographic Magazine '' ; she later married an American musician and moved to San Francisco , California with him , but they faced marital difficulties due to cultural differences and divorced . After the divorce , she worked four or five different jobs ; stress during this period caused her to lose her hearing in her right ear , bringing her singing career to an end . In February 1996 , while in Italy , Namu received news of the Lijiang earthquake , and quickly bought plane tickets back to Yunnan . On the way there , she stopped by Beijing , where she met her second husband-to-be , a Norwegian embassy worker
Lijiang earthquake
1996 Lijiang earthquake
Yang Erche Namu