Who Liu Huan was — and why English readers in China will hear his name this week

Chinese musician Liu Huan (刘欢) died of illness in Shanghai on the morning of Friday, 25 September 2026, at the age of 63. The Beijing-based University of International Business and Economics (UIBE / 对外经济贸易大学) announced his death in an obituary on Saturday, 26 September, and English wire reports from Xinhua and CGTN carried the news the same day.

For many foreigners living in China, Liu’s voice is already familiar even if his name is not. He was the deep, warm baritone who shared the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening theme “You and Me” with British soprano Sarah Brightman — a moment watched by a global audience. Inside China he was also a household singer-songwriter of television themes, a long-serving university music teacher, and a relatively low-key public figure who treated the classroom as seriously as the stage.

This page is a respectful life review for English readers and expats: who he was, why he mattered, key songs and moments you can verify, his teaching career, and how his death was announced. It is not a sensational report. Official coverage describes the cause only as illness; that is all we repeat here.

How his death was announced

According to Xinhua (26 September 2026), Liu died of illness in Shanghai on Friday morning at age 63. UIBE’s Saturday obituary, widely reprinted by Chinese outlets and summarized by CGTN, placed the time at 9:52 a.m. on 25 September and said he was with family.

Both the university and foundation obituaries stressed that, per his wishes, arrangements would stay simple: no funeral committee, no farewell ceremony, and no memorial service. That request matches the quieter public image he kept in later years — famous, but rarely theatrical about fame.

For readers outside Chinese media loops, the practical takeaway is simple: the death notice is official (his long-time employer plus national English media), the cause is reported only as illness, and the family and university are not staging a public memorial.

Early life and the unusual path into music

Liu was born in Tianjin in August 1963. He graduated with a degree in French literature from the University of International Relations in Beijing — not a conservatory track. Xinhua and later career profiles agree that he rose to prominence in the 1980s as one of China’s most recognizable popular voices, known for blending Chinese and Western musical traditions rather than copying either side wholesale.

That French-literature background shows up in how people remember him as a teacher: comfortable introducing foreign names, schools, and terms in class, and interested in Western classical history as general education for non-music majors. He was widely described as largely self-taught as a performer — a detail that helps explain both his unusual repertoire range and his insistence that teaching was a real profession, not a celebrity side job.

Key songs and career milestones (verified highlights)

Liu’s catalogue is large. Below are moments that English-language and major Chinese reports consistently attach to his name. Where a year or show title is uncertain in primary English sources, it is left out rather than guessed.

Television themes that made him a household voice

CGTN notes that from the 1980s onward he created and performed songs that became part of the musical memory of generations of Chinese listeners, including 《弯弯的月亮》 (Wan Wan De Yue Liang / “A Curved Moon”). That ballad is still one of the tracks Chinese friends are most likely to name first when they explain who Liu Huan was.

He also became closely associated with major historical television dramas. CGTN highlights 《好汉歌》 (Hao Han Ge / “Heroes’ Song” / “A Real Man’s Song”), the iconic theme of the 1998 TV adaptation of 《水浒传》 (Water Margin) — one of China’s four great classical novels. For many viewers, that rough-edged, folk-tinged anthem is the sound of that series.

Earlier breakthrough television work in Chinese biographies often starts with late-1980s drama themes (including songs linked to series such as Snowing City / 《雪城》). Treat those as part of the same 1980s rise Xinhua summarizes, rather than as a complete discography.

Film and later soundtrack work

CGTN describes Liu as a singer, songwriter, and music producer whose work stretched across pop, film, and television. He later served as music producer for the hit series 《甄嬛传》 (Empresses in the Palace) and performed its closing song often rendered in English as “Phoenix in Flight” / 《凤凰于飞》.

In contemporary film music, CGTN notes that in 2019 he wrote and performed 《带着地球去流浪》 (“Take the Earth to Wander”), associated with the science-fiction film 《流浪地球》 (The Wandering Earth), and returned to the franchise in 2023 with work tied to The Wandering Earth 2. Those credits matter for younger listeners who know him less from 1990s TV than from big-screen China.

The Olympic stage: “You and Me” (2008)

For international audiences, Liu’s defining live moment remains 8 August 2008. At the Beijing Summer Olympics opening ceremony he performed the official theme “You and Me” (《我和你》) with Sarah Brightman. Xinhua calls this his most globally recognized performance, reaching an audience of billions. The song’s plain lyric idea — people meeting through music — is still the shortest explanation of why expats who were in China (or watching from abroad) suddenly knew his face and voice.

If you are building a first listening list, start here, then add Hao Han Ge and Wan Wan De Yue Liang. That trio covers global ceremony, classic TV China, and soft pop ballad — three sides of the same career.

The teacher who stayed: UIBE, 1991–2023

Liu’s “day job” was not a PR invention. Xinhua states that he taught at UIBE from 1991, specializing in music education and the history of Western music, and retired in 2023 after more than three decades.

UIBE’s own obituary (as reprinted by Beijing News and other outlets) adds institutional detail English readers rarely see: he worked in the art teaching section as a teacher and associate professor; his Western Music History course was a popular aesthetic-education class; he composed the university’s school song 《UIBE之歌》; and in 2011 he was appointed a university board director. The school framed his death as a loss both to the university and to China’s music community.

That teaching identity helps explain his public style. Even at peak fame he kept returning to campus, describing teaching and singing as compatible rather than contradictory. For foreign staff and students in Beijing, it is also a useful reminder that Chinese pop fame and university teaching can share the same person for thirty years.

Beyond the classroom, obituaries from the Mango V Foundation side of the story remember him as a founder and donor of an original-music public-welfare fund supporting Chinese-language musicians — another through-line of “career plus stewardship,” not only chart performance.

Why he mattered culturally — beyond celebrity

Liu mattered for three overlapping reasons that travel well for English readers:

1. He soundtracked reform-era television. Theme songs in China do more cultural work than many Western title tracks. When a series like Water Margin becomes a shared national memory, the opening or ending song becomes shared vocabulary. Liu’s voice sat inside living rooms for decades.

2. He could move between folk grit and Olympic polish. The same career holds the rough swagger of Hao Han Ge and the spare lyricism of You and Me. That range is why Chinese commentary often calls him a bridge between Chinese and Western musical languages — language Xinhua itself uses.

3. He modeled a low-key public life. In an industry that rewards constant visibility, he remained closely identified with teaching, limited public memorial theatre after death, and (in later years) selective rather than saturating media appearances. The university’s “simple arrangements” notice is consistent with that posture.

For visitors trying to place Chinese popular music beside other living arts — for example traditional instruments such as the guqin, or staged forms such as Peking opera in Beijing — Liu is a useful modern reference point: not “folk museum,” not pure Western import, but a mainstream voice that carried Chinese stories into pop form.

A short listening starter for expats

If you want a respectful, non-exhaustive first pass this week:

• “You and Me” (2008) — Olympics opening with Sarah Brightman; the international entry point
• “Hao Han Ge” / Heroes’ Song (1998 Water Margin TV) — the domestic classic many Chinese friends will hum first
• “Wan Wan De Yue Liang” / A Curved Moon — the soft ballad CGTN flags as generational memory
• One later film theme such as “Take the Earth to Wander” — useful if your Chinese friends are more film-oriented than 1990s-TV-oriented

You do not need Mandarin fluency to hear the vocal character: a broad range, a speech-like delivery on dramatic themes, and a warmer, more intimate tone on ballads.

What we are not claiming

To keep this page accurate:

• We do not invent a detailed medical cause beyond the reported illness
• We do not invent farewell-ceremony details that contradict the university’s “no farewell / no memorial” notice
• We do not recreate a full discography or award list; only widely reported milestones appear above
• Birth is given as August 1963 following Xinhua’s wording (Chinese biographies commonly give 26 August; we do not over-specify beyond the wire report’s month-year framing in the lead facts)

Sources

Primary reporting used for this life review:

• Xinhua (English), 26 September 2026 — “Renowned Chinese singer Liu Huan dies at 63” (death in Shanghai Friday morning; age 63; illness; UIBE announcement; birth Tianjin August 1963; French literature degree; UIBE teaching 1991–2023; 1980s rise; 2008 “You and Me” with Sarah Brightman)
• CGTN, 26 September 2026 — “Renowned Chinese musician Liu Huan dies at 63” (Shanghai, 25 September, age 63; simple funeral wishes; career summary including Wan Wan De Yue Liang, Hao Han Ge / 1998 Water Margin, Empresses in the Palace production work, Olympics theme, UIBE Western music history teaching, Wandering Earth film themes)
• UIBE obituary, 26 September 2026 — as carried by university and major Chinese news outlets (9:52 a.m. Shanghai; age 63; teaching timeline; Western Music History course; school song; simple arrangements per his wishes)

Liu Huan leaves a catalogue that Chinese audiences already know by heart and that English-speaking residents can still enter easily through a handful of songs. The quietest fact in the obituaries may be the most characteristic: a major national musician asked for no farewell ceremony — and his university honored that request.