Taiwanese singer and music producer Yuan Weiren dies at 57
The singer-songwriter had worked with Chinese singer Faye Wong and Taiwanese girl group SHE, and also served as a judge on the Taiwanese singing competition One Million Star.
Taiwanese singer and music producer Yuan Weiren was a prominent figure in Mandopop. (Photo: Nanjing Forest Music Festival)
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Taiwanese singer-songwriter and record producer Yuan Weiren, affectionately known as "Xiao Pang Lao Shi", or Little Fat Teacher in English, died on Monday (Feb 2) at the age of 57, reported Taiwanese news company TVBS News.
In 2018, Yuan fell and suffered a serious head injury, which led to a brain haemorrhage and stroke. He was later diagnosed with a brain tumour and underwent surgery.
Two years later, in 2020, he experienced another fall and sustained another head injury that put him in a coma. He was later determined to be in a vegetative state as a result of severe brain damage and had been bedridden ever since.
It was reported that Yuan died at around 10am on Monday at Taitung Mackay Memorial Hospital.
"Thank you to all the friends who cared for and supported Xiao Pang," the family said in a statement. "He left this world surrounded by your warmth."
Yuan's older sister, Yuan Ai-chen, said in a post on music producer Chen Tzu-hung's Facebook page that her brother "passed away peacefully and was finally free".
"We will bring him back to Taipei to be buried alongside our father, in a place with mountains and water that he knew well," she wrote in Chinese.
Yuan was married to Taiwanese actress Lu Yuan-chi for 14 years before their divorce in 2016.
As a musician, Yuan was a prominent figure in the Mandopop scene and wrote many Chinese-language songs, including Conquest, Addicted and A Dream for famous Chinese singers like Na Ying and Faye Wong. He worked with Taiwanese girl group SHE on their album SHERO, and was a judge on the Taiwanese singing competition One Million Star.
