Wan Xiaoli

Wan Xiaoli (万晓利; born 1971) is a folk-rock singer, song-writer, guitarist, and harmonica player from China. He is originally from Ci County, Handan, Hebei.

Wan Xiaoli was born on October 15, 1971, in Handan, Hebei Province. Raised in a rural environment, he developed an early affinity for music, teaching himself harmonica as a child after finding one at home. After graduating from a local technical college in 1991, Wan worked at a winery in his hometown while picking up guitar playing. During this time, he married and had a daughter, Wan Chang, who later contributed vocals to his recordings. In 1997 when he was 26, he moved to Beijing with his guitar and began to make a life as a bar musician. In 2014 he moved south and settled at the suburb of Hangzhou.

He has released five studio albums.

Wan was grouped with Zhou Yunpeng as a "realistic" songwriter conscious of societal changes and circumstances around the crowd. His 2002 song "Laid Off" (下岗了) gave a raw depiction of factory worker unemployment, reflecting 1990s state-owned enterprise reforms.

Discography Walk Over Here, Walk Over There (2002) It’s Not As Bad As Imagined (2006) The North of the North (2010) The Sun Looks Round (2015) Ship of the Scales / Teeth, Spinach, and Tofu versus Poet, Tramp, and Disciple (2017)