The reason why Taiwanese writer Yang Zhao understands music is the music education he received since he was a child. Yang Zhao was born into a musical family. His father was a music educator and he grew up under the influence of music. He studied music at National Taiwan University and later went to the United States for further studies, where he studied for a doctorate in musicology at Columbia University. During his studies, he not only studied Western classical music, but also studied different types of music such as jazz and pop music.