Bell Yung is an eminent scholar of Cantonese opera and Guangdong song-art. Born in Shanghai, Yung graduated from the Wah Yan College Kowloon and furthered his study in the US, where he received two doctorates: first a doctorate in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and then a doctorate in music at the Harvard University. Yung returned to Hong Kong in late 1970s and became a Professor of Music at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and the Chair of Music Department at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). At present Yung is a Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh in the States. Bell Yung left the States for Hong Kong in 1974 to undertake his research on Cantonese opera. He happened to have heard Douwun’s nanyin for the first time in the Goethe-Institut. After that he watched him perform in various places like the Art Museum of CUHK and the St. John's Cathedral. Profoundly impressed, Yung decided to make a recording of Douwun’s performance so as to preserve the first-hand experience of nanyin song-art.

Teahouse was one of the stages of nanyin singers. To recreate the environment of nanyin performance, Bell Yung opted for Fu Lung Teahouse in Sheung Wan as the venue for recording. Having survived through half a century, Fu Lung was at that time the oldest teahouse in Hong Kong. There, ceiling fans were still circling, and spittoons sit besides the tables. Traditional teapots were used and servers cried their dishes. Patrons hanged their well-crafted birdcages up on the window and enjoyed their tea at leisure. Yung, supported by the Centre of Asian Studies of the University of Hong Kong, talked the teahouse into offering a place for Douwun’s recording. From 11 March to 26 June 1975, Douwun sang in Fu Lung Teahouse every Monday, Wednesday and Friday after lunch. Each session lasted for an hour with ten minutes break. The whole recording comprised 42 sessions, which made up 16 songs. After Douwun finished most of the songs he had sung in the past, he improvised a six-hour song that narrates the story of his life. It was called Reminiscence of Douwun the Blind.