Fou Ts'ong, a Chinese-born pianist known for his sensitive interpretations of Chopin, Debussy and Mozart,

 died on Monday at a hospital in London, where he had as lived for many years. He was 86.  

  A lover of classical music from a young age, Mr.Fou began taking piano lessons when he was 7. Mr. Fou made his first stage appearance in 1952.The concert caught the attention of officials in Beijing, who selected him to compete and tour in Eastern Europe. Mr.Fou soon moved to Poland, where he studied at the Warsaw Conservatory on a scholarship to prepare for the fifth International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1955. He practiced so diligently that he hurt his fingers and was nearly cut from the first round of the competition. 

Mr. Fou was one of the first Chinese pianists to achieve global prominence when he took third place in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1955. He also won a special prize for his performance of Chopin's mazurkas. Almost overnight, he became a national hero. To China, Mr. Fou's recognition in a well-known international competition was proof that the country could stand on its own artistically in the West. Chinese reporters flocked to interview Mr. Fou, while many others sought out his father, Fu Lei, for advice on educating children.

In 1981, a volume of letters written by his father, primarily to Mr. Fou, was published in China. Full of advice, encouragement, life teachings and strict paternal love, the book Fu Lei's Family Letters became a best-seller in China. Besides influencing a generation of Chinese, Mr. Fu's words resonated long after his death among people for whom they were intended.

"My father had a saying that 'First you must be a person, then an artist, and then a musician, and only then can you be a pianist'," Mr. Fou once recalled in an interview. "Even now, I believe in this order-that it should be this way and that I am this way."