Chapter 5 chapter Five

On this point, if you compare the Chinese and Indians a little bit, the attitude is different.A few years ago, when the Olympics was held, I saw a comment written by an Indian in an American newspaper. I was very impressed. They didn’t get any gold or silver medals. Bronze medals seemed to be only available in unpopular events. But what about this comment? , written in a relaxed and playful way, with gags all the way, it is completely a kind of black humor!I think this is a mentality of giving up gamers—at least I gave up this sports game. I am weak in this aspect. I admit it. I just go to IT, academics, and yoga.In contrast, China's national rejuvenation is a comprehensive attack, literature and art, sports, trade, manufacturing... all of which are indispensable, and the utilitarianism is very important, and the battle must be reversed immediately.So once the game starts, from athletes to spectators, the whole country is like a tightly stretched bow, and people's emotions fluctuate with wins and losses on the field.This inclination to go global with full strength and to be recognized by people (especially Westerners) should be said to have started as soon as the country opened in the 1980s, and it is more prominent among the elite.At that time, there were few college students, and how many people could enter the seventh, seventh, seventh and eighth grades, and they were regarded as elites when they entered.

Liu Suola: This kind of vanity towards success seems to be only after the "Cultural Revolution".Chinese musicians in the period of the Republic of China paid great attention to the pursuit of learning only, and musicians before the "Cultural Revolution" also only had enthusiasm for the nation and the revolution, and did not think about historical significance at every turn.The real elite consciousness should refer to the pure pursuit of professional quality, not the social sensation of the work.I don't know when our society started to have the consciousness that being a soldier means being Napoleon.If all men were Napoleon, who would be his soldiers?This is especially true for the Conservatory of Music. There were only a small number of students in the conservatory of music in the past, and our class was quite large.Maybe it was the "Cultural Revolution" that broke the previous revolutionary collective consciousness. We just had individual consciousness in the 1980s, so we thought about the most personal historical examples all day long: To be a composer is to be Beethoven!We are the first batch of students recruited by the Conservatory of Music after the "Cultural Revolution". The composition department has always had only ten students each year, and our class has more than twenty.It is said that because of the fierce competition in the country that year, with tens of thousands of people competing, the teacher couldn't bear to be too stingy, so he accepted these twenty or so.So when I went in, I felt good about myself. I remember hearing some students talking about the characters in the history of Western music, maybe they were always looking for a place for themselves.

Later, if someone wins an award, it will become a national treasure.The same goes for the Orchestral and Vocal Departments.The students of the conservatory of music can be regarded as international level in terms of technical training, but they are similar to foreign middle school students in terms of music aesthetics and cultural training.An ordinary foreign musician in a professional orchestra can master all the famous scores from classical music to modern music. He knows any genre and can quickly master music by picking up scores of any style. He has great influence on literature and art. Basic opinion.At that time, our music aesthetics education was too little, and there was no education in various genres of music. If it weren't for self-study, our understanding of music basically stopped at the beginning of the 20th century, coupled with Soviet-style revolutionary realism and romanticism education.After going abroad, I have to learn from scratch, not only technology, but also aesthetics and style, otherwise I am an idiot.Just like literature, some people think they understand modern Western literature after reading a few translations, and they really dare to talk about it, relying on the politeness of most people in the world, and they don’t want to expose their ignorance; "Tao", anyway, saying "Tao" will not show cowardice.But those who make music can't just talk about "Tao", as soon as they make a sound, it involves modern music aesthetics.Those who create music must understand the humanistic spirit behind the music, the judgment of the times and self-spirit; those who perform music must at least understand the genre and style of music.If a group of people think about how to win prizes, earn money, and wear famous brands all day long, is that called an elite?That's crazy.

Zha Jianying: In fact, it is a few grasses that struggled out on a piece of barren land. Liu Suola: Yes, it's very simple, just like a few cultural people coming out of a village, fighting their way... Cha Jianying: Overcoming obstacles... Liu Suola: But it is not invincible.It's so pitiful, as soon as I go out, I am surrounded by enemies, helpless.Your enemy is the most basic professional competition. After you go out, you are just an ordinary artist. How can you live on?This situation is even more difficult for writers, and there is also a language barrier. The better the Chinese, the less proficient in foreign languages. As a result, foreign language majors in China can write autobiographies as writers after they go out. Domestic writers should change their careers after they go out.Music and painting are better, and there is no language, but because they are blocked in China, many technical trainings in the West do not meet the aesthetic standards.For example, I know a person who played piano all his life in China, and later went abroad for further study, but once he practiced the piano twice on the stage of a benefit concert, he was immediately disqualified by the concert host, saying Tell this person to come down and not go up.The person next to him explained that this friend had been in a conservatory all his life and was about to perform, just to practice his skills.But the host said, let him go down, don’t go up tonight, as soon as you listen to him practicing the piano, you will know that he is useless, and it will be useless to let him play the piano for another fifty years, because he doesn’t know how to touch the keys.Others asked, why?The host said that your way of playing the piano is completely wrong. The Soviet revolutionary romantic way of playing the piano is completely smashing the piano, not music.Listening to what the host said, basically our whole life was wasted.So many piano players teach piano after going abroad, but they can't play.If your method of touching keys from elementary school is the exaggerated technique of Russian romanticism, Europeans will cover their ears when they hear it.Rachmaninoff made all the audience angry when he performed in Europe, and considered it an insult to the art of the piano, but his music is here a model of great emotion.I once discussed this with a pianist who came from the Soviet Union to the United States. She said that when she came to the United States, she had to relearn the European playing style.

The information, education, and social system we have received since childhood are all different from those in the West, but one of our social education is to exaggerate our own success. In the 1980s and 1990s, it became a world-class exaggeration.Those who came from the old China in the past had seen the world and had family education, so they knew how to talk leisurely and hide money; the older generation of revolutionaries had the self-esteem to establish a new China as an unsuitable colony, and knew that they had to stand up even if they were poor.Therefore, the former literati would not boast of world-class cowhide, but were good at humility.However, the opening up in the 1980s created an illusion for the new generation of intellectuals, that is, to receive world-class invitations, win world-class awards, and become world-class people, so the meaning of life has been exaggerated to the greatest extent.For example, how many modern literati have been unable to sleep because of the Nobel Prize?But in Lu Xun's era, this was not the criterion for literati's life and creation.We have been educated since we were young to be heroes, but we have caught up with an era of celebrity.A hero and a celebrity are not the same thing. A hero means risking his life and let it go, while a celebrity means putting his life in the annals of history.I remember that a writer once said, what did I do with so-and-so, bad, now it will spread all over the world.Some people have been nervous all their lives for their own name, every gesture they make, thinking that the whole world is staring at him/her alone.