"At this moment, I, an overseas wanderer, am about to end my one-year journey of love. I came to Sichuan alone, and in a few days I will return to the United States alone, back to the days when I miss my homeland... I have been searching for you all this year, and today I finally found you. I will melt this memory into my blood. From now on, my life will no longer be lonely, because you will always be with me in my heart! Now, can I step down and shake hands with everyone?"
On the stage, Mr. Dong Rongcan, a Chinese American from the other side of the ocean and an American alumnus of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, had tears in his eyes when he spoke. "Yes, yes..." Below the stage, thousands of people answered at the same time, and the sound was like the call of the Sichuan River, echoing in the mountains and valleys for a long time... This is the call of family affection, this is the fusion of blood, this is a touching scene that happened on the playground of Tongji Central Primary School in Pengzhou, Sichuan on the afternoon of May 12! Later, Dong Rongcan learned that this was the school where the Prime Minister of the Republic visited last year and wrote the word "love".
Three hundred and sixty-five days of nostalgia
On May 12 last year, a major earthquake occurred in Wenchuan, Sichuan, shocking the world! When Dong Rongcan, a Chinese American, heard the news and rushed back to his motherland, it was the National Day of Mourning. The tragic sound of the whistle and the silent scene of the whole nation left a deep impression on him. The conscience instinct of a music worker drove him to the disaster area, where he felt the painful struggle of his suffering compatriots and the great love of people across the country and the world. The musician's sense of mission made him write tearful songs with tears in sleepless nights and at every turn.
He has been engaged in music for 35 years. He is a doctor of music who has traveled in the cultural circles of China and the United States and has twice held personal concerts and romantic piano concerts in the world's highest art hall, Carnegie Hall in New York. He has never cried in many occasions, but this time in the recording studio, he cried more than once. In this way, a music album "Hand in Hand, Wind and Rain" created and funded by him came into being.
The album condenses the whole process of the earthquake. There are 16 songs including "Children, Hold Your Mother's Hand" and "Spring Scenery in the Disaster Area", covering four important aspects: saving the victims, surviving from death, rebuilding homes, and the blood connection of Chinese people around the world.
The album is like a concert of "disaster relief, reconstruction and gratitude". With the actors' emotional lines: Tens of millions of buildings collapsed, and billions of hearts stood! She declared to the world: "The Chinese nation is an unbreakable Great Wall!" She sublimated the audience's feelings step by step and pushed them to a climax! What is particularly exciting is the theme song of the album: "Hand in hand, walk together through wind and rain" expresses that the nation has become more determined and stronger after the disaster! With the encouragement of the Utah branch of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology in the United States, the album's first concert was successfully performed in the United States on July 9 last year.
The destruction of a city, the suffering of a nation, the death of 80,000 people... 365 days are too short for relatives in the disaster area, too short to wipe away tears; 365 days are too long for an overseas wanderer like Dong Rongcan who is on the other side of the ocean and eager to return to the disaster area. He is anxious. He wants to know whether those relatives who survived the disaster have a warm home in this year? Are those hearts that have been hurt healing?
In February this year, he came up with a new idea: on the first anniversary of the earthquake, he went to the severely affected cities and counties to hold a series of song and dance concerts to mourn the past pain; let yesterday pass and let tomorrow continue.
1 and 15,000 people interacting
Can the song and dance concert be lined up on the special day of "5.12"? Mr. Dong was skeptical. With the strong support of the "Jiaosheng International Care Network", he has coordinated, planned and arranged many aspects such as funds, equipment, accommodation and transportation for the performance team, and contact with the cooperation of the performers in Sichuan. In difficult times, Shanghai Conservatory of Music and Mianyang Art College of Sichuan Conservatory of Music resolutely assumed the obligation of hosting and undertaking, so that the time and place of the concert in Sichuan could be determined. Dong Rongcan said that it is particularly worth mentioning that Wang Longxing, the main leader of the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration, specially approved Xu Xiaoxuan, the original singer of the album "Hand in Hand, Wind and Rain Together" and the military singer who had just been demobilized to the unit, to participate in the charity performance in the disaster area; and the Beijing "Phoenix Orchestra", which had participated in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, also flew here to perform the water drum "The Rise of Life", which kicked off the song and dance concert.
On May 7, Dong Rongcan successfully rehearsed a report before entering Sichuan at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music to call on the love of the people of the metropolis. On May 8, Dong Rongcan led the group into the disaster area. On May 9, accompanied by the leaders of Sichuan Conservatory of Music Mianyang Art College and with the help of Anchang Primary School, Dong Rongcan and the cast and crew visited the old county town of Beichuan. On the evening of May 10, the first charity performance in Sichuan was held as scheduled. More than 100 cast and crew members including the dance troupe, chorus, and accompaniment group of the Music Department of Sichuan Conservatory of Music Mianyang Art College and volunteer teams from Beijing and Shanghai successfully brought "Join Hands, Walk Through Wind and Rain" to the stage of "Mianzhou Grand Theater" in Mianyang. Xu Xiaoxuan's tear-jerking, euphemistic, affectionate, and inspiring singing touched the hearts of countless disaster victims. Next, a piano poem "The Call of Life" played by Mr. Dong Rongcan himself - Walking in Jiuzhaigou, with the three notes "5, 1, 2" as the main melody, also moved the audience on the scene; on May 11, Dong Rongcan and his party's second charity performance at Beichuan Anchang Primary School attracted more than 5,000 teachers, students, parents and the public to participate. During the performance, Dong Rongcan guided the audience to sing "Blood Can Create Miracles" interactively. With the background of music and pictures, the audience seemed to have returned to yesterday. Many people were moved and cried...
Just after the "Love Journey" came to an end and hundreds of performers left, Dong Rongcan received a call from volunteers inviting him to perform at Tongji Town Primary School in Pengzhou. There were only 12 people left, what to do? Dong Rongcan immediately decided: "All 12 people have to go." On the 12th, when the performance team arrived in Pengzhou after twists and turns, it was already 2:30 in the afternoon, and thousands of people had already been quietly waiting in the small playground of Tongji Town. Seeing this scene, Dong Rongcan and the performance team were deeply moved. They ignored fatigue and hunger. At 3:15 pm, the charity performance began. The local art troupe in the disaster area also happily participated in the interactive performance. After 1 hour and 45 minutes, the concert was about to end. The principal of the school walked to Dong Rongcan and said, "Look, your thousands of relatives are still reluctant to leave. What should I do? So, the scene at the beginning of this article appeared.
"Where love falls, it is reborn in the fire." Dong Rongcan's love journey started from Utah, USA, and passed through Salt Lake City, New York, Shanghai, Mianyang, Anxian, Beichuan, and landed in Tongji, Pengzhou, China. There were at least more than 15,000 people who participated in and experienced this concert. It should be said that with the free gift of 10,000 CDs in the disaster area, this transmission is still continuing with the passage of time and the mutual spread between people... (Chen Jin, Hu Ruijuan, Liu Liying)
