Interview Appreciation: The Missionary

(two)

When we sat down to chat in my house, Mr. Dong started to tell me a few self-explanations. When I heard some of his words, I immediately had some strong disapproval.

First, he said that he just started to learn piano at the age of 20 and he was born a layman;

Then he introduced the second content: "There is a Chinese composer named Zhang Xiangyu, who wrote a new seven-character poem for me! And my whole life is basically in it."

Here, let me first talk about his humble call for himself "a layman". He never thought that after hearing this, I would be aroused by my aggressiveness. My thoughts are: this seems to be right and wrong! In my heart, I have always believed that all experts, scholars, and professors, didn't they all start from laymen? There is an old Chinese saying: "Every profession has its own specialty, and every knowledge has its own sequence". The most ridiculous thing in life is that some people learn early. This reminds me of Wang Anshi's "Shang Zhongyong". What about a child prodigy? If you become mentally retarded, cerebral palsy, or brain water after learning, that is the most stupid self-destruction!

There is also a Chinese proverb: What's wrong with learning to play music at the age of 60? It should be said that this is also advocated by society. This sentence is used to describe people who, despite their age, still try to learn new things and show a positive attitude towards life. This behavior may be a little late, but it is still worth encouraging because it embodies the spirit of lifelong learning and the pursuit of new things.

In fact, Mr. Dong’s words here should be interpreted as follows: “When people reach a certain age, it is difficult to learn piano skills. At my age, I was still learning these musical tadpoles on the five-line score, which was indeed quite difficult.”

Yes, he is talking about how difficult it is for him!

After hearing this, I thought more about him, and finally came to the conclusion that Mr. Dong's persistence and hard work in learning, regardless of his age, his willingness and action to learn are worthy of our respect and appreciation.

From these words, I feel that Mr. Dong's nature is somewhat similar to mine. He usually likes to seek excitement by singing about himself, making fun of himself. The B flat key in music is also music, isn't it?

There are indeed many people around me who love to sing the bass. Here I have a Mr. Liu Xianliang, who has a very successful career, but he has a catchphrase, often saying, "I am a farmer's son!" Later, I heard it too many times, so I said to him, aren't you also mocking me/us? Think about it carefully, who is not a farmer's son, even if you are a red n generation, or you are Li Ka-shing...didn't your ancestors all come out of the ridges of the fields? Let's talk about it. For those experts, didn't you also come out of your mother's womb? Everyone starts from a layman, this is the truth, the most important thing is to see how you end up, how you live, let the facts speak for themselves, no one should rely on their age, only achievements are the truth!

Now let’s take a closer look at Mr. Dong’s second statement, which is a new seven-character poem written for him by the Chinese composer Mr. Zhang Xiangyu! The poem is as follows:



"Take off your work clothes and step onto the music,

I play the piano and compose music with tears of joy.

Famous teachers sow new seedlings,

The disciples blossomed and bore great fruit.

Forty hot coins bid farewell to the native land,

After years of hard study, I am exploring new things.

Carnegie sang the song.

The four of them exclaimed, "He's so drunk!"

When I listened to it roughly, I felt that he wrote it very condensedly. Perhaps it has the strengths of ancient Chinese poetry, which is concise and to the point.

But to be honest, I feel that this is a bit too concise for modern society, right?

There is still some ambiguity in Chinese characters, but the content is less gossipy. Fortunately, Mr. Dong was sitting next to me that day, so I asked him to explain it to me in a little detail:

Let’s look at the first sentence:

"Drop your work clothes and step onto music"

No! Mr. Dong told me about his study life. He told me that he graduated from Xuhui Middle School in Shanghai from 1964 to 1968. What kind of school is Xuhui Middle School? As old Shanghainese, we all know that it is a school with a long history. The school building there originally has a strong musical atmosphere. The environment is a kind of edification and a kind of cultivation. As for who can read it, this is very important. It seems that this should be quite critical for Mr. Dong, and it is also the earliest note embedded! (Architecture is static music, and music is dynamic architecture!). He told me that he was also a leader of students in those days. The soul of adolescence is rippling, and everything comes from nature.

Later, he continued to talk to me, but I saw that his face was not smiling. He left the campus and came to the heat treatment workshop of Shanghai Rolling Bearing Factory in 1968. I imagined for him, isn't this sound of quenched metal knocking also music? It's like the horn sounded by the Volga boatman, shirtless, while pulling the boat, how beautiful it is!

Isn't it? Mr. Dong, you must have been bare-chested, roasting in the hot fire, humming in your heart...

Art comes from life! Never forget that.

It’s a pity that the composer Mr. Zhang Xiangyu did not write the above scenes for you, which is a bit regrettable!

Li Bai wrote in his poem:

"The monkeys on both sides of the river kept crying,

The boat has passed through thousands of mountains."

Yes! Dong Rongcan, you are born to be useful. If you are gold, it will be good to go to the heat treatment workshop. Real gold is not afraid of fire! (To be continued)