Why is society's reaction to the Li Yundi incident so rapid and intense?
In addition to prostitution, there are three other reasons that directly or indirectly led to his downfall: weak musical literacy, insufficient creative skills, and poor ability to deal with complex things.
A lot of things are always tinged with strong irony. In October of the millennium, 18-year-old Li Yundi participated in the 14th Chopin International Piano Competition and won the first prize. Twenty years later, in October, Li Yundi was administratively detained for prostitution and the piano prince fell.
On the same day, Liu Xiaoyu, a 24-year-old Chinese-Canadian pianist, won the 18th Chopin International Piano Competition. The country that detained Meng Wanzhou for 1,028 days produced a new piano star who had gone out of China.
Putting these three things together, does anyone find it an irony and shame?
If there is no feeling, let's take a look at what kind of people in history will be called real musicians?
In 1831, the Poles under Tsarist Rule launched an uprising for national independence. After 10 months, the uprising failed.
Chopin, who had just finished his European tour, left his hometown of Poland and moved to Paris, France, where he began to make a living playing, composing and teaching. Six years later, at the age of 27, Chopin turned down the post of chief pianist in Russia. In October 1849, at the age of 39, Chopin fell ill with tuberculosis and died in Paris.
At the same age as Li Yundi, Chopin became one of the most influential and popular piano composers in history, known as a Romantic piano poet.
In order to commemorate Chopin, and to discover outstanding Chopin music interpreters. In January 1927, Polish pianists and music educators organized the first Chopin International Piano Competition.
The special thing about the competition is that if the judges believe that no one among the contestants is eligible for an award, the award will be left vacant and the best performer will not be filled.
The Chopin International Piano Competition is held every five years, and Soviet players won the first three competitions. Nevertheless, the results of the first three competitions did not cause criticism, and the winners later became a generation of masters.
In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, World War II broke out, and the game was suspended. In the face of the devastation of war, people have not forgotten music. During World War II, touching music stories took place in both Europe and China.
On September 23, 1939, the pianist Spielmann, who graduated from chopin's music school, was playing Chopin's music in the radio studio. He also did not know that german bombers were flying towards Warsaw. An hour later, warsaw's power supply center was blown up and radio broadcasts came to an abrupt halt.
In August 1942, the Spielman family and thousands of Jews were escorted to the station, where a train bound for Death Camp was about to depart. A policeman who had heard him play grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out of the line.
Watching his younger siblings help his mother into the car, his father looking around for him, he struggled to be with his loved ones. A soldier pushed him out of the crowd and said viciously: What stupid are you committing? Don't hurry up and run for your life! Spielman immediately understood what fate would be for these Jews, and he quickly turned and left the station.
Fast forward to 1943, when some friends and radio colleagues settled Spielman on Pravoska Street in the Aryan neighborhood. He was afraid to go out every day for fear of being arrested by the Nazis, and often moved and changed his residence.
During this time, the radio station had been helping him, but it was suddenly interrupted in the summer. Spielmann had to be trapped in his hiding place, even to the point of dying. He went into hiding for 63 days, sneaking into the rubble every day, looking for food to feed him until he was spotted by the German officer Wilm. By this time Spielmann was already disheveled and skinny.
Wilm asked him to play the piano, and Spielmann played Chopin in G minor. Unexpectedly, this Chopin piano piece actually saved his life, and Wilm not only did not kill him, but also helped him survive the days before the German retreat.
After the war, Spielmann played the same tune on the radio, but Wilm was already in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp and died of illness in 1952.
In May 2002, the film "The Pianist", based on this past, was released. The war turned a pianist into a rat wandering through the ruins, but as a musician Spielmann did not lose the dignity of the performer.
When a life is still given the identity of a pianist, the lone wanderer unleashes love and strength with music. This simple story has touched countless people, but people can't cry at all.
Also in 1939, Xian Xinghai composed the anti-war song "Yellow River Chorus", which became a famous song that inspired Chinese to resist the Japanese invaders as soon as it was published.
On May 11, 1939, at the party celebrating the anniversary of the founding of Luyi in Yan'an, Xian Xinghai wore a gray cloth military uniform and leggings, and directed the soldiers to sing the "Yellow River Chorus". Tens of thousands of Chinese sang "The wind is roaring, the horses are roaring" and walked to the front line of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
In May 1940, Xian Xinghai went to the Soviet Union to conduct post-production and soundtrack for the large-scale documentary "Yan'an and the Eighth Route Army". Before leaving, Chairman Mao invited him to dinner at his home and sent him off.
On June 22, 1941, the Soviet-German War broke out and the documentary ceased production. Xian Xinghai was preparing to return to Yan'an via Xinjiang, but the trip was not completed because the warlord Sheng Shicai was entrenched in the area and the traffic was interrupted. He was forced to stay in Almaty, Kazakhstan, for a long time.
At that time, the Soviet Union was short of food and clothing, and the conditions were extremely difficult. However, Xian Xinghai still completed the creation of music such as "Symphony of National Liberation", "Holy War", and "Oman Gelda". Because of exertion and malnutrition, his lung disease became increasingly serious.
In October 1945, Xian Xinghai was admitted to the Kremlin Hospital and completed the orchestral music "Rhapsody of China". On October 30, the disease took his life. This year, Xian Xinghai had just turned 40 years old.
In the five years from 1935 to 1940, he composed hundreds of anti-war songs, including choruses, symphonies, and rhapsody, which injected a strong spiritual impetus into national liberation.
After the end of the Second World War, the organizing committee resumed the Chopin International Piano Competition, which held its fourth edition in 1949.
In the fifth competition in 1955, the winners appeared for the first time in the Chinese figure, Fu Cong won the third place in the competition and the Mazurka Performance Special Prize.
In 1980, Vietnamese pianist Deng Tai became the first Asian to win the tournament. Recently, Liu Xiaoyu, who won the championship, is his student.
Deng Tai Shan grew up in a musical family, and his parents were professional pianists in Vietnam. From 1965 to 1976, Deng Tai studied piano at his mother's conservatory for 11 years. During the 20-year Vietnam War, he often hid in an air raid shelter to play the piano, with no recordings and records, only a piano sheet.
It was not until 1977, when the Soviet pianist Kaz visited Vietnam, that he discovered the musical prodigy and recommended him to the Moscow Conservatory for further study.
In 1980, Deng Taishan applied to participate in the Chopin Piano Competition, because he had not held concerts or won grand prizes, and the art archive was like a blank piece of paper, and the organizing committee almost turned him away. After communication, considering that this was the first time that vietnamese officials had sent representatives to participate in the competition, and it was a student of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the organizing committee finally broke the rules and let him enter the competition.
Since then, Deng Taishan has become a generation of piano masters. After becoming famous, he chose to move to Canada instead of the United States.
In 1982, a family in Chongqing's Dadukou District gave birth to a little boy, and his parents named him Li Xi. Li Xi began to learn piano at the age of 7, toured Europe at the age of 13, and won the first place in the first China Piano Works Competition in Hong Kong for playing Xian Xinghai's "Yellow River Concerto" at the age of 15.
In the 15 years from 1985 to 2000, the first prize in two consecutive Chopin piano competitions was vacant. Until 2000, at the age of 18, Li Xi participated in the 14th competition and won a gold medal for playing Chopin's First Concerto. Li Xi became the first Chinese to win the jackpot in the 73 years since the beginning of the competition, and this teenager was Li Yundi, who was rushed by major media and related units to publish articles.
Li Xi's success was not easy, from changing his name to Li Yundi at the age of 5, to learning the piano with Dan Zhaoyi at the age of 9, and then to being admitted to Chuanyin at the age of 12. During this period, in addition to financial efforts, the intensity of practicing the piano and the support of parents will far exceed the imagination of ordinary people.
In the 10 years from 1990 to 2000, China's economic and social situation also led to a lack of effective supervision in many domestic industries. Yellow and gray areas, even black areas, are destined to become obstacles to the growth of ordinary children. The most typical is the chafficky car in front of the school. This also means that all the efforts of the Piano Prince in the past 30 years have been in vain.
If this incident happened to ordinary people, it may not attract much attention, but this is an international performer who has been famous for 21 years, and he does not represent personal honor.
The 39-year-old Chopin and Xian Xinghai have come to the end of their lives, but before that, they have become international masters, making immortal contributions to the world and the country. They carried the love and hatred of the nation and created a large number of classic songs. Xian Xinghai was even more difficult in the motherland, using his works to inspire countless people to devote themselves to the struggle against Japan.
On the other hand, Li Yundi and Lang Lang did not create world-renowned songs, and if they must be labeled, perhaps the performer is the most appropriate title. After all, the musical education they received from an early age was extreme practice and exams.
To summarize the three reasons for Li Yundi's fall:
1, music literacy is too poor, which may be one of the fatal flaws. The famous masters of all ages have firm faith, but this boy is not clear about the great right and wrong. Instead of remembering this, he lived a muddy life.
2, in terms of skills, Li Yundi basically does not engage in creation, Lang Lang is almost the same, and even engaged in Steinway piano tour in China. If Li Yundi could write a work like Xian Xinghai, even if it was one, his life would be rewritten because of it. Unfortunately, he was not trained in these skills when he was enlightened, and he did not learn anything other than practicing the piano and taking exams in a frenzied manner.
3. Lack of ability to cope with complex societies. This is related to Li Yundi's origin, after all, ordinary children will lack more insight and social resources, and only went to Hanover for further study after becoming famous, which is enough to explain his family origin.
From Li Yundi's millennium award to Liu Xiaoyu, a Chinese Canadian who won the championship in 2021, it shows that China's music education should arouse our reflection and vigilance. Whether it is personal interests or national needs, as a musician, we must truly recognize what kind of art the world and people need.
China, which is developing rapidly, is facing another encirclement by the Western powers. As long as the living Chinese, especially the younger generation, need to soberly realize that only by breaking through all the shackles that undermine China's development can our country achieve great rejuvenation.
Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy it. For the video, please click on "Li Yundi's Revelation: If Life Can Be Repeated, I Hope You Can Choose Such a Path"