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Eight pianos were placed on the streets of Huaqiang North in Shenzhen, at the subway entrance, and decorators, doctors and even blind people would play in front of the piano after work. The piano on the street accepts the anxiety and exhaustion of the giant city, and gives ordinary people an outlet for emotions.
Street playing
This is not a pair of hands that play the piano in the standard sense. Years of physical work make the fingers no longer white and slender. When Wang Qi and these hands jump on the black and white keys, the body will also float.
From "Last Night's Stars" and "On the Side of the Water" to "Shanghai Beach", one song after another. At the huaqiang north subway entrance, in front of this red, yellow, white and blue piano, Wang Qi and a black short-sleeved T-shirt and shorts looked incongruous. He always wore similar clothes, sneakers that didn't go by name, black pants, and a black top—a cargo coat that looked like a security uniform in the spring and a large T-shirt in the summer.
In 2018, the managers of Huaqiang North Street placed eight pianos on a 930-meter-long pedestrian street in their jurisdiction for free to play for free – anyone can. Wang Qihe is a regular visitor here. Whenever a passerby stops by Wang Qihe's side, or watches or records a video with a mobile phone, Wang Qihe will always stand up and ask the other party: Do you want to try it? If the other party shirked on the grounds that he could not play, Wang Qihe encouraged the other party.
The neon lights of the city lit up, and the lights reflected Wang Qihe's face in colorful colors. An hour passed, and people around me came and went. Occasionally, someone would say two words to him at the end of a song, but he had no intention of stopping. Until he answered a phone call, it was his wife calling, asking Wang Qihe to go home for dinner.
At the end of the song, he took a deep breath: he didn't play well enough, he still had to practice. Wang Qihe put the simple sheet music score into a black satchel, and the migrant worker dressed him walked into the crowd, and no one would care. A few children surrounded the piano, and a few pairs of small hands tapped on it, and the piano made a chaotic sound.
Figure | Wang Qi and the hands of the piano
Yin Xinkai, 31, works at the eye hospital next to Huaqiang North and plays two or three times a week, sometimes at noon and sometimes after work, for 40 minutes each time. Yin Xinkai's face is younger than his actual age, the back of the piano is like a student, when playing the piano, he puts the black tea bought in the small shop on the street next to the piano, and puts the bag with the decoration of the "Concord" logo at his feet.
Yin Xinkai was born in a family of doctors, is a "deep second generation", all the way to a good high school, a good university, a master's and doctorate in Peking Union Medical College. As the child of a middle-class family in Kochi, he experienced a childhood of being "chicken baby". Although his parents will not explicitly force him to do something, the peers and environment around him give him pressure to remember to make progress at all times. In this environment, he began practicing the piano at a very young age and received a piano certificate of eight. After that, his goal turned to becoming a doctor, and it wasn't until after completing his studies that he had more time to pick up the piano.
After graduating from Union Medical College, Yin Xinkai originally had the opportunity to stay in Beijing, but considering that his family was in Shenzhen, he chose his current job. He talked about the ophthalmologist Tao Yong being attacked by a patient, a terrible incident that shocked him, but he declared that even so, he never doubted the choice of being a doctor, and it takes courage to be a doctor.
For a 31-year-old doctor, his career still needs to accumulate experience, and now he can only work as an assistant, he has not yet completed an operation by himself, and he hopes to become a mature doctor as soon as possible.
The blue medical mask was already completely wet with sweat, and the sweat was also Yin Xinkai's shirt. His eyes were tired, there was blood in his eyes, the doctor's work hours were not fixed, he often needed to be on duty on Saturdays, and playing the piano was a rare relaxation for him. Urged by his family's phone call, Yin Xinkai reluctantly left the piano and disappeared into the subway entrance.
Figure | An ophthalmologist practicing the violin
The piano is placed in the crowded square and subway entrance. It's like throwing small stones into a bustling neighborhood, loosening up the tense and busy daily life.
do、re、mi、fa、so...... do、re、mi、fa、so...... Duan Minshan sat in front of the piano and always practiced the most basic scales. Duan Minshan, engaged in the international trade industry, takes the subway from Nanshan to Huaqiangbei 3 times a week, and after purchasing goods, find an international logistics company here to ship to foreign customers. When he was finished, he would come and practice playing the piano.
Shenzhen Huaqiang North was once known as "hardware Silicon Valley", "China's first electronics street", in the golden age of economic development, relying on the electronics industry to give birth to too many legends and wealth myths. In 2013, Duan Minshan devoted himself to Huaqiang North Entrepreneurship. That year, the 34-year-old Duan Minshan went on a blind date several times in his hometown of Xinhua, Hunan, and decided to leave his hometown county and go outside to find a new world.
Before the Sino-US trade friction began in 2018, his business has been good, and in the best years, the annual net profit was five or six hundred thousand. Unfortunately, he did not have the awareness of investing in real estate and missed the golden period of buying a house in Shenzhen. Now, he rents two bedrooms and a living room in Nantou, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, with a rent of 6,000, and usually works in the rental house. His business relies only on a computer and a mobile phone, and after receiving the order, he went to Huaqiang North to pick up the goods and deliver them on the spot.
Duan Minshan likes music from his brother's influence. My brother worked as a math teacher at Xinhua Middle School in his hometown of Hunan, but he loved music, playing the flute and playing the piano. Duan Minshan's flute had been practiced to his satisfaction, and he wanted to learn the piano as well.
Sleep disorders have plagued Duan Minshan for more than a decade, which in turn has affected his hearing, and music is one of the outlets of his emotions. After eight years of hard work in Shenzhen, Duan Minshan met his current girlfriend, who was much younger than him, and he was not very sure whether he could get married. One of the motivations for learning piano is to get the attention of your girlfriend.
Before there was no piano
Wang Qihe did not renege on his word. Another weekend, still in front of the red,yellow,white and blue piano, he showed up on time.
When he plays the piano, his black satchel sits on the piano printed with "Play Me I'm Yours, I love Huaqiangbei." In addition to the drawings for the renovation, there is also a folder filled with A4 paper hand-copied dictionaries. Wang Qihe called the folder with the pink plastic cover "Memorial Book." Open the folder and there are 46 songs that Wang Qi and like (this data is constantly changing). The first song is "Shandan Dan Flowers Bloom Red", as well as "The Shepherd of the Cocoto Sea", "My Chinese Heart", "The Sun That Rises and Sets on the Grassland"... On the paper, Wang Qihe used his pen to draw the keys corresponding to each note and the fingerings corresponding to each key.
Figure | Wang Qi and the comparative lexicon book play the piano
On the streets of Huaqiang North, Wang Qihe has 400 confidants. The fans who played the piano in Huaqiang North formed a WeChat group of 400 people - Huaqiang North Romantic Piano Night.
Wang Qi and Da Xin admired the two piano players here. Zhang Dandan, a blind pianist, is considered a natural choice by the decorator Wang Qihe. The strongest person in the group is also "piano grandfather" Chen Yunchang, who is 72 years old and lives 20 kilometers north of Huaqiang. As soon as Grandpa appeared, a concert would be staged on the street where the audience could sing, "Come on, the moon represents my heart!" "Someone in the crowd said. The melody of the piano accompaniment immediately sounded, passers-by turned on the lights of their mobile phones, strangers gathered around Grandpa, and a chorus began.
At 10:30 p.m., the audience was still reluctant to leave, "if you don't leave, you won't be able to catch the last train"! The enthusiastic audience helped Grandpa pack his backpack and take him to the bus stop.
When these two people come to play the piano, Wang Qihe will become an audience, and when he hears the wonderful things, he often uses his "unique skills" to applaud. It was the whistle he invented as a child, crisp and gentle. As a child, as soon as he blew this whistle, the ducks who went out would return from the river as if they had heard an order. In the streets of Huaqiangbei, Wang Qihe's whistle often frightened the people who stopped to listen to the sound of the piano, and turned to look at him with strange eyes, he did not think anything of it, but showed a somewhat mischievous look.
"Piano Open-air Academy", Wang Qihe, who calls Hua Qiangbei the pedestrian street where the piano is placed, also wrote this name on the title page of the homemade music score, with a date "November 18, 2018 AD", the date is post-made, Wang Qihe said, that is the day he first touched the piano.
On November 18, 2018, throughout the morning, Wang Qihe was doing decoration in the Modern Window Building next to the Huaqiang North Subway Entrance, and after completing it at twelve o'clock, when he walked out of the building tired, he thought of finding a place to eat first. On that day, he looked up and saw the piano in front of him, there was no one on the piano side, he ran over and tried it, he didn't know what each key represented, so he pressed it for a while.
Later, he learned that these pianos could be used free of charge and often played them, so he gave up his hobby of playing cards with his co-workers. Knowing that Wang Qi and love to play the piano, the workers did not take the initiative to ask him out. "Everyone didn't think it was strange or strange, each had their own way of killing time." Wang Qihe explained. One after another, Wang Qihe also described him in the headline of the local newspaper, the workers' pianist, because of this matter, and Wang Qihe became a footnote symbol of Hua Qiangbei.
Wang Qihe attributed his feelings for music to his old father, who had passed away.
When I was a child, every year on the fifth day of the first month of May, the Dragon Boat Festival, above the Honghu Lake, the drums vibrated in the sky, the dragon boats raced in unison, and the skinny Wang Qihe stood in the crowd of onlookers, watching his father sing the trumpet on the dragon boat: Picking flowers! Picking flowers... Wang Qihe, who is now 55 years old, can still sing the tune of that time in full. He said that when he was a child, when the people in his hometown built houses and laid foundations, when the men lifted the stone and crushed them, they would also shout out nice trumpets in unison, and his father was also the leader. In Wang Qihe's words, these scenes that have gone away and are no longer reproduced will remain in his memory forever. The voice of the trumpet, "Sounds very good"!
At that time, I had not yet learned to play the piano. Wang Qihe always remembers the music class in the third grade of primary school, the female teacher played the piano in the class, playing red songs, but it was good, and he would sing every song. Later, he went to junior high school, worked half work and half study, and after graduating from junior high school, like most of his peers, he returned to the village to work in agriculture to earn work points. In those chaotic times, I didn't know what music education was.
Before the age of 35, Wang Qihe never left his old father and homeland. In Yanglinwei Town, Xiantao City, Wang Qi and BenFendi worked as a farmer who farmed, raised ducks, fished, and supported his wife and children. At the age of 35, he "wandered to Shenzhen like a wanderer."
The opportunity was fortuitous. In 2002, Wang Qiyan, a compatriot brother who was doing decoration in Shenzhen, called him to come to Shenzhen to do decoration together, and Wang Qihe was moved. At the beginning, Wang Qihe and his brother partnered with fellow villagers to work together, for a long time, Wang Qihe knew a group of fellow villagers, he could take the fellow villagers to take work on their own, under the wave of "time is money, efficiency is life", Wang Qihe in his prime also dug gold in Shenzhen with sweat. Wang Qihe has eight brothers and sisters, he ranks sixth, this big family, most of them now live and work in Shenzhen.
Inside the high-rise buildings next to the main road, Wang Qihe has wrapped up "projects" in them. When he came 20 years ago, the current Huaqiang North Pedestrian Street was just a lane, and there were empty construction sites on both sides. He is a contractor and has a renovation team of about 300 people in his mobile phone. Whenever he negotiated a project, he would quickly form a project team through his acquaintances, bricklayers, carpenters, cementers, and everything.
The many shops on the third floor and the first floor of Huaqiang North Electronics Market are all decorations done by Wang Qihe and his co-workers, and many signs along the street are from their hands, and the floor tiles of countless rooms on the side of the road are pasted by them. The mobility, flexibility and primitiveness of this team determine that Wang Qihe often contracts not a big project, basically within tens of thousands of pieces, so that there is a single business every month, and there is hope for a year. In this way, they found a place to survive in Huaqiang North.
Wang Qihe has finished playing "Shanghai Beach" for the third time. As a loyal listener of Wang Qihe, co-worker Min Dabai followed him almost inseparably this day. They have known each other for decades, and in the eyes of Min Dabai, Among the workers around them, Wang Qihe's hobbies are special. When Wang Qihe played the piano, Min Dabai sat in another chair, also holding a computer bag in his arms, which contained umbrellas, kettles and other utensils. "Migrant workers also have the right to pursue high culture!" He said.
Min Dabai does not understand music, but knows how to listen, and simply feels that music has a "magical magic" for him, which can make him feel happy, and said that listening to others play the piano is his only hobby after heavy physical labor.
Figure | Min Dabai listened to Wang Qi and played the piano
The sanitation workers who cleaned this street were also Wang Qihe's audience. Most of them were around 55 years old, about the same age as Wang Qihe, and no matter how old they were, they couldn't even find a cleaning job. Most of the time, they have to constantly check the ground for garbage. When you are tired, escape the supervision of the supervisor and can take a short rest on the steps next to the subway entrance.
Wang Qihe had met many sanitation workers and never asked about their lives. It's like never had a sanitation worker ever asked Wang Qihe why he was playing the piano here.
The concept of retirement changed by the piano
At the end of 2021, 8 pianos posted a notice "Instructions for the Use of Public Welfare Pianos": Please strictly abide by the piano use time, 9:00 to 13:00 in the morning, and 14:00 to 22:00 in the afternoon.
The sound of pianos in the early morning and late at night has brought management problems to Huaqiang North Street, and the police station has turned over several noise complaints, and in order to prevent disturbing the people, these music lovers can no longer use the piano without time limits. Worried about being complained about, Wang Qihe rarely stayed until after 10 p.m.
The weather in Shenzhen finally cooled in December, and on Saturday morning, Wang Qi and he arrived at the pavilion in front of the Modern Window Building at nine o'clock to play the piano. Recently, the song he focused on practicing was Jiang Dawei's "The Most Beautiful Song to Sing to Mother". He practiced it over and over again. The black coat he often wore was tied around his waist. Since the piano intruded into his life, he poured his family and work aspirations almost on these keys. He still only memorized the score, and sometimes played it not particularly fluently, but it did not prevent him from insisting on playing here.
The noisy street of Huaqiang North is like an open theater, the stage is crowded with pedestrians in a hurry, small traders pulling and pushing goods; takeaway brothers anxiously waiting for red lights, rabbit ears on their heads are glowing, under the viaduct, moving truck drivers have been shouting, let one let, let one let. Occasionally, curious citizens pick up their mobile phones to take a video, and more people who are busy making a living pass by Wang Qihe, carrying bags or pulling a scooter, heading towards their destination.
A mother, with two sons, is on the steps by the piano, the eldest son is writing and drawing on his mobile phone, and the younger son is spoiled in his mother's arms. After a long time, she put down the child in her arms and took the initiative to come over to Wang Qihe and said, Uncle, let our boss play for a while?
Wang Qihe got up and gave up his place to this high school boy named Jin Ran. Jin Ran was first brought to the public welfare piano by his mother, and he used to practice on his mobile phone or on the electric piano at home, because of the intense study, he could only take time off on weekends.
The boy's slender fingers flowed out of his long stone to make "summer" music, the fresh piano sound attracted Wang Qihe, he took the initiative to talk with the child's mother, learned that Jinran learned the piano is practiced in mobile phone software, Wang Qihe felt incredible.
After the end of the song, Wang Qihe proposed that JinRan teach him to read the staves, and the somewhat shy boy did not refuse. They sat side by side, jinran picked a song "Little Star", tuned out the staves of this song on the mobile phone screen, gave Wang Qihe the meaning of each symbol, bass clef, note time value, and practiced on the keys while speaking. Half an hour later, Wang Qihe didn't understand too much, "still ignorant."
Figure | Wang Qihe is learning staves with Jinran
This is the first time Wang Qi and he know these two songs, and it is also the first time that he knows the movie "Kikujiro's Summer". After JinRan left, Wang Qihe found the simplified score of these two songs on his mobile phone and began to hum in his mouth: "It sounds good!" "It's not the same as the words in his memorial book."
Wang Qihe had the keys to these 8 pianos in his hand. This is what Sun Yonghong, the head of operation of the public welfare piano in Huaqiang North Street, told him, because he often saw Wang Qihe playing the piano, and after a long time, the two became acquainted. Sun Yonghong instructed Wang Qihe to become the manager of these 8 pianos.
Sun Yonghong explained two things to Wang Qihe: one was to wipe the piano twice a month with a rag to keep the piano clean; the other was to report the damage to the piano in time. Wang Qihe agreed. The stool in front of the piano was often lost, and Wang Qihe thought of a way to find an iron chain to tie the feet of the piano and the feet of the stool together.
Wang Qihe devoted the most thought to these pianos, and Sun Yonghong applied for a eliminated piano to send him. On June 29, 2020, Wang Qihe spent 300 yuan in freight to transport the piano back to the rental house from the pedestrian street.
It was a 46-square-meter two-bedroom and one-room, with a rent of 4500 yuan per month, plus two of them, a total of 7 people lived here, all of whom were co-workers doing decoration together. Wang Qihe and his wife's rental house was crammed with decoration items. My wife came to Shenzhen in 2013 and is now cleaning at a nearby hospital. In the midst of a mess, the colorful piano in the living room is very attractive to the eye.
Before the workers did not go home, Wang Qihe occasionally played the piano in the living room, and sometimes played in front of the workers, accepting their ridicule.
Figure | Wang Qihe, who plays in a shirt
At the beginning of November 2021, Wang Qihe went to the nearby Overseas Decoration Building at No. 122 Zhenhua Road to talk about a decoration project, because of the epidemic situation, the other party could not be determined, he was a little frustrated, "this year is estimated to earn less than 100,000 yuan" He sighed.
He lamented that this is a city with "no money and no money", which mentioned that when he was doing renovations, he met the elderly people who had several houses in their homes, and their monthly income was worth the income of dozens of people in the village of the old home consolidation. Among the brothers and sisters, only the brother who brought Wang Qi and came to Shenzhen is a head, he bought a house in Shenzhen, grandchildren have it, and now the main life every day is to write brush characters and pull erhu.
In Wang Qihe's plan, after some time, the body can not be decorated, and he will eventually go back to the pension. Wang Qihe read that when he retired and returned to his hometown, he would pull back the piano that was placed in the rental house. This piano appeared in his plans for his later years, and the most complete retirement life he could imagine was playing the piano in the sunshine of his hometown.
- END -
Written by | Zhang Xiaoman
Image | Wang Bingqian
Edit | Wen Lihong