Standing on the university podium at the age of 19, he lost his sight at the age of 29, and the curtain of life gradually closed.
Reading and books allow me to see the beacon in the voyage of life.
Struggling in the dark, climbing on the podium of Harvard University, returning to the three-foot podium, sowing a little starlight.
--Yang Jia
01
Bask in the spring of science
I'm a Xiang girl.
The landscapes and rivers of my hometown are unforgettable.
From the window of my house, I look at the beautiful scenery of Yuelu Mountain, since I was a child, I loved to climb the mountain with my parents, along the way, Yuelu Academy, Love Evening Pavilion, Huang xing Tomb, White Crane Spring...
My childhood was not only accompanied by the picturesque Yuelu Mountains all year round, but also with four large bamboo bookshelves by the window.
In 1978, Guo Moruo's "Spring of Science" and Xu Chi's reportage "Goldbach Conjecture" influenced our entire generation, and all of a sudden my classmates became "star chasers" in seconds, and everyone rushed to become scientists.
That year was just in time for the national resumption of the college entrance examination, and the school asked me to try it. I thought, try it, just try it!
I walked onto a college campus wearing a shirt that bore the words "Spring of Science" in English.
College students in the 77th and 78th grades have a characteristic, the age difference is huge, there are 30-year-olds, there are 15-year-olds like me, there are brothers and sisters, there are also husband and wife.
On the eve of graduating from college, I took a group photo with my dorm friends (Yang Jia in the middle of the front row).
This is the elite that the mainland has accumulated for ten years.
There was a slogan at the time : "Take back the lost decade"! We have 7 people in the same dormitory, I slept on the upper bunk, the school turned off the lights at 9 o'clock at night, but woke up in the middle of the night, found that there were still lights in the room, looked down, the original lower bunk Liu Jingming students wearing a miner's hat, is concentrating on reading.
There are many, many such examples, and this spirit infects me, and I understand what a sense of urgency and mission is.
Everyone learns very consciously.
In intensive reading class, the teacher talked about "The Discovery of Radium", and we had already read through "The Biography of Marie Curie";
In the extensive reading class "Wuthering Heights", we will take the books of the three Brontë sisters;
Once, the text I studied was the black writer Alex Harry's novel "Roots", and everyone rushed to read "Gone with the Wind" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin".
After watching the movie "Orphans of the Mist", everyone read Dickens's original book and "Difficult Times", "David Copperfield", and "Great Prospects".
After graduation, I stayed on to teach.
At the age of 19, I stood on a university podium and taught the second-year intensive reading class of the English Department, on and off the stage, similar in age.
Later, he was admitted to the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which was called the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
After graduation, I taught at the English Training Center of the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and was also the first Chinese teacher in the center to teach English writing, and due to the good teaching effect, the Director of the United States, Paula Shabuak, taught me for 8 consecutive semesters.
02
The summer of heavy rain looting
But at this time, my world was hazy.
First of all, when reading the text in class, I read the wrong line, and then the words on the book became more and more blurred, and the field of vision became more and more narrow, just like the curtain of the stage slowly closing to the middle...
It turned out that I had a rare disease, my eyesight was constantly decreasing, and my blindness would be irreversible.
The doctor told his father the results of the diagnosis, and his father had a white head overnight.
On weekends and holidays, I no longer go to the library, but in the company of my family, I am on the road to seek medical treatment.
Western medicine, Chinese medicine, acupuncture, even the most painful post-bulb injections, have been tried, to no avail.
When the newly completed National Library card was handed in, I couldn't see my own photographs clearly...
Finally, one morning, I opened my eyes and was greeted by pitch black.
I was 29 years old.
The process of adapting to the dark is an ordeal. How many times have I habitually opened the curtains, "Oh my God, how old is not bright!" ”
Zong Pu's heartache in "Farewell Reading", at this moment, I feel the same.
However, I firmly believe that human beings should "say goodbye to weapons", but never say goodbye to reading.
I couldn't read a book, so I listened to it, and the tape recorder was broken one after another.
I couldn't write, so I learned Braille. But at the age of 30, the blind school did not accept it, so I had to ask the teacher for advice by phone.
Braille was thought to be a universal lingua franca, but it is not.
Mr. Huang Nai, the "father of Chinese Braille", invented two kinds of Chinese Braille alone, and there are many kinds of Braille in the world. It is too difficult to replace the eyes with the touch of the fingers.
A simple English word, I touched it with my hands and feet for more than an hour, but I didn't understand its meaning.
I had a dream and I still wanted to teach. It's not easy to get back to the podium.
The first hurdle is the difficulty of walking.
A familiar voice said to me, "Daddy gave you a crutch." In this way, year after year, I held my father's arm tightly, took the bus, squeezed the subway, and went to the teaching building, rain or shine.
I also wanted to write books, started to try computer voice software, fought hard for months, published books one by one, and I found my confidence again and saw the light.
03
Never sad autumn
In the most brilliant and ostentatious burst of life, there is no time to indulge in sentimentality, only to live up to Shaohua and forge ahead.
In the new century, inspired by the goal of "first-class in Asia and internationally renowned" put forward by the University of chinese Academy of Sciences, I had another idea: I still want to study!
I was admitted to Harvard University's Kennedy School, Harvard students read a lot, each class teacher assigned no less than 500 pages of reading, students feel that there is not enough time, not enough for me.
Because I had to scan the pages of information into the computer through the scanner, and then read the content through the screen reading software.
In this way, the time is gone, and you can only fight for speed.
I went from listening to more than 200 words per minute to nearly 400 per minute, and my voice changed pitch.
I can't finish books, I can't finish my homework, I can't finish my papers, and I have to participate in many academic activities... Study almost every day until two or three in the morning.
In the end, I not only completed the study tasks, but also exceeded the school regulations, took 3 more courses, and became the first blind student to receive an MPA degree since the founding of Harvard University.
Harvard Kennedy School Dean Joseph M. Nai presented Yang Jia with a graduation certificate.
On the second day of Harvard's return to China, Beijing successfully bid for the Olympic Games, and at the end of the year, China joined the World Trade Organization.
In this environment, with the strong support of my mentor Mr. Li Pei and school leaders, I pioneered the courses of "Economic Globalization" and "Communication Art" in China, and localized the Harvard MPA curriculum.
The course was put online, setting a record for the number of hits of the "Classroom in the Air" of the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The courses I teach are rated as "Excellent Courses".
During his tenure as an expert consultant for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, he formulated the "NP3S" professional service standard for volunteers of the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games, filling the gap in China.
My experience has shown that books can not only be read, but also heard and touched.
04
Sing wildly for a winter
Blindness made me understand that people are most afraid of losing their sense of direction. It also gives me a big proposition, when life reaches the darkest moment, how should I transcend, how to counterattack?
When I was alone, my thoughts came and went, and I often thought of my mentor Li Pei and her husband, Mr. Guo Yonghuai, the founder of "two bombs and one star", and remembered the entrepreneurial road of my fathers.
In order to build the atomic bomb, my father also spent time with experts from Moscow University all over the country searching for uranium mines, under very difficult conditions, without any protection, only a raincoat.
The successful launch of the "two bombs and one satellite" they dedicated to showed the world China's "hard power" and safeguarded world peace, and since then the world has looked up to China.
Love is in the sky.
Nowadays, the stars named after Mr. Li Pei and Mr. Guo Yonghuai are shining, and their spirit will always inspire me to do "leave the lotus to listen to the sound of the rain" on the journey of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, but to do "the lotus flowers are different red on the day"!
Yang Jia is at the home of mentor Li Pei.
Reading allows me to talk to the sages of history and the vast world, let me see the beacon that guides the course of life, and guides me to pursue, to struggle, to live out the meaning of life.
Books are the ocean of ideas, carrying human civilization, awakening people, allowing human sorrow and joy to communicate, encircling the hearts of people rushing into rivers in reading, and unfathomable years playing a symphony of destiny in the echo of the sages.
In November 2008, I was interviewed by Shen Ting, a REPORTER at the United Nations station at the United Nations headquarters in New York, where I became a friend and a loyal listener to the host of the CRI branded column More to Read.
His reading standard is "rather lack than abuse", "Once you read a book that you feel is of little value, it is recommended to give up as soon as possible and find another good book." After all, time is very precious for everyone. ”
Yang Jia in front of the United Nations Headquarters. The above pictures are provided by Yang Jia
Harvard classmate Yu Jiting also gave three points of advice, "Read cross-border books, paper books, and classic books." ”
The reason is that for a person to improve his spirit, he must first read cross-border books.
Those who study liberal arts should read some popular science books; those who study science and engineering should read some humanities books. Regardless of the subject background, you should read some history and philosophy books.
Second, read some paper books. Every day, we get a lot of fragmented knowledge through our mobile phones. In the long run, it is easy to be impetuous and satisfied with fast food-style reading, resulting in a decline in critical thinking ability.
Reading paper books can not only make people gain systematic knowledge, but also make people feel at ease.
Third, read more scriptures. Classics are the pinnacle of the human spirit.
Reading the classics is to make yourself stand at the peak of human thought and spirit, which can not only expand your horizons, enrich the spiritual world, improve your ability to think critically, grasp the regularity of the development of things, but also shape your personal temperament, which will benefit people for life.
Mr. Yan Keats, the founder of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in the "French Love Letter" that reading a book should grasp its essence, link it with reality, apply it repeatedly, and make it skillful.
He urged everyone to go to the library more often, read a lot of books, and use time to get their hands on it.
In interpersonal communication and reading, my view of reading has also become clearer: reading enriches people, reading shapes the soul, and reading conveys truth, goodness and beauty. Reading has saved humanity from world war III, and reading has opened human eyes and embraced the world.
Reading allows us to think independently and form our own outlook on life, values and worldview.
Reading allows us to understand ourselves, to understand life, to understand the motherland...
The pleasure of reading is like the description in Barkin's Sunrise on the Sea, "At this time, not only the sun, the clouds and the sea, but also myself have become bright." ”
Books are man's best friend, and there is a beautiful place, and that is the library.
The world is a book, the motherland is a book, and everyone is a book.
Reading these books is not an easy task, and it takes a lot of time, energy, and even life.
Therefore, it is not the book that is immortal, but the reader.
In the face of life crises and sudden changes in the world, the solution to the crisis ultimately depends on human beings themselves. Long live the reader!
The author of this article is a professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and a reporter of China Science Daily, Bu Ye.