Chen Laoyu: China's speed skating has affected my fate (Part 2)
(Continued from the previous issue)
Teacher Yuan suddenly stopped at this time: "Enough." He turned to me and asked, "Do you know Karuizawa?" ”
This shocked me. What kind of ghost is "Karuizawa"? I was speechless.
"You certainly haven't heard of it." Without waiting for me to answer, Teacher Yuan continued, "Karuizawa is a tourist attraction next to Tokyo, the capital of Japan. It may be a very romantic place, and it is there that Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko met and met on the tennis court there. Due to the high altitude, the cold winters and the good sports facilities, this year's World Speed Skating Championships are held in that place. China sent four men and four women, a total of eight speed skaters, to participate in the competition. (According to the relevant records: the four male athletes are: Wang Wensheng, Su Hongbin, Luo Zhihuan, Wang Jinyu; the four female athletes are: Yang Yunxiang, Sun Hongxia, Liu Fengrong, and Wang Shuyuan.) ）。 This is the first time that our country has sent sports teams to capitalist countries to participate in the competition. You know? For the first time! The game has just ended. Do you know what happened? ”
(Above: Chinese athletes participating in the 1963 World Speed Skating Championships)
Oh, my God! How do I know? At that time, there was no TV in every house, and if I wanted to watch TV in particular, I would have to go to Guo Xiaochuan's house or Li Ji's house to watch it. Radios are only allowed to receive local stations. It is absolutely not allowed to listen to foreign stations. The only newspapers we can read are China Youth Daily and China Junior Daily. Even the "Reference News", the only one with some foreign information, was not read by middle school students at that time. I hadn't even heard of Karuizawa, how do I know what's going on!
At this time, Teacher Yuan's eyes shone with the dazzling light of youth very rarely. He said excitedly: All eight athletes are super level play! Super level! Do you understand? These eight little babies, little ancestors, good looks! Compared to their athletic performance in China, they have improved by a lot! You know? 3 seconds! 5 seconds! Even 10 seconds!
I didn't know anything about ice sports at the time. I want to improve 3 seconds 5 seconds 10 seconds What is this? However, looking at Teacher Yuan's excited expression, I knew that maybe this matter was really remarkable.
Later, I learned that the youngest athlete to go to Karuizawa that year was Wang Shuyuan, a 19-year-old girl from Heilongjiang. She participated in the World Championships for the first time, and actually won the runner-up of the 1,000-meter speed skating, and the individual all-around also won the sixth place, she is really not simple, she is too lucky!
Wang Jinyu, a 22-year-old mainland national champion, is a veteran on that sports team. That time, his personal results also improved significantly, and he also broke the world record for the men's speed skating individual all-around. Prior to this, he had won medals for China in international competitions in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe many times, and was a veritable Elder of China's ice world. This time, his performance in Karuizawa was also good.
In Karuizawa, the most dazzling Chinese athlete is Luo Zhihuan, a 21-year-old Korean rural youth, who defeated all opponents in 2 minutes, 9.2 seconds in the 1450 meters, becoming the first Chinese to win the world speed skating championships. World Champion! That is China's second time to ascend to the throne of the world championship after winning the world championship in table tennis! This is the reason why Teacher Yuan is particularly excited. By the way, since then, Luo Lao has always stood on the front line of ice sports. Including in the just-opened Winter Olympics, the 81-year-old also walked onto the big stage of the opening ceremony as a flag bearer.
You know, in the 1960s, the United Nations did not recognize China, nor did the International Olympic Committee recognize China, and the world staged an anti-China chorus. So we have almost no worldwide sports to participate in. Later only the International Table Tennis Federation and the International Speed Skating Federation accepted China. In this way, China began to storm the construction and training of its own team of table tennis and speed skating. Table tennis may be a little better, and there are still some excellent old athletes available in Hong Kong, such as Yung Guotuan and Jiang Yongning. Where to go to find someone who can skate! I had to find a group of children from the countryside in Heilongjiang to learn from scratch. That's how Wang Shuyuan came. She said she didn't know what ice skating was and didn't want to learn it. But at that time, the family was particularly poor, there was no clothes to wear, and she heard that she could get a set of autumn clothes and autumn pants for ice skating training, and she came happily. I didn't expect to find out that I was an ice skating genius.
Teacher Yuan Xingyun said: Did you see it? They are all children from the village, how much training have they received? How big has the world been? But when they got to Karuizawa, to the world arena, they played beyond the level! They transcend themselves and create miracles. This is called karuizawa moment! This is called the Karuizawa Spirit! That's what you need most right now!
What do you say you're going to the Northern Wilderness? What are you talking about Huang Zongying and Hou Jun? I see you're completely running away. Let's talk about it after you take the college entrance examination. It's never too late for you to get into college. I said, classmate, you have reached this moment too. You have read so many famous books, memorized so many ancient poems, and memorized so many four or six sentences, long and short texts. I can see that you really like it, and you can read it through. You should show it too! It's time for you to perform too! I think your language is fine. What politics and history are not a big problem. As long as the language is understood, it will be universally understood. Go back and tell your mother that the class teacher asked you to apply for the liberal arts. From now on you start making up politics and history every day. Don't be half-hearted. This is the time when the peanut trees and warblers fly wildly! Now you have to ascend to the top and stroke the strings, and sing the world white! From today on you don't have to say that you are a science and engineering student! Science and engineering have nothing to do with you. You are a thorough liberal arts student, your father is a literati, you are a natural liberal arts embryo liberal arts life! Got it?
He picked up his hat, looked at me again, and said, "Aren't you still going to find Wang Jinxi?" First think of his words: people flutter lightly without pressure, and wells do not produce oil without pressure!
He ignored me again, put on his tall, hatless Xia Boyang style black tweed hat, threw off the long sleeves, and straightened his long shirt, just as usual, Eguan Bo belt, high stride, floating away. Every now and then, I look at him like I'm looking at Dr. Qu Yuanqu who is moaning... But today, I was greatly shocked, and in the haze I felt: Teacher Yuan decided a big thing for me today.
On the way home, I trotted all the way, and it was hard to hide my excitement. I tried to recall that Teacher Yuan had talked to me too much and had too much information. Except that we won, the motherland won... In addition, what I remember most clearly are two words: Karuizawa spirit, super level play.
When I got home, I said to my mom: I'm going to college. My mom said: Isn't it not for you to take the test? The school gave way again? I said: No! I want to take the liberal arts. My mom immediately said, "No! You can't do liberal arts! And it's only been three months, and you haven't learned many liberal arts classes. I said: Leave it alone! We teachers all said I could do it. Come on! Where do you go to see photos of karuizawa Ice Games? How much to ask for, help me find out.
My mom said, "What?" Karuizawa? You still have time to read idle books!
My mom said that she would try to find whatever I wanted. Although she certainly didn't know what Karuizawa was, a week later she found a new sports magazine from the Dramatists Association's library, full of photos of Karuizawa tournaments.
To be honest, until then, I hadn't actually watched the skating competitions. Where to go to see it? China didn't even have an indoor skating rink where competitions could be held. Those little girls in Heilongjiang were all going north from their homes to find frozen rivers and lakes to practice. Wang Shuyuan once fell directly into the ice cave and almost drowned. Fortunately, she is bold and can swim. Anyway they are extremely difficult. Even under the conditions of xiaomi plus rifles, Chinese speed skating has entered its own highlight moment so quickly! And now that I have my idols for the first time, I stick them to my bedside. I also had my first goal in life: the college entrance examination. I was completely in a state of preparation and preparation. There is only one word in my heart: Karuizawa spirit, super level play.
I opened the history, politics, and language books, sorted them out into three hundred interrelated questions in a month' time, and carefully wrote out my own standard answers. Then, over the course of a month, I abbreviated the three thick notebooks into nine pages. In the last month, I passed these nine pages every day, turned them into nine lines, and memorized them in a good way. Many years later, I learned that there is a method in the world called mind mapping. Oh, I invented my own mind map without any teacher at that time.
Less than a month after the 1963 college entrance examination, the weather was already extremely hot, and one afternoon, I received an acceptance letter from the Beijing Institute of Economics (that is, the Capital University of Economics and Business) from the post office. At that time, I really didn't have any special feelings of excitement, but after my mother saw the notice, she actually picked me up at once, it was a kind of princess hug. I never expected my mother's strength to be so great, and she was already a head lower than me. I realized that my mom really wanted me to get into college more than I did. Maybe she hadn't been to college in her life and took it very seriously. After going to college, I stumbled upon her office at the Chinese Dramatists Association one day and found that the standard photograph of my graduation from high school was pressed under the glass plate of her desktop, of course enlarged, and the only photograph. Under her glass panel used to be pictures of my two sisters. Oh, this is an important change.
I grew up feeling that my mom always ignored me. She sent me to boarding school from the age of eight, stayed there for many years, came home on her own on Saturday afternoons, and went to school on Sunday afternoons. The school is far away in the suburbs and takes a long bus for a long time. And she never came to see me at school. (I'm wondering now, how could an eight-year-old be so capable at the time?) ）
Usually at home, her mind was also on my two sisters, dressing them up and taking them out to show off, including meeting Soviet experts. She never wanted to take me, and I could tell that she thought I wasn't hygienic, dirty, runny nose, and her clothes were always torn here and sewn there. Of course, even if she wanted to take me, I would certainly not go with her. But after I went to college, my mom's attitude towards me changed significantly. I felt like I was about to become her pride. I was scared about that. I always wanted to hide from my mother. The best thing to do is to leave Beijing. This time, however, it didn't work out. Wait a minute.
(Above: Chen Laoyu family portrait, 1965)
After entering the university era, I was completely different from the elementary school and middle school era. Now that I think about it, from the beginning of elementary school to the end of the whole middle school, I always felt inferior in my heart, and I didn't know why. Therefore, in those years of primary and secondary school, I was a little depressed, and I couldn't grow up. Especially in front of people, they dare not speak, do not dare to deal with classmates, and dare not compete. I couldn't grab the ball when I played, I couldn't run straight, I walked crookedly, and I couldn't see anything clearly for half a day. The so-called "four bodies are not diligent, the grain is not divided", in fact, this is the reason, until the college entrance examination physical examination only found: left eye optic nerve atrophy. In other words, I'm actually a one-eyed dragon. My mom and dad didn't even know. Later, a classmate teased me: You are clear at a glance! Then you close one eye and try it, even for half a day. You look if you only have one eye. Your vision is incomplete, the visual information you get is halved, how do you feel? So, life! I have not suffered from depression since I was a child, which should be said to be lucky.
However, the success of the college entrance examination unlocked this deadlock in my heart. Teacher Yuan said that my Chinese is good, and my Language has really improved since then! Karuizawa changed me all the time, and Karuizawa's spirit awakened me. I should believe in miracles, and it is entirely possible for me to surpass myself. Moreover, I entered a liberal arts college with a background in science and engineering. In fact, studying economics, management and accounting requires a particularly strong background in science and engineering. In this way, I was like a fish in the water.
I remember the first-year courses of the Beijing Institute of Economics at that time: advanced mathematics, metal technology, cartography... These classes made my liberal arts background students all miserable, and I easily won the championship. How would this feel to a poor student who had been learning inconspicuously since childhood? Since then, I have made up my mind to win the championship every year, and I have succeeded. Throughout college, I suddenly became a student who was excellent in my class. In the process, I found that if you just study carefully, economics is actually as interesting as physics and radio. At that time, the professional courses of economic colleges and universities were Marx's "Capital". When I heard that Professor Boqi Yang, who was the main lecturer of Capital, had read it seven times, I secretly decided that I would read it at least three times. Hey, if you really read it, you'll be completely fascinated by Marx. The highly speculative unity of philosophical logic and historical logic, the meticulous and impeccable rational analysis, makes you have to obey. This is the Bible of the working class. By the time I left the Beijing Institute of Economics a few years later, I was full of ambition to become an economist with the ambition to point out the country and promote words. (I don't want to be a physicist or a radio engineer anyway.) Of course, I don't know if this wish has been fulfilled. Maybe it wasn't until 2000, when I won the Sun Yefang Economic Science Prize with my friends, that I barely achieved a little.
After graduating from college, I finally left my mother far away and went to Yunnan, the farthest from Beijing. There I experienced all the life of the workers, peasants, and soldiers, and mixed with the factories, the countryside, and the army for quite a while. By 1978, when the state resumed the college entrance examination, I was again a trickery, took out the self-created mind map preparation method fifteen years ago, silently recited the blessing of the god Karuizawa, and applied for my alma mater, beijing school of economics, of course, this time it was the examination, I won again, and was admitted with the first overall score, and later I became the first recipient of the master's degree in labor economics in the mainland, and my graduation certificate and the degree certificate issued by the Degree Office of the State Council were collected by the School History Museum of our school. Later, I was transferred to the Ministry of Labor (now the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security). I remember that the minister at that time, Nguyen Chong Vu, first talked to me and discussed Capital with me. Oh my God, isn't that right? If you think about it, the Ministry of Labor mainly studies labor. Capital, on the other hand, is essentially an economic theory and encyclopedia of labor.
Alas, my Karuizawa moment! My Karuizawa spirit! Did Karuizawa change my destiny and my life?
I would now like to solemnly endorse my alma mater, Beijing No. 21 Middle School. Our school is not a rogue school, and there have never been any rogue characters. Our school is just not famous in the 22 next door, because their school has produced a Zhuang Zedong who does not like to read. No way, sports just have invincible charm! Zhuang Zedong no longer loves to read, and also makes 22 famous in the world. However, I would like to emphasize that I am a century-old famous school in the 21st, its predecessor is the Private Chongshi Middle School in Beiping, founded in 1865 (changed to its current name in 1952), and has a glorious history of 157 years (59 years longer than the history of the 22nd). The graduates here are all people who love to read, including scientist Qian Sanqiang, famous actor Sozhi, dramatist Wu Zuguang... Of course, there is also me who loves to read.
Our school spirit is rigorous, and the teaching staff is particularly strong. When I was in school, there were a large number of old gentlemen and teachers like Yuan Xingyun who were extremely artistic, virtuous, and caring for students.
Let's talk about my Chinese teacher, Yuan Xingyun. I have said in the past that Teacher Yuan's family origins are learning, but I did not go into it. In fact, his father Yuan Lizhun was a big-name scholar of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and he was the teacher of Guangxu and Xuantong, two long-lived masters, and he not only learned well, but also had calligraphy in the world. At present, the three big characters of "Xinhua Gate" at the gate of Zhongnanhai are inscribed by his father. I don't think much else.
Teacher Yuan Xingyun and his wife, Teacher Zha Liangmin, have been teaching at Beijing 21 After liberation. It is rare for couples to work as teachers in a school in Beijing. Teacher Yuan teaches Chinese, and Teacher Cha teaches mathematics. At that time, the couple was the pillar of our school. Now everyone knows that Teacher Cha is a descendant of the Haining Cha family, and she has a younger brother named Jin Yong (Zha Liangyong). Of course, in this regard, Teacher Yuan will not show weakness, he has a niece named Qiong Yao.
From Teacher Yuan's lecture on the spirit of Karuizawa to me, you can see that in such an era of complete isolation, he has always maintained a high degree of sensitivity to the pulse of the times. Since then, I have come to understand that sports is a very magical thing. Competition, competition, competition, confrontation, there is a special motivating function and stimulating effect, can make people surpass themselves and create miracles. Sport is the greatest common denominator of a country, a people, and a society, and it can bridge the great differences brought about by culture, property, beliefs, religions, politics, and even ideologies, and inspire and unite almost everyone.
Professor Yuan Xingyun left his work for many years after the reform and opening up, and entered the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as a researcher. He is the author of "Xu Shen Annals", "Xu Han Chronicles" and "Narratives of Qing Ren Poetry Collection". In particular, in the "Narrative of the Collected Poems of the Qing Dynasty", a total of 2511 poets of the Qing Dynasty have been recorded, and the project is amazing. In an era without computers and databases, he accomplished such a vast undertaking with his own strength, and the power accumulated in him was incredible. Teacher Qi Gong personally wrote the title of the book title for the set of books he wrote.
The pictures I collected above include photos of Mr. Yuan's "Narrative of the Collected Poems of the Qing Dynasty" and his handwritten handwriting. It is used to commemorate my beloved Mr. Yuan, who died young and had not been rewarded. I think a Chinese teacher should be the coolest teacher in the world. After all, in the end, everything in life is constructed in words and words. If you meet a good Chinese teacher, he may help you release the greatest energy in the deepest part of your soul, and you will unconsciously remember him for a lifetime.
As you can see, my childhood was a completely barbaric growth. So, is it good to grow wildly? Now think about it: no one cares or bad, it is divided into two. The key is whether you can build your own internal drive on your own. I felt that the life of my time could not be replicated. At that time I had enough freedom and enough opportunities to choose. However, I was very lacking in companionship, very lacking in help, very short of guidance. Loneliness was a theme in my childhood and adolescence. In this process, fortunately, there are some good teachers who have helped me, they have made up for the shortcomings of my parents, and they have also made up for the shortcomings of my life. Mr. Yuan is one of them. At the delicate moments of my life, Mr. Yuan used the major achievements of Chinese sports to inspire me, inspire me, and help me successfully pass through my critical years. Not only did I successfully achieve the ascension of life, but also faced with the helpless challenge of fate, I realized a major shift in my personal ambitions and personal interests, and smoothly transformed from a science and engineering man to a liberal arts man. I should say that I am still very lucky. After this hurdle, on the whole, I still have a very good life.
（the end）