#盲女背下8000个钢琴零件成调音师#
Chen Yan (Douyin number: @陈燕 guide dog) is China's first female blind piano tuner, and is also the "mother" of guide dogs Jenny and Hei Mengmeng.
was diagnosed with blindness at the age of 5 months, and she and her grandmother depended on her since she was a child, but Chen Yan changed her life with her own efforts. She is one of the first blind people in China to learn piano tuning professionally, and has been in the industry for nearly 30 years, and can repair all more than 8,000 parts of a piano, and can recognize the posture and habits of the player just by listening to the sound.
But as a blind person, she has heard too many voices that are not understood, some people ask her why she can't see and walk around, some people question whether guide dogs attack people, and there are many places where guide dogs are not allowed to enter.
Chen Yan decided to open herself up and let everyone see the real life of the blind, instead of closing her eyes and imagining the life of the blind.
The following is Chen Yan's own statement.
A blind girl who became a piano tuner
My name is Chen Yan, when I was 5 months old, my parents could see that I couldn't see, and the result of going to the hospital for examination was that I could have surgery, but there was little hope of recovery, and I might be blind in this life.
When my grandmother found out, she took me home. She didn't give up on me and took me back and forth for 4 surgeries, the first two before I was 1 year old and the last two when I was a teenager. After the surgery, I was able to see a little in one eye, but then I had a car accident and went completely blind.
Throughout my life, my grandmother had a great influence on me, she kept me alive and was able to support myself.
This is my grandmother, and she is the person who has had the greatest influence on me in my life.
She felt that if she didn't care about me, no one would care about me in this world, so she was strict with me since I was a child, exercised me, told me to replace my eyes with other organs, taught me how to live and live, exercised my hearing, touch, and courage, and let me do all the things that normal people can do. When I was a child, I never waited for someone to help me because I couldn't see, I could go and help my grandmother with groceries, cook, or even help others.
Not only that, my grandmother also sent me to learn musical instruments, and I learned erhu, accordion, electronic organ, piano, drum kit, guzheng and so on. At that time, she didn't have much money, but she saved money to let me learn all kinds of things, saying that I didn't have to press my body with more skills, and I had to learn more skills, so that I could make money to support myself when I grew up.
When I was a teenager, my grandmother enrolled me in a school for the blind in Beijing. At that time, the students in the blind school were about the same age as me and could take care of themselves. When I was in school, the China Disabled Persons' Federation conducted a pilot piano tuning class in our school. In fact, in foreign countries, blind piano tuning has a history of more than 100 years, but in the 90s of the last century, it was still a new thing in China, and it was also a way for the Disabled Persons' Federation to help the blind find employment.
When I was 14 years old, I was pictured with my class.
The piano tuning class was originally just a summer class, just to see if blind people could do this. The pilot effect is not bad, the school opened this major, and we are the first batch of students. After graduating from the Beijing School for the Blind, I was admitted to the Beijing Special Education College and continued to study piano tuning.
When I was studying at the Beijing Special Education College, Mr. Li Renwei, who taught us, would deliberately find some particularly broken pianos, the ones that had not been tuned for many years or had been bitten by rats, and at that time, it would take a week for the two of us to work together to fix a piano.
I feel a great sense of accomplishment in turning a piano that I can't play into a piano with perfect tone, and it's like building a house on my own. But Mr. Li is very strict, he said, at your speed, do you have to live in the client's house for a week to tune and repair the piano in the future?
I just keep practicing hard, and the difficulty is definitely difficult, and the tuner must not only be able to listen and tune, but also have strong hands-on ability and logical thinking ability in order to tune a piano to the best state. Moreover, seeing is a concept, and doing what you can't see is another concept. But practice makes perfect, and then I was able to independently tune a piano in one day, and I could repair more than 8,000 parts of the piano.
I'm tuning a piano, and I can get one in an hour and a half.
I have long understood a truth, whether it is a blind person or a normal person, many new things are not that you can't learn, but that you don't have confidence, and when you think you have the confidence to learn, there is nothing that you can't overcome.
When I graduated in 1994, I thought that I was so skilled that I would definitely not be unable to find a job, but I didn't expect that I really couldn't find a job because I couldn't see with my eyes. Every time I interview, I will be asked, you can't see, how do you tune, how do you fix the piano? Can you find the customer's home? Can you find the company? Can you dismantle the piano, can you install it? At that time, I was really angry, very blocked, no matter how I explained, it was useless.
I tune the piano at the client's house.
About 1996, my grandma and I appeared on an emotional program on Beijing TV, and the host was moved by our story and felt that my grandma was not easy, so he took care of me and helped me publicize. I also won a job offer in a piano shop, and slowly accumulated some customers, and my business ability was recognized by them, and I was constantly introduced to many new customers, and I took root in this industry.
In 2004, I opened my own company, which solved the employment problem of many blind tuners, and at the most time, there were more than 20 blind tuners in our company. But during the epidemic, it was difficult for us to provide door-to-door service, and the company really couldn't hold on, so it was closed. Now, my lover Dawei, who is also blind, works together as a piano tuner, and basically goes out to work five days a week.
My lover Dawei and I met in college and later became colleagues.
My own work impediments have been resolved, but I know that the misconception of blind people is deep-rooted. I want to spend my whole life telling you that blind people can live and work in other ways than with their eyes, no different from normal people, and don't close your eyes and imagine the life of a blind person.
Later, I opened my own Douyin account, also to open up my life, so that everyone can come in and see, in the dark world, we are still living well.
Guide dogs, are my eyes
In 2011, Jenny, a guide dog, came to me and she was my eye for almost 8 years.
At that time, because of work needs, I had to go out to different customers' homes almost every day to tune, and it was very unsafe to walk on the streets and alleys alone with a blind cane. So, I wanted to adopt a guide dog.
Jenny was born in Dalian guide dog base, according to the regulations, guide dogs will go to the local foster family to live for a year after 45 days of birth, and then return to the base to be taken away to serve, after retirement, it is also by the foster family priority adoption.
Jenny returned to foster care after retiring from the army, and I will also share her life on Douyin.
Before the official service, Jenny and I were trained together for 40 days under the supervision of the trainer, the purpose of which was to let the guide dog recognize its owner and serve the adopter willingly, and to learn how to take care of it, bathe it, cut its nails, comb its hair, play with it, understand its body language, and so on.
Jenny is a bilingual guide dog who understands instructions in English. It's not innate, when we train, it's always distracted when someone teases it, and then I want to practice some English passwords with it, so that there are fewer people who understand it, and there will be less interference. In order to make it more focused, when training "sit down", I use the mantra not sit down, but sit.
Jenny and I took a photo in front of the Potala Palace, the world's first guide dog to Lhasa.
The strongest feeling I have with a guide dog is that it is not just an eye, but also a companion. Maybe I have a deeper experience than others, because I don't have blood relatives around me, and I don't have children, so I am usually lonely and often feel helpless.
Ever since the guide dog came to my house, I have treated it as my own child, always worrying about it, trying to make it eat and drink well, and take it out to play. If it is happy, we feel better than ourselves, like a kind of spiritual sustenance.
Someone asked me before, if there is a robot guide dog in the future, will you use it? I said I won't, because a cold machine is different from a real flesh-and-blood guide dog, and this kind of mutual dependence cannot be replaced.
Jenny and I took a photo with the children in Tibet.
What made me determined to educate the public about guide dogs was something that happened about a decade ago.
That time Jenny and I went to take the subway, but were stopped by the staff, in fact, the law says that guide dogs can get on the subway, but people don't let it in, I am helpless. At that time, someone was surprised to tell me, "This dog will shed tears", and I realized that Jenny was crying. I don't know if it's angry because it's stopped, or because it can't help me, or if it's just that the wind is too strong and it's blown into tears, but I know that it's not happy because every time it's rejected, its tail droops down.
Since then, I have made up my mind to educate the public about guide dogs and advocate for guide dogs to roam.
I wrote a book called "Jenny the Guide Dog", which dictated the joys and sorrows of our family in Jenny's voice, and was selected as an extracurricular book on campus, so we went to schools all over the country to give lectures.
Jenny and I went to the school to promote science guide dogs to children.
When we first entered, many children were curious or scared of us, but when I told me the story of me and the guide dog, and then brought it to everyone to perform and interact with us, they understood and liked us. Finally, I will ask you, when you grow up and go to work, and you meet a guide dog leading a blind person to you, will you refuse? They all say no, I feel very happy, this is the future.
In 2018, Jenny retired and returned to foster family life, and in 2019, Hei Mengmeng became my second guide dog.
Two years ago, I had a seafood allergy with shellfish, and I quickly took first-aid medicine, thinking that it would be fine, but Hei Mengmeng has been running around at home, showing anxiety that I have never had. My lover thinks that the dog is spiritual, so he took me to the hospital in the neighbor's car, and I was already in a coma when I arrived at the hospital, and the doctor said that it would be gone if it was sent a few minutes later, and it was Hei Mengmeng who saved me.
Since then, our family of three has not been separated, and my wife and I have merged our clients together and have since taken Hei Mengmeng out to work together.
My wife Dawei and I are a family of three.
Many of my clients are friendly to blind people and guide dogs. There is an old customer, Sister Wang, who is very good to our family, last year she knew that I had surgery, and Hei Mengmeng had no one to take care of her, so she offered to help us take care of Hei Mengmeng, let it live at home, and give us steamed buns to take home.
Many of the client's children also like black and cute, and my Douyin video records a lot of stories about them getting along.
For example, the two sisters, Duanduan and Zhengzheng, have been familiar with us since childhood, they have seen Jenny when she did not retire, and the family will correctly guide them to say that this is a guide dog, don't be afraid, if you want to touch it, you can ask your aunt if you can touch it. Every time I go to their house to tune the piano, the child will talk with Hei Mengmeng. There is also a child named Liu Runlang, who is also very good at black Mengmeng, they play together when I tune the piano, and they cover it with their bath towel for fear of the dog's cold.
I share my daily work on Douyin, and there are many stories of love.
Of course, there are also people who don't understand and are reluctant to let guide dogs into the house. That's why I often clarify with you on Douyin or popularize science, guide dogs are professional, not like some people say, "they are also dogs, uncontrollable, and can bite".
Some time ago, there was an incident of Rottweiler biting a little girl, and Hei Mengmeng and I also encountered obstacles when we went out, and I needed to be patient to explain to people that guide dogs do not bite.
I can say that so far, there has not been a single case of guide dog injury in the world, and it is not just a pet dog that can be called a guide dog after training, the guide dog must be born from the base breeder, after strict screening and breeding, and the elimination rate is also very high, they will only help the owner to avoid attacking when encountering danger, and will not take the initiative to attack others.
Join 1.1 million followers to eliminate bias
I started to post Douyin in 2018, short videos are a particularly good way to eliminate prejudice, in the past, everyone watched the stories on TV and newspapers, and they may still feel far away from their lives, but watching short videos will feel that they are around, and they can also interact, if you have any questions or misunderstandings, I can reply and explain.
For blind people, it is really difficult to shoot and cut videos, at the beginning I studied and explored for a long time, I couldn't remember those steps, and I didn't know how to listen to comments, how to post, how to edit.
With only a few comments from a few fans, I fantasized that there would be people who would follow me and be willing to learn about the lives of blind people and guide dogs. David said there would definitely be, and we started doing it. Now, I have more than 1.1 million followers, and we're all very happy because the more fans I have, the more people will know about blind people and guide dogs.
On Douyin, I get asked the two most questions, one is how do guide dogs know where the blind are going, and the other is how do blind people use mobile phones?
People often ask guide dogs how to know where a blind person is going, and I will take pictures of real experiences to answer everyone.
The first question, the guide dog is the eyes of the blind, can help me avoid obstacles, but I can also find the way by myself, the blind just can't see, it's not that the brain has a problem, it's not that they can't ask for directions. In the 90s of the last century, I was able to memorize the map of Beijing, and now with navigation it is even easier, and the corridors can be found.
The second problem is that many apps have barrier-free settings, and computers also have them, which can read text to you, order takeout, book air tickets, shop online and even play games, which can be done by normal people and blind people. There are also many third-party software, such as us shooting videos and cutting videos, which can also be used together.
I share my work life on Douyin, whether it is for the blind or for guide dogs, there are many people who never understand to understand, including my customers.
I'm tuning the piano, and Hei Mengmeng accompanies me.
I remember there was an old lady who had no ill intentions but would be curious. I went to her house to tune the piano, and she asked if you could find our house, and if you wanted to pick it up? When we arrived, she said there was a cabinet here, and you had to walk around. When I was tuning, I would also ask, "How do you know this place is dirty?" When you wash your hands after work, she asks how do you know where the hand sanitizer is? I can't see it, but I have common sense, work experience, and I can find a pattern of life, which is not unusual. Later, slowly, she understood, and now she has a very good relationship with us.
Of course, there are some bad sounds. For example, once I posted a video of me taking my guide dog to a mall and the security guard wouldn't let us in. There is a comment that I am definitely not blind, and that refusal is right, if I am blind, why should I go to the mall, what can I do when I go to the mall, can I find where the clothing store is, can I know what brand it is, can the guide dog tell me?
Now I post a video, and someone asks questions, and I don't have to answer, the fans will reply for me, and it may be more convincing than what I said. There are also many fans who volunteer for us, helping us shoot videos and add subtitles. When I first broadcast live, I couldn't read the words of the barrage, so the volunteers translated the comments in the live broadcast room and sent them to me on WeChat. When you encounter a situation where you are denied entry with a guide dog, some onlookers will say, I have seen their story on Douyin, it is a real guide dog, and you should not refuse a guide dog.
When I was stopped from entering the store with my guide dog, it was the customers who helped me. When I was stopped from entering the store with my guide dog, it was the customers who helped me.
In fact, now the subway, shopping malls and other places are basically let guide dogs in, the most refusal is restaurants and hotels, restaurants are good to say, but accommodation is more difficult to solve. Once we went to the field and found nearly 100 large and small hotels that do not allow guide dogs to stay, more than a dozen volunteers called, and finally solved the problem.
Therefore, I think that there is still a long way to go for the correct promotion of guide dogs. I have volunteered to promote guide dogs for more than ten years, and I don't feel how great I am, because in doing this, the beneficiaries are myself first, and then more blind people.
More and more people are joining me in supporting and promoting guide dogs.
I am currently preparing to publish two books, one is "Black Mengmeng Guide Dog" and the other is my autobiography "Life Made by Itself". Writing an autobiography is also because, there are too many voices in the video comment area saying, why do you have to walk around when you can't see, pulling guide dogs everywhere to "touch porcelain".
What I want to tell you is that there is nothing wrong with me living like this, if I look down on myself and feel that I shouldn't go out, I shouldn't live and work well, then how can I ask others to respect you. Moreover, everyone has the right to pursue the ideal life, including people with disabilities. Life is created by yourself, and whatever life you want to live, you have to work in that direction.