Some say it's a 27-year-long hoax and that it's a lie that an intellectually disabled Zhouzhou was able to command.
The band's performers said they were all acting with Zhou Zhou.
In order to explore the truth, the reporter tried to interview Zhouzhou as early as a few years ago, but was shocked to hear a bad news:
Zhou Zhou has severe lung cancer, and he can only live for six months at most! What is happening to Zhou Zhou now? Is he still alive?
Heaven played a joke on April Fool's Day
Zhou Zhou seems to have been tricked by fate from the beginning, born on April 1, 1978, April Fool's Day, which is like a curse that makes him a veritable fool.
Because of his Down syndrome, Zhouzhou's intelligence level is only equivalent to that of a three- or four-year-old child, and his arrival did not bring the expected joy to Hu Houpei and his wife, but brought endless stress and worry.
Hu Houpei was a rare college student in the 60s, and after graduating from the Conservatory of Music, he was assigned to the Wuhan Song and Dance Theater and was a national second-class performer.
In the era when Lao Hu graduated, everyone was very bitter, and everyone in the song and dance troupe couldn't make much money.
Hu Houpei only had such a child at the age of 40, and as a result, he also had Down syndrome, an intellectual disability caused by an abnormality on chromosome 21.
This made the life of the Hu family even worse. Hu Houpei's family is poor, and he never makes mistakes in doing things, in order not to be looked down upon by others.
Therefore, when he worked as a secretary in the cabaret troupe, everyone respected him very much. However, after Zhouzhou was born, Lao Hu was completely deflated. He couldn't get up anymore.
Everyone in the unit knows the difficulties of the Hu family, and has been taking care of Lao Hu in many ways. If there is any performance that can make some extra money, try to call him as much as possible.
Lao Hu owes a bunch of favors, and his heart is very aggrieved, and he is angry with Zhouzhou during this period. Everyone who has seen children knows how naughty children under the age of ten are.
But most parents only need to survive these few years, and when their children grow up, they will be able to see the fruits of their parenting. However, Zhouzhou is a child who does not grow up.
To make matters worse, Zhouzhou's mother had cancer. When she learned that she had cancer, her first thought was how to reduce the burden on her family, and she even thought about leaving this world with Zhouzhou at one point.
When she saw people on the street who were living in hardship but still survived, she realized that Zhouzhou also had the right to see the world and experience the beauty of life.
After the death of his wife, the burden of life soon fell on the shoulders of Lao Hu alone. Zhouzhou is as tall as her mother, but she still can't take care of herself. Taking care of him is not an easy job.
Due to his increased height and weight, taking care of him is not as easy as caring for a child, but more like caring for a sick adult.
Music is driftwood in a flood
In the process of growing up in Zhouzhou, he experienced countless tribulations. Due to physical reasons, he was unable to go to kindergartens and schools for education like other children.
Lao Hu once tried to send Zhouzhou to school, but he was bullied by his peers and even stripped naked and thrown on the street. These experiences undoubtedly left an indelible scar on Zhouzhou's psyche.
In the midst of such adversity, Zhouzhou unexpectedly formed an indissoluble bond with music. During his days in the Wuhan Song and Dance Troupe, he often rehearsed with his father and performed everywhere.
Hu Houpei has been looking for a way to help Zhouzhou better integrate into the world. By chance, he discovered the power of music.
Because of his low intelligence, Zhouzhou's memory and concentration skills are very poor. He only learned to count one, two, three, four at the age of 8, and he still can't use coins or count.
And every time the orchestra performs, Zhou Zhou imitates the appearance of the conductor, dancing with his hands, and can insist on completing a long symphony, without being tired or distracted.
And Zhouzhou has some basic musicality, and his movements basically follow the rhythm of the music. Therefore, we laymen do not seem to be abrupt in their movements, and they are decent.
Lao Hu made a baton out of chopsticks and black tape, solemnly handed it to Zhou Zhou, and told him: "You will be a conductor in the future, you have to work harder." ”
Whenever there was a wedding band or video store playing music on the street, Zhou Zhou would pick up the baton and conduct it to his heart's content. Although he was sometimes ridiculed and ridiculed, Hu Houpei just wanted to find something for Zhouzhou to do.
There is only one thing that parents of children with disabilities worry about the most, and that is what will happen to their children after they have passed away. Therefore, Lao Hu was also sick and rushed to the doctor, and he hoped that Zhouzhou could find a job in the disabled orchestra.
In order to achieve this goal, Hu Houpei even set up a small conductor's platform for Zhou Zhou in the orchestra's rehearsal area. Whenever the orchestra began to rehearse, Zhou Zhou would stand there, waving his baton, as if he had really become a conductor.
And all these efforts finally paid off in 1998.
The boat that was lifted to the altar
That year, a documentary called "The World of Boat Boats" caused a national sensation.
Zhou Zhou suddenly became a celebrity, and countless celebrities invited him to perform. The head of the Wuhan Opera Troupe grew up watching Zhouzhou, and he supported Zhouzhou to perform outside.
First, it can make money to subsidize the family, and second, it can show the world that the active life of the disabled in China is a good thing.
In this way, Zhou Zhou became a "conductor" of performance conducting.
On stage, he always wears a gorgeous performance costume and confidently waves the baton in his hand to lead the orchestra to play beautiful music.
Whenever the performance ends, there will always be warm applause from the audience, which is the greatest affirmation and encouragement for Zhouzhou. Although Zhou Zhou is not smart, he can feel the praise or disgust of the outside world. He knew that conducting was a welcome thing.
Hu Houpei hopes that Zhouzhou can continue to enjoy the happiness brought by music, and at the same time, he hopes that there will be more opportunities for more people to understand and pay attention to special groups like Zhouzhou.
In the hottest years, Zhouzhou did make a lot of money, and even a boss invested in Zhouzhou to build an exclusive orchestra for him. But Lao Hu knows very well that Zhouzhou's selling point is his disabled status.
After the popularity of those years passed, Zhouzhou was not so popular, and there were not so many commercial performances. Zhouzhou can only go to some small groups of disabled people.
The nature of these performance groups is more like a circus, and they are meant to show everyone the hunting performances of various disabilities such as gnomes. And Zhouzhou is responsible for selling miserably.
Zhou Zhou will perform a short period of conducting, and then the host will tell the story of Zhou Zhou's mother who died of cancer and how hard it was for his father to raise him since he was a child.
Zhouzhou, as a person whose mind is only a few years old, every time he hears someone say that his mother is dead, he will stand on the stage and cry, saying that he misses his mother.
When he cried, a spotlight struck at him, and the highlight of the show was completed. Only when there is enough sensationalism and emotion, the audience will "offer love".
For the head of the performance group, Zhou Zhou is a good employee. Because many children with intellectual disabilities, especially children with autism, will have a very short temper, and when they are angry, they will hit people without knowing the severity.
Zhouzhou, on the other hand, never hits people and is very popular with other disabled people. Since he was a child, his father would reprimand him, "You are squeamish!", in the face of his father's lesson, Zhouzhou has always been at a loss to bear it obediently, never resisting or talking back.
Because the Hu family has always lived in the dormitory of the unit, his colleagues can also hear it when he teaches Zhouzhou. At this time, the head of their unit would call Zhouzhou to live in his own home.
He said that Zhouzhou was very well-behaved, and it was all Lao Hu who was angry with the child if he didn't go well. It was after Zhouzhou was able to make money that Lao Hu doted on him a lot.
Hu Houpei is 80 years old this year. He said that God made him suffer for 40 years, and he also lived a good life for 40 years, life is half bitter and half sweet, and it is fair to God.
Zhouzhou's cancer miracle
Two years ago, Zhouzhou, who was nearly 40 years old, was diagnosed with lung cancer, which was found to be at an advanced stage, and the doctor said that Zhouzhou's life had entered the countdown, with only six months left at most.
Hu Houpei watched his wife die in the agony of chemotherapy. He decided not to let Zhouzhou suffer from chemotherapy and took him to a folk doctor for treatment, and the father and son recuperated for a while in the beautiful scenery of Hangzhou.
Zhouzhou was not afraid at all, he felt that he was coming to Chengdu, Hangzhou and other places to travel, and it was his father's reward for his hard work.
A few months later, just eating, drinking and having fun, Zhouzhou's lung cancer was miraculously cured. Hu Houpei is old and has a retirement salary of 6,000 yuan a month.
He didn't care if Zhouzhou made money or not for a long time. He has now figured out that whether it is Zhouzhou, who is mentally disabled, or he is 80 years old, the most important thing is to be happy and healthy.
In the past, Zhou Zhou liked to perform, so Hu Houpei paid him to rent a house in a city that was willing to hire him. I spent my own money to accompany Zhouzhou to work.
He is very happy to see Zhouzhou every day, he has something to do, and he is very happy to be able to contact the society independently. As for the occasional Zhouzhou being taught a lesson by the boss or something, Lao Hu also thought very openly.
Normal people who come out to work to make money will inevitably be wronged. Whether it's a delivery person, a waiter or a construction site worker, it's very hard work.
Zhouzhou is a disabled person, it is good to have such an easy performance job, people should be content. Moreover, it is not easy to open an art troupe for the disabled in these years, and many orchestras where Zhouzhou has stayed have closed down because they did not make money.
Zhou Zhou is also able to digest this negative emotion, and he thinks that being in the orchestra is much happier than getting along with normal people. He felt that he was not discriminated against, but that he had become a popular and good member of the disabled because of his intelligence and well-behavedness.
There is another thing that everyone has wronged Hu Houpei, that is, he never said that Zhou Zhou was a genius of command. On the contrary, in the year of Zhouzhou's fire, he honestly said to the camera that Zhouzhou doesn't understand music theory, thank you for accompanying him to have a dream.
This world is so funny, whether it was in the past or now, the truth on Zhouzhou is not defined by reality, but by everyone's thoughts.
In the past, when Zhouzhou was hot, a group of people ignored Lao Hu's truth and pushed him to various altars. Now I came to ask Lao Hu why he was lying, and Lao Hu, who was already gray-haired, repeated the truth that Zhou Zhou didn't understand the command countless times.
Lao Hu and Zhouzhou are just two ordinary people with no money and no power, they are pushed by society and heat, and they can't call the shots when they come and go.
Now 80-year-old Hu is no longer able to continue to take care of Zhouzhou. After the collapse of the art troupe, Zhouzhou joined a disabled people's entrepreneurial chicken farm. Lao Hu was much relieved to see that he could support himself.