On December 28, 2020, Fu Cong, the son of Republic of China translator Fu Lei and pianist Fu Cong, died in the United Kingdom due to the new crown virus at the age of 86. At this point, only two weeks had passed since he had been hospitalized for his diagnosis.
Fortunately, Professor Zhuo Yilong, Fu Cong's wife, who was also infected with the new crown before, has now recovered.
Fu Cong and his last wife, Zhuo Yilong
After the news of Fu Cong's death was announced, the most commented by domestic netizens was: "Unfortunately, the "Fu Lei Family Letter" has finally become a masterpiece." As of two o'clock in the afternoon, the comment had been liked by more than 4,000 people.
Published in 1981, Fu Lei's Family Letters is a collection of family letters written to fu Cong by his father after he studied abroad in 1954. It is one of the texts in the textbook, and it is also considered a classic model of parent-child education in China, and it has been selling well for nearly 40 years.
After Fu Cong's death, while the "Fu Lei Family Letter" was once again hotly discussed, the world also wondered: Why is the nationality of Fu Cong, who has been patriotic all his life, "British" instead of "Chinese"?
Fu Cong
And to answer this question, we actually have to start from the beginning in combination with the "Book of Fu Lei"——
Fu Cong was born on March 10, 1934, in the 22nd year of the Republic of China. The year he was born, his father Fu Lei was 26 years old and his mother Zhu Meifu was 21 years old. At this time, Fu Lei had just returned from studying abroad.
For the loving Fu Lei couple, the birth of the eldest son, Fu Cong, undoubtedly brought warmth to the family. However, Fu Cong's birth did not slow down his father's struggle in his career, and in the second year of his son's birth, his translations of Romain Roland's "Biography of Michelangelo" and "Tolstoy" were published. Later, Fu Lei translated and published "John Christopher", "Eugenie Grande" and other masterpieces.
From the frequent publication of Fu Lei's translations at that time, it can be seen that Fu Cong's family situation was not bad when he was young. At the age of a few years, Fu Lei began to cultivate his son's artistic talent. At the age of three or four, Fu Cong became very interested in music under the influence of his father.
When Fu Cong was seven and a half years old, Fu Lei's friend Lei Yuan discovered his extremely high musical talent, and he asserted that the child was likely to become a great musician. After fu Lei listened, he dispelled the impulse to let his son learn to paint, and he turned to his son Tou LeiYuan as a teacher and learn to play the piano.
Compared with his ordinary father, Fu Lei obviously knew more about art. Because, in addition to being extremely accomplished musically, he was also extremely good at literature and so on.
People say that "parents are the best teachers for children", and Fu Lei is even more so for Fu Cong. After Fu Cong began to learn piano, Fu Lei used his leisure time to subtly influence his son.
Compared with the image of the loving father in the later "Fu Lei's Family Letter", the father that Fu Congxiao knew was obviously a different look. Fu Lei's temper is very grumpy, because of this violent temper, he also got a "Ya number" of "Fu Tiger" in the circle.
Compared with the early years of learning the piano path of Xia Guoqiong, the daughter of Dong Zhujun, who is also a pianist, Fu Cong is obviously more difficult. When practicing the piano at an early age, as long as there was a slight lack of place, Fu Cong would be hit by his father's head against the wall.
Once, when Fu Cong made a mistake in practicing the piano, Fu Lei actually took the plate and threw it over. After being hit by the plate, Fu Cong was bleeding profusely, and later even fell scarred.
Once, when Fu Cong saw his father's friend and literary scholar Yang Dai, he couldn't help but complain: "It really hurts for my father to beat me!" At that time, Yang Dai listened to it, and his heart was full of mixed tastes.
Because of this, Fu Cong pointed out more than once in his later years: "The father's education method may not be suitable for all children!" "Come to think of it, when he said this, his feelings were also very complicated.
Fu Lei
It is said that under the strict education of Fu Lei, who is also a teacher and a father, Fu Cong's piano skills have improved by leaps and bounds. In order to further give his son a good environment for practicing, Fu Lei simply let his son quit school. After that, Fu Lei also compiled his own textbook to teach his son personally.
At that time, the articles in Fu Cong's textbooks were all selected and copied by Fu Lei from the "Warring States Policy", "Historical Records", "Book of Han", "The New Language of the World" and other works.
In February 1952, Fu Cong performed Beethoven's Concerto with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. This year, Fu Cong was only 18 years old.
Two years later, at the age of 20, Fu Cong won the third place in the piano competition at the 4th "World Youth and Students Peace and Friendship Festival" held in Bucharest, and in the same year, he was invited to perform in Eastern European countries.
By this time, Fu Cong had undoubtedly embarked on the "Kangzhuang Avenue" of the road of music and art.
But at this time, Fu Lei was more worried than usual, because he knew better than anyone that Fu Cong's artistic path had actually just begun, and if he wanted to really go far in art, the experience he had to endure was far from enough.
In order to further let his son study art, in 1954, with the encouragement of Fu Lei, Fu Cong decided to study in Poland. Before leaving, Fu Lei wrote in his family letter to his son:
"Child, you have a great future, these days you should carefully summarize the past, exercise your will more, and be prepared to endure the loneliness and emotional fluctuations in four or five years." That's what you're supposed to do right now. ”
In the letter, Fu Lei also said to his son: "Listening more to Beethoven's fifth when you are depressed, and remembering more of Christopher's extremely difficult deeds, can increase your courage and make you more shocked." ”
After explaining this, Fu Lei plucked up the courage to write to his son in the letter: "Good boy, quietly prepare to go abroad!" ”
Fu Lei father and son
After arriving in Poland, Fu Cong entered the State Chopin Conservatory in Warsaw, one of the oldest conservatories in Europe. After arriving here, Fu Cong, who cherished the ideal of winning glory for the country, began to learn new knowledge tirelessly.
When people arrive in a foreign country, they often miss their home country even more. The same was true of Fu Cong, who grew up in China, when he arrived in Poland, and at first, he missed his home country mostly because of his love of family. But as time went on, he gained a deeper understanding of his home country in a foreign country. In his letters to his father, he mentioned several times that he wanted to use art to make himself the pride of the country.
In 1955, Fu Cong did it. He won the only "Mazorna" Best Prize at the "Fifth International Chopin Piano Competition" held in Poland.
That day, when Fu Cong finished playing Chopin's music affectionately, the entire audience boiled. In the thunderous applause, Fu Cong gracefully stood up and bowed to everyone to thank them.
This is a memorable moment, and it should be noted that Fu Cong is the only Asian ever to win the "Mazurka" Best Award. Because of this, the audience exclaimed: "This is really incredible, how can Chinese grasp Chopin's soul so deeply?" "Fu Cong is the most Polish!"
As the crowd poured into Fu Cong, he heard people shouting in the clutter: "Why aren't you a Pole?" Fu Cong listened but asked, "Why should I be a Pole, I am a Chinese." ”
In the family letter to his father Fu Lei after winning the award, Fu Cong wrote about this:
"To be an internationalist, one must first be a man who loves his country ... They all said I was a Polish Chinese, but I belonged to my dearest country after all. ”
When Fu Lei saw his son's letter, he burst into tears. He often admonished his son to "not forget his roots", and it seems that he listened to these words.
Alas, things in the world are never unpredictable. In particular, blessings and misfortunes can be transformed into each other. Shortly after winning the award, Fu Cong was "criticized" because he was invited to perform in this international competition.
It turned out that during the period when he was invited to the performance, Fu Cong, who already had some income, lived alone, and in order to save time, he took a taxi when he came in and out. This is nothing, but in 1957, during the "rectification" movement, these can be big or small. These lifestyles of Fu Cong abroad were later criticized at home as "bourgeois lifestyles."
Soon, Fu Cong was recalled to Beijing. This time back home, he and his father were criticized at the same time. Fortunately, because of his "correct attitude", Fu Cong was allowed to return to Poland to continue his studies soon after.
In December 1958, Fu Cong graduated from studying abroad. He was 24 years old. At this time, he was faced with two choices: to stay abroad and to return home. Fu Cong wanted to return to China, but when he learned about the situation at home, the criticisms that his father was facing at home at this time, and the criticisms he was about to face against him, he hesitated.
Fu Cong thought: If he returns to China, it is bound to be the son who exposes his father, and the father who exposes the farce of his son. Moreover, before he was last recalled to Beijing, Minister of Culture Qian Junrui had told him that he would be transferred back to the countryside to work because of all the "inappropriate remarks" he made with his friends about the Soviet Union.
When he thought about it, Fu Cong subconsciously looked at his hands, and he couldn't imagine what it would be like for these pianists to plant land with hoes or raise pigs to pick up dung.
For Fu Cong at the time, "being put down" was tantamount to making him give up art. And all this, of course, is unacceptable to him. After thinking about it, Fu Cong, who was extremely anxious, decided to leave England.
After making this decision, Fu Cong's palms began to sweat, this was the first time in his life that he had made a decision on his own, could he not be nervous in his heart? When he boarded the flight to Britain, Fu Cong felt as if his legs were not his own.
When the plane began to take off, Fu Cong felt that his whole brain was buzzing, and he couldn't tell whether it was the physiological reaction of the plane when it took off, or the result of his nervousness. As the plane rushed into the clouds, his heart was filled with guilt, and he looked out the window at a man silently in tears.
Soon, the news of Fu Cong's departure from Britain reached China, and for Fu Lei, who was in trouble at this time, the news was like a thunderbolt on a sunny day. It was also here that the voice of "Fu Cong is a traitor" was higher than the wave.
After Fu Cong left England, the father-son books that had been unimpeded by the wind and rain were also broken. Fu Lei, who had no idea what had happened in China, was completely confused, and overnight, he became a "sinner who educates traitors.". However, yesterday, wasn't his son Fu Cong still the pride of the country?
Under this major blow, Fu Lei began to eat and drink without thinking, and he could not even get into the morning and dusk when his routine was extremely strict in the past.
Fu Lei and Zhu Meifu
At a time when Fu Lei was having a muddy time, Fu Cong, who had already arrived in Britain, also had a very bad life. At this time, he was like a "broken kite", he was thinking about his parents and family every day, but he was afraid of receiving any news from them, because he knew that if he stabbed such a big basket, there would never be good news for him in China.
Countless times, Fu Cong woke up from the nightmare, and then he sat alone and waited for dawn, during which Fu Cong felt like Chopin in exile.
Exactly ten months later, under the movement of Fu Cong's uncle, who was an underground party member, Fu Lei was able to exchange letters with his son again. When Fu Cong received a letter from his father from China, his hand that opened the letter was clearly shaking violently. Fortunately, the letter is good news, and Fu Lei said in his family letter:
"Child, you have not forgotten the motherland, nor has the motherland forgotten you, always leave room for you, waiting for you to wake up." I believe that the gates of the motherland will always be open to you..."
When reading this family letter, Fu Cong kept wiping away his tears, and it finally relieved him of his worries about his family and the motherland. On the night of receiving the letter, he put the family letter under his pillow, and that night, he finally did not have any more nightmares.
During his time in Britain, Fu Cong, who was already quite famous, often faced harassment by journalists. At the same time, he also faced financial difficulties while living alone. In order to survive, he had to earn money by playing the piano.
After learning of Fu Cong's embarrassing situation, foreign reporters offered to give him a large sum of money on the condition that he do an interview. Fu Cong resolutely refused. He knew that in such a special period, any of his remarks could cause trouble for his family and the country.
On the most difficult days, when he woke up every morning, Fu Cong silently recited the words written to him by his father in his family letter: "You are a person who lives by art, and you are also a person who values truth, justice, and personality above all else." ”
Soon after, in order to silence the reporters who called him a "traitor to China," Fu Cong published in a public newspaper in 1959 stating his three principles: First, not to be a British citizen; second, not to go to Taiwan; and third, not to say anything unfavorable to the motherland and not to do anything unfavorable to the motherland.
To everyone's surprise, however, in 1964, five years after the statement was published, Fu Lei received a message at home that his son had become a British citizen.
After receiving the news, Fu Lei and his wife Zhu Meifu did not sleep for several nights, and they were once again put back on the hat of "educating the sinners of traitors". Soon, Fu Lei and Fu Cong's family letters were interrupted again.
On October 31, 1964, after a full month of silence, Fu Lei wrote a letter to his son. In the letter, he wrote: "Dear child, months of silence have also left me restless and restless. We all deeply understand your unavoidable suffering, how can we blame you? ”
The "unavoidable bitterness" mentioned in Fu Lei's letter is the reason behind Fu Cong's need to become a British citizen. It turned out that he was in England at the time and had started his own family, and his English wife at the time, Mira, was pregnant and had just given birth to a child. In the meantime, in order to make a living, Fu Cong had to "run the dock" all year round, that is, to perform in many countries.
According to the relevant regulations of the United Kingdom at that time, if Fu Cong did not join the British nationality, it would be very inconvenient for him to enter and leave various countries to apply for a visa and passport, and in some countries, he may not even be able to enter and leave.
Fu Cong didn't know how much harm his decision would bring to his parents during that special period. Until, of course, he saw the letter his parents had written to him a few months later.
In the letter, Fu Lei expressed his understanding of his son's "last resort" to become a British citizen, and wrote: "Even your mother, who is easy-going and optimistic everywhere, is also sad and unable to help herself. We miss you more than ever, but neither your mother nor I dare talk about you; we are all afraid to touch each other's wounds and exacerbate our own wounds. ”
After pouring out all this, Fu Lei once again raised his pen in his family letter to comfort his son: "We know that all official documents are only a form, and no legal procedures can restrain a person's heart!" We also know that documents can be unilaterally cancelled, but such a day is too far away to be seen. ”
Fu Lei believed that his son's heart was toward the motherland.
Knowing his son MoRuo's father, Fu Lei knew more about his son than anyone else: his son missed his motherland and hometown almost day and night. In May 1965, when the performance passed through Hong Kong, Fu Cong, who saw countless black hair and black eyes, was very excited. He made a long-distance call to home, and that day, Zhu Meifu only "fed" once, and Fu Cong's eyes were full of tears. After shouting "Mommy," his throat choked, and at that moment, tears rolled down like broken beads.
Since 1966, Fu Cong's letters to his parents have decreased significantly, which is naturally because he has been burdened by family affairs and careers. Unbeknownst to him abroad, his parents' lives had entered the countdown.
Beginning in the spring of that year, Fu Lei, who was aware of the "impending storm," said in a conversation with a friend: "If I were to do the same situation as in 1957 again, I would not be prepared to live again." ”
Sure enough, on the afternoon of August 30, 1966, Fu Lei's family was raided, and he took the lead in raiding the house and said: You were raided because you were famous, because he had a bourgeois lifestyle (smoking pipes, drinking coffee).
Shortly thereafter, on September 3, the humiliated Fu Lei chose to commit suicide, and his wife Zhu Meifu also went with her husband after settling everything down.
Before his death, in a suicide note left to Fu Cong's uncle Zhu Renxiu, he wrote:
"The days of injustice are even more difficult than going to jail. Besides, if he had educated a traitor, Fu Conglai, he would have died in front of the people! ”
No one knows what kind of mood Fu Lei had when he said this, but this sentence in his last words undoubtedly cast a heavy shadow over Fu Cong's life. After the death of his parents, he repeatedly proposed to the motherland in various ways and in various ways to return.
Unfortunately, for various reasons, Fu Cong's wish has not been realized.
In 1979, Fu Lei was rehabilitated, and in April of that year, the Shanghai Municipal Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Shanghai Branch of the China Writers Association decided to hold a memorial service for Fu Lei and his wife. On the day of the parents' memorial service, Fu Cong, who finally returned to China, attended the memorial service with great sorrow.
Mr. and Mrs. Fu Lei
In the year of his return to China, Fu Cong gave a concert at the Central Conservatory of Music, and he was also hired by the Central Conservatory of Music as an adjunct professor of the piano department. After that, he returned to China almost every year to play and lecture.
When he was in China, every time he went to a banquet, he asked the waiter to replace the sign of "British pianist Fu Cong" on his table with "Chinese pianist Fu Cong", and he said to everyone countless times: "I am not a foreign guest, I am a Chinese!" ”
Later, Fu Cong, who was a British national but said that he was a Chinese everywhere, was also praised by Time Magazine as "the greatest Chinese musician today".
The three words "greatest" should be affordable to Fu Cong. In the 20 years of the 1960s and 1970s alone, he gave about 2,400 solo concerts and recorded about 50 records. He has also served as a judge at the Chopard International Piano Competition and the Queen Elizabeth International Music Competition in Belgium.
For decades, the musician, known as the "piano poet", has played almost all over Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Oceania.
The native Chinese musician has long been considered to be the musician with the deepest understanding of Western music. How can a Chinese do this?
Regarding the answer to this question, an Italian professor once commented:
I have to say that fu Cong's achievements in this regard are largely due to his understanding and experience of classical Chinese culture. Only by truly understanding the excellent traditional spirit of one's own nation and having one's own national soul can we thoroughly understand the excellent traditions of other nationalities and penetrate their souls. ”
Fu Cong himself replied, "My best teacher was my father, and he used Chinese culture and spirit to achieve the later me!" ”
Unfortunately, this musician who loves his motherland deeply has not been able to return to his roots in the end, because he was infected with the new crown, and he finally left the world in a way that made the people of china most sad. Fortunately, Heaven has his parents, who have been separated for 63 years, and there, they will be reunited!