Source: Voice of China, China Central Radio and Television Corporation
Recently, a group of elderly people with an average age of 74.5 years old "caught fire". More than 30 "veteran scholars" from the Shanghai Alumni Association Art Troupe of Tsinghua University sang "Youth" on the stage of this year's CCTV Network Spring Festival Gala. They were white-haired and youthful in their movements, rolling up their shirt sleeves and singing loudly with the lyrics of "Say never never give up, like a fire", which made countless listeners cry.
Spanning three generations, singing "the same song"
"When we first got the score, everyone was confused because we had never sung a pop song before." Liu Xila, an 81-year-old chair professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, head of the Shanghai Alumni Art Troupe at Tsinghua University, said in an interview with the Voice of China's "News has a point of view" that because he was afraid that the elderly would not be able to keep up, he had suggested replacing "Teenager" with "The Same Song". It was this suggestion that made Liu Xila's thoughts fly back to 30 years ago.
In 1985, Liu Xila had just returned from the United States and served as the head of the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering at Tsinghua University. At the graduation party, the students invited Liu Xila to sing the "popular song" "The Same Song" with everyone, Liu Xila felt strange and asked the students, "Why don't you sing the "Graduation Song"? It is good for everyone to bear the rise and fall of the world together. However, it was this popular song that may have been "soft" in Liu Xila's eyes that deeply shocked him. "There's still such beautiful music!"
Liu Xila sighed that from "Graduation Song" to "The Same Song" to today's "Teenager", the times are changing, and the musical hobbies of each generation are not the same, but what we sing is actually "the same song": that is, do not forget the original heart.
Liu Xila told "News has a point of view", the program team finally decided to skewer "The Same Song" and "Teenager" together, and added "The Motherland Will Not Forget", if "Youth" sang the voice of young people, then "The Motherland Will Not Forget" sang about himself and the members of the group now: "The motherland will not forget our dedication, this life is very worthwhile!" ”
Let life burn, not smoke
Liu Xila said that she especially liked the lyrics of "Say never never give up, like a fire" in "Teenagers", which reminded him of a sentence in the text "Guria's Road" that he learned in his second year of junior high school: "Let life burn, not smoke." Whenever he sang the lyrics, he would think of the motto of the Hero of the Soviet Union in the text, and think of his own "years of burning passion."
After graduating from Tsinghua University, Liu Xila obeyed the assignment and went to work as a technician at a building science research institute in Sichuan. Cao Juyi, the chief engineer at the time, talked to Liu Xila and suggested that he should not always sit in his office and "go deep into the grassroots to learn things." So Liu Xila packed up her baggage and went to the construction site to eat and sleep with the workers, and it was here that Liu Xila's achievements won the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and the theoretical part of this achievement also won the award in the United States. Now, whenever a student asks him for advice on "how to reflect the value of life as soon as possible", Liu Xila will think of Cao Gong's words and remind the students kindly: "Don't think about going up as soon as possible, go down in turn, go to the grassroots level, and the sense of mission will tell you the answer." ”
The life story of Tsinghua scholars
The name is Revitalization of China
Tsinghua University Shanghai Alumni Art Troupe has a total of 105 members, and the leader of the troupe, Liu Xila, and many of them are old friends who have known each other for many years. Liu Xila said that when the choir was first established in 2008, everyone got together at the school celebration, there were always endless words, and everyone was telling their own life stories, "It seems that there are many stories, but in fact, there is only one theme, that is, to revitalize China." "These former teenagers invariably chose dedication after graduation: to go to the place where the motherland needs it most!"
Liu Xila's good friend Sun Qinwu worked all his life in Ili, Xinjiang, except for the death of his mother, in the Spring and Autumn period, Sun Qinwu did not return to his hometown of Zhejiang. At the 40th anniversary of graduation, everyone bought a plane ticket for Sun Qinwu, who was not financially wealthy, and invited him to Beijing for a gathering. Liu Xila said that the gathering brought many outstanding alumni, including academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, presidents of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, big bosses in Hong Kong, and famous professors, but everyone did not dare to sit in the middle of the position, and in the end, everyone unanimously elected Sun Qinwu to sit in the middle, because he had struggled all his life in the place where the motherland needed it most, "the most lovely and greatest person among us." ”
After running away for half a lifetime, he is still a teenager when he returns
Gu Jun, a professor of sociology at Shanghai University, was also deeply moved after watching the choral performance of the Shanghai Alumni Association Art Troupe of Tsinghua University, "When watching the performance, I felt that they really returned to that year, people have not changed, the original intention has not changed, so they will always remain teenagers." ”
Gu Jun believes that the "eternal pursuit" embodied in these "Tsinghua scholars" is in sharp contrast with the "Buddhist" ideology that prevails today, many people who call themselves "Buddhism" are still young, but their mentality is aging, they choose their life goals too closely, once they achieve them, they lose motivation, and even more directly "discouragement" in failure.
"These old people are running marathons, and now many young people are running 100 meters." Gu Jun believes that the values pursued by the elderly have transcendence, which is beyond the existence of individuals, the existence of materiality beyond "me", and even more beyond the so-called success of individuals. Gu Jun said that why does the song sung by this group of elderly people with an average age of 74.5 resonate with young people? Because everyone also yearns for what they have, the final success of life does not lie in external gains, but in inner realization.
Producer 丨Bai Zhonghua
Reporter 丨 Yang Chang
Edited by 丨 Cao Bo Wang Tiantian