Sitting in front of the piano, Yi Qunlin, wearing an orange-red reflective safety vest, a pair of camouflage pants and a yellow hard hat, wiped his hands stained with cement ash with his clothes, and pressed the keys with rough fingers.
In mid-April, this video of migrant workers playing pianos on the streets of Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen, went viral on Weibo. Half a month later, during May Day, Yi Qunlin was invited to the stage of the Guangming District Culture and Art Center, and in this concert hall he had participated in the construction, he played more than a dozen songs in a row, and the applause from the audience rang out again and again.
Yi Qunlin, 57, from Yueyang, Hunan Province, washes dishes in a construction site canteen in Shenzhen's Guangming District. In the past two decades in Shenzhen, he has worked in toy factories, shoe factories, and construction sites, assembling electronic components, moving cement, washing dishes, and supporting his family's livelihood. If it weren't for the chance encounter with the public piano, he might have forgotten that he had learned to play the piano, and the hands could also play music on black and white keys.
Some netizens said, "Lao Yi's hands 'can build Shenzhou Mansion and compose Chinese music', paying tribute to the city builders." Yi Qunlin, like many "dream chasers" in this city, hopes to make life better through his own hands, he wants to save enough money to go back to his hometown to build a house of his own, and now the music dream that has been sealed for more than 30 years has been awakened, Yi Qunlin has a new dream, has his own piano, and plays the song "Dream Chaser". The following is Yi Qunlin's story.
From street bounce to concert halls
Playing the piano on the streets of Huaqiangbei is a very accidental thing.
On April 4, I went with four or five fellow villagers from Hunan to help at a construction site not far from Huaqiangbei. The end of the day was relatively early, and a co-worker's mobile phone was broken, so we wanted to go to Huaqiangbei together to take a look. As soon as I got out of the subway station, I saw someone playing the piano, and when I asked, I knew that it was a public welfare piano, and anyone could play it.
I said my hand was itchy and I wanted to try it, and the guy who played the piano was enthusiastic and gave up his place to me. As soon as I finished my work, I still had cement ash on my hands, so I wiped my hands with my clothes a little embarrassed, and then I started to bounce. The fingers touched the familiar keys again, a little excited, and the sound played was a little inaccurate.
The first song I played was "To Alice", I haven't played it for more than thirty years, and it's a little strange to play. Later, I played "Liang Zhu" and "Yingshan Red" and other songs, and more and more people stopped to listen to them, and they also applauded me, saying that they played well. I've been playing for about ten minutes, and I haven't played it yet, but this is a public piano after all, and I can't play it alone for too long.
The last time I played the piano was last year, and I had just returned home from work, and on the way I met a boss moving the piano. It was a newly bought piano, and I was excited when I looked at it, and casually asked if I could play it. The other person was very good, so he let me play. I played about one or two songs, those few minutes, so enjoyable. Before that, I played it in my hometown more than thirty years ago, and I haven't played it again since I came out to work. But the scores of these piano pieces have always been memorized by heart.
That day, my son took a video of me playing the piano on the street and posted it online. He usually likes to shoot videos to record his life, but he didn't expect that the video had hundreds of thousands of views, and it suddenly became popular. I don't usually surf the Internet much, I don't like to brush videos, and I listen to music and read books when I have time.
My son and fellow villagers said that I was "fired", and I felt very happy to see the encouragement of netizens. But the mood soon returned to calm, what to do every day. I now wash dishes in a construction site canteen in Guangming District, Shenzhen, where my son also works.
Unexpectedly, a month later, I still had the opportunity to play the piano in the concert hall. On May 5, the Guangming District Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau held the "Tribute to the Most Beautiful City Builders" activity and invited me to play the piano at the Guangming District Culture and Art Center. I feel very happy that this cultural and art center was built by our co-workers, who were also invited to be an audience that day.
I was the first to play the piano on stage, and I was a little nervous, but I relaxed as soon as I touched the keys. The first time I played such a good piano, I played more than a dozen pieces in one go, and the applause from the audience rang out again and again. I have been in Shenzhen for nearly 20 years, and this is the most memorable Labor Day I have ever had.
"The music is pure"
The first time I played the piano, probably when I was a teenager, I was fascinated all of a sudden.
I was born in a rural family in Yueyang, Hunan Province, with five siblings, and the financial pressure was relatively high. There was an aunt who married into the city, and the family conditions were better, and she often asked us to play. Once, I saw the piano at her house and asked my relatives to teach me to play it, and I was very happy.
Since then, I've been running to my aunt's house every three or five days, hoping to play the piano a few more times. At that time, the road from the village to the city was still a sand road, and it took about an hour to get there for two cents by car. More than 20 kilometers away, I didn't feel far away, I just wanted my relatives to teach me to read music and play the piano.
I actually liked music since I was a child, but I didn't have the conditions to learn music systematically. Whenever the loudspeakers in the village started to sing, I would listen carefully while doing farm work, memorizing every note, and then remembering how to sing it. When I was a child, there were no musical instruments at home, and I could use various leaves of nature to blow beautiful sounds, such as grass leaves that were put together, leaves that were rolled up, and so on.
Later, I saved my own money to buy a harmonica and treat it like a treasure. There were also a few young men in the township who liked music, and we formed a band, often getting together to play harmonica, flute, and erhu. The vast grass field, the golden field, and under the verdant trees are our stage. When they grew up, everyone went to different cities and lost contact.
Over the years, I have taught myself instruments such as harmonica, piano, saxophone and trumpet, and I have found videos and sheet music to learn when I have time. I used to be very tired from working on the construction site for a day, but when I came home and played music, I relaxed instantly, and I felt that music was guarding my soul. Now there is a harmonica next to me, it's like a good friend of mine, and the other instruments are slowly breaking down.
Some people say that migrant workers don't seem to have much to do with the piano, I think music is pure, no matter what position you are in, you have the right to enjoy the happiness brought by music.
"Dream Chaser"
In 2004, I came to Shenzhen under the introduction of a fellow villager from Hunan Province. In the past two decades, I have been in electronics factories, shoe factories and construction sites, assembling toys, carrying bricks and cement, washing dishes and helping cooks, and doing everything.
When I first came to Shenzhen, my salary was only three to five hundred yuan, and I had to work about 10 hours a day. At that time, I was young, and I felt that Shenzhen was a place that created miracles, and I was working hard with a sense of hard work. Now the salary has risen to four or five thousand yuan, but I am old, I can't work too long hours, and I can only help in the kitchen.
In Shenzhen, I feel more warmth and enthusiasm, everyone comes from all over the world, always helping each other. People here don't seem to be surprised, whether they are migrant workers or bosses, they are dressed very plainly. Gradually, I also fell in love with this inclusive city, which my family also considered a "second home".
My family is now more supportive of my love of playing musical instruments, and they used to think that it was just a hobby that didn't affect their work. Now, my son has offered to buy me a piano, and I want to buy a cheap second-hand piano when I have money. There are also netizens who want to donate a piano to me, but we refused, it is better to rely on our own ability.
Some netizens commented on my hands, can move bricks, can play music, built the city and life, thank them for their attention. We are also kind of builders of the city, watching it get better and more prosperous. My son and I also want to go back to our hometown to build a building of our own, and we are still trying to save money, and when we have saved enough, we will return to our hometown in Hunan. The hometown Yueyang is very beautiful, eight hundred miles of Dongting Lake, beautiful mountains and waters.
That day, when I came back from playing the piano on the streets of Huaqiangbei, I asked my son to help print the score of "Dream Chaser", and I wrote down the score every day when I was free after work. I hope that next time I will have the opportunity to play "Dream Chaser" again, and I also bless everyone who chases dreams.
Beijing News reporter Wu Caiqian