LIU SHIKUN STAYlNG SHARP THROUGH lT ALL

Text by Madeline Weng Photos by ZengJian and Shikun

LIU SHIKUN STAYlNG SHARP THROUGH lT ALL

Text by Madeline Weng Photos by ZengJian and Shikun

At the age of 18, Liu Shikun took second place in the most prestigious of piano contests-The lnternational Tchaikovsky Competition, held in Moscow. Unfortunately, his return was welcomed by a six-year sentence in jail.

As witness to the dramatic historical period of contemporary China - The Cultural Revolution - Liu Shikun is someone with a valuable story to tell.

The 1.9m-tall (6'2") pianist looks like a giant among a group of children, whom, excitedly, make the V-sign when they're having their photo taken with the master. Liu Shikun, however, says: “Not the 'scissors hands' again!”

Liu Shikun is not the most amiable person you can think of. He's often described as a man with a serious disposition. However, when you get closer to him, you can soon tell that he is actually a very humorous man.

“To me, the piano is only a tool to make a living with,” He says:“I hated the piano when I was a child.”

This child grew up into the perfect representative of “a successful pianist with no interest in the piano.”At the age of nine, Liu won first place in national youth piano competitions and became pianist Tatulyan's student when he was 16. After two years' professional training with the Russian pianist, he was sent to Moscow to attend the first International Tchaikovsky Competition, in which he defeated hundreds of top-level pianists from around the world by coming second.

Sadly, soon after he returned home, Liu encountered one of the most diffi cult moments for artists and intellectuals in Chinese history, when labor had a much higher position than art. Liu was sent to the Ming Tombs Reservoir in Beijing for so-called“reeducation”.

During the Cultural Revolution, the pianist's valuable hands were used for hard physical work such as digging. Although he didn't touch a piano for at least six years, Liu's skills never fell behind.

After he was released from prison, Liu was invited to perform for Chairman Mao at his house, where he was told to compose a symphonic piece under the highest instruction. This is when one of the most infl uential Chinese symphonic pieces -“Fighting the Typhon”- came into being. This piece marked the beginning of the Chinese Orchestra, which did not exist until fi rst assembled by Liu Shikun. He used Chinese instrument erhu to replace the violin, zhonghu instead of the viola, and so on.

“China has been stressing the importance of the preservation and development of national art,” the 77-year-old pianist remarked.

Liu Shikun has now become a successful piano educator. Apart from giving performances, he has also opened up around 200 piano education centres and ten kindergartens in China, offering professional training to more than 1,100,000 students.

When he was asked if he would turn his life story into a biography, Liu replied: “I do intend to ask someone to write one for me. As a pragmatist, I realise that if my biography only talks about piano, it won't sell more than 50,000 copies.”

劉詩昆傳奇豈止于鋼琴

18歲那年，劉詩昆在難度空前絕后的柴可夫斯基國際鋼琴比賽中獲得亞軍，載譽歸國后卻不幸遭遇“文革”動亂，因葉劍英女婿的身份被捕入獄。冤獄六年間，這雙長跨十度琴鍵的大手被用于挖土、建水庫……

劉詩昆是真正有故事的人，而在他的眼中，卻看不到一絲驕傲的神色。也許正是經歷了中國解放前后的歷史劇變，飽嘗了人生低谷的苦澀，才造就了我們眼前的這位偉人。

身高一米九的他站在一群孩子中間仿如一個巨人。

拍照的時候，孩子們用看圣誕老人一般的眼神望著這位與他們每年同臺演出一次的鋼琴家，興奮地擺出了“剪刀手”。然而，這個pose一亮出來就招到了大師的反對：“太俗氣啦！快放下！”

由此可見，劉詩昆不是一個傳統意義上的慈祥老人。很多時候，他甚至有可能給人留下“為人嚴肅”的第一印象。但實際上，當你與他深入接觸，你會在這位77歲鋼琴家身上看到歲月帶來的睿智和從容。

劉詩昆從不刻意美化自己作為一位鋼琴家的形象。“鋼琴對我來說只是謀生的工具，”他直言不諱地說道，“小時候，我最討厭的就是鋼琴。”

這個厭煩枯燥練習曲的孩子后來成為了“沒興趣卻成功成為鋼琴家”的頭號代表。9歲的他便拿到了全國少兒鋼琴比賽的第一名，16歲師從蘇聯音樂家塔圖良。18歲那年，劉詩昆被國家派往莫斯科參加第一屆柴可夫斯基鋼琴比賽，五個月賽前準備時間里，他把自己關在旅館里每天苦練12至14個鐘頭，最終戰勝了百名鋼琴高手，獲得了中國人歷史上參加的國際鋼琴比賽中最高的獎項。

然而，歸國后，迎接劉詩昆的卻是一場長達十年的“文化大革命”。在那個體力勞動遠比藝術重要的年代，這位鋼琴家被下放到北京十三陵水庫勞動，六年未碰琴鍵。

重獲自由后，劉詩昆的琴技沒有絲毫退步。他不僅受邀在毛澤東的住所為其單獨演奏，還在主席的最高指示下創作了一曲《戰臺風》。這首曲子不僅使其成為最早將西洋樂器同中國民樂結合的第一人，還成為了中國民族樂團建立的開端。他首創組建了一支由民族樂器配置而成的交響樂團，以二胡和高胡代替西洋交響樂團的小提琴，中胡取代中提琴，以此類推。

“中國在文藝領域一直以來強調：民族化文藝要注重創造和發揚本民族傳統文藝特點。”劉詩昆總結道。

老年的劉詩昆成為了一名成功的鋼琴教育家。除了演出外，他還在香港及內地創辦了超過200家鋼琴藝術培訓中心和10多家幼兒園，培養了超過11萬琴童。

當被問到他是否會將如此精彩的人生故事著成傳記時，劉大師嘴角微揚，幽默地說道：“我的確準備找人為我寫傳記。但我想得很實際——我的傳記不能光寫鋼琴，要不然五萬本都賣不掉。”