1980 Interview: Fou Ts'ong taking Chopin to China

Taking Chopin to China

Fou Tsong, Lek Hor Tan

First Published Feb 1, 1980; pp. 47–48 Index of Censorship

Fou Tsong Taking Chopin to China Born in China 45 years ago, Fou Tsong is today one of the finest and most popular concert pianists in the world. When in 1957, at the age of 23, he decided to seek political asylum in Britain there was much less publicity in the press than there would have been if a gifted musician had ' defected' from some other Communist country. This lack of interest was partly due to Fou Tsong himself - always reluctant to talk to journalists about his personal affairs and his relations with the China he had left behind, his discretion and selfimposed discipline were to become even more evident during his 22 years of exile in the West. Very little has therefore been written about his views on China, and he has never taken any active part in politics.' I tried to avoid any kind of political involvement,' he says,' as I wanted to be judged solely as a musician, and if I survived, I hope it was because of my work and nothing else.'

Last April, Fou Tsong was allowed to visit China for the first time, ostensibly to attend a memorial service for his parents, who had committed suicide when they came under attack by the Red Guards in the 1966 Cultural Revolution. This return of a ' defector' was a sign of the changing times in a country which appeared to be determined to make 1979 ' the leap year in the field of the liberalisation of the arts and literature'. We interviewed him shortly after his return from his 10-day visit to Shanghai and Peking, and Fou Tsong talked about the circumstances of his ' defection' and about his impressions of the Chinese cultural scene since the Cultural Revolution.

In 1956-7 Fou Tsong was a music student in Poland, sent there by the Chinese government to study Chopin, one of whose finest interpreters he has since become. Back in China, however, things had begun to change very radically in the cultural field. It was the period of ' A hundred schools contend; a hundred flowers bloom'. Intellectuals and artists were encouraged to criticise existing cultural policies, to fight for more freedom, to be more creative. Then came the clampdown on those ' who went too far', this repressive period becoming known as the ' Anti-rightist drive'.

Fou Lei, his father, a distinguished academic and translator of French literature, had been much involved in the ' Hundred Flowers Movement'. He was purged as a ' rightist' for having ' opened his big mouth and spoken his mind', as Fou Tsong puts it. In Warsaw, Fou Tsong himself was following the situation closely, being no less outspoken than his father in his criticism of China's cultural policies. He soon learned that if he returned home, he too would be purged.

'At this time I myself hadn't yet been officially condemned simply because I was abroad. I was very well known in Poland, the public liked me, so they couldn't very well haul me off and purge me just like that, but it was coming. All the signs told me that I stood no chance, and I was especially scared because in this case it wasn't only myself but also my father. You see, in China, if you happen to come from a prominent family, either with several brothers, or a father and son, or father and daughter, these are the most terrifying cases. They usually go for the father to get at the son, and vice versa. And so I thought if I went back, that would certainly be the end for both my father and me. On the other hand, if I stayed there would still be a risk, but I thought they wouldn't be as primitive as all that and wouldn't treat my father worse just because I had left. I was sure it would be much worse with the two of us there, they would simply brand us as two counter-revolutionaries.'

It was then that Fou Tsong had to make the crucial decision. Today, he still feels that he was forced into exile - it had nothing to do with any ideological preference or love for the West.

' I miss China terribly, and I have never found any real peace in the Western world. And so, all these years whenever there is a ray of light I become restless, hoping that maybe I'll be able to go back.

His ambivalent relationship with the Chinese authorities was very much in evidence when they finally made it possible for him to visit China.' In the end I wouldn't say that it was the authorities who asked me to return, or me who asked them - it was neither.' The visit came about quite by chance. In 1978 a Chinese delegation visited Britain to study music education. Fou Tsong discovered that some of the delegates were old friends of his from the Shanghai Conservatory. He and his former colleagues came to an arrangement' in a very Chinese way, so that everybody saved face'. It was suggested to him that it would be a good idea if he went to Shanghai to attend a ceremony of rehabilitation of his father and a memorial service for his parents. The ceremony was planned to take place at the end of 1978, but he was told it could be postponed until April when Fou Tsong would be free of concert engagements.

When he finally went to China, Fou Tsong discovered that much more was expected of him than just attending the memorial service. He was asked to give recitals to selected audiences and to teach master classes at music conservatories in Peking and Shanghai. It was a golden opportunity to learn about contemporary musical life.

What struck him most was the number of students applying for places in various conservatories throughout China. At the Peking Conservatory, for instance, nearly 20,000 applied for 600 places this year. He found enormous reservoirs both of talent and dedication among the students.' There are few problems on the performing side, these young Chinese musicians are technically superb and quite up to international standards. Things are far more difficult where artistic creation is concerned - writers, composers, painters. There, you always have the problem of ideology. The constraints of orthodoxy and " ideological correctness ".'

In spite of the present liberalisation in the arts, Fou Tsong was not at all sure that these problems could be overcome. Only time would tell whether there would be any significant changes as more Chinese music students were sent to study abroad. The visit of a number of famous foreign orchestras and conductors to China during the past year was certainly an encouraging sign of the new musical life in the country.

Fou Tsong offers an intriguing explanation of the very high number of music students in China, a number which actually increased during the Cultural Revolution.' It is true that higher education practically came to a standstill between 1966 and 1968, and not much else really took place before 1976. Many parents - and this applied especially to banned musicians - were worried that their children would become no-good layabouts as they were kept in idleness, not studying, not doing anything. And so, at least to keep their minds occupied, they got them to study an instrument or something like that. That was one reason. The other was that if you study music you can always join the Army Recreation Group, thus avoiding being sent to the country and becoming a peasant. Also, in the Army the young people had better pay and more security. It's as simple as that.'

Asked about his attitude to the Cultural Revolution, Fou Tsong said it was very much like talking about post-war Germany.' The whole country is full of regret. Mine is not a unique case. So many people perished, every family has someone who was persecuted.' While in China he was told that there were a billion cases to be rectified, and that would take years. '

You see, it isn't only a question of the intellectuals and artists, or the young people who are demanding human rights, there is change within the Party too, I think a great number of Party members, indeed some of the leaders themselves, are trying terribly hard to find a way out. The Cultural Revolution did one thing - it went so far that it helped to open their eyes. The Communist ideology is in many ways similar to a religion, they felt guilty if they didn't adhere to the dogma. But what happened was so appalling that they just couldn't go on lying to themselves any longer. In that sense I really believe the Cultural Revolution has done some good.'

And while there was always a danger that there might one day be a return to this' search for purity', Fou Tsong does not believe that there would be a repetition of the horrors of the Cultural Revolution. ' I do feel the changes being made now are irreversible. Because it just went too far - so far that Party members like Deng Xiaoping himself, who in earlier years had made other people suffer, were made to suffer in their turn. This time the whole Party went through it, and what they went through was so terrible, so dreadful, so unbelievable that I really think it can't happen again.'