MUSICIAN VERSUS MASSEUR
In 2013, the story of Guo Bin, a 6-year-old who was deliberately blinded, shocked China and made headlines across the world. Now, three years after the attack, the school student is recovering and is determined to walk his own career path. Hou Liqiang rep
In late August 2013, Guo Bin, then a 6-year-old school student, was lured into a field near his home in the northern province of Shanxi by a woman who blinded him by gouging out his eyes.
The motive for the attack has never been determined, but the police named Guo’s aunt, who committed suicide after the incident, as the assailant. According to Guo’s parents, his first words to them after the attack were, “Why is it dark all the time?”
Three years later, the 9-yearold has been fitted with prosthetic eyes, but he will never see again. Instead he has found solace in music.
“I want to be a musician,” he said with a shy smile, as he sat with his hands on his thighs. “I would like to practice playing from 8 am to 8 pm every day.”
In the years since the attack, Guo — known affectionately as Binbin — has learned to play the ocarina, the hulusi ,a type of Chinese flute, and bass at the Wuhan City School for the Blind.
He is also a member of a school ocarina band called The Six Points. On Aug 11, the band, the only one to feature disabled musicians, earned the highest score among 38 ensembles and won a gold medal at a national ocarina contest held in Beijing.
Despite his passion, Guo’s path to becoming a professional musician may not be easy. In modern China, the usual career path for a blind person is to become a masseur. Last year, more than 25,000 blind masseurs were trained to provide rudimentary healthcare and medical treatment, according to a report published by the China Disabled Persons’ Federation.
However, Guo is fighting his “destiny”, aided by a small group of teachers who, despite limited funding, are challenging the orthodox view.
In the weeks after the 2013 attack, several blind schools offered Guo free education, but eventually the boy’s parents chose Wuhan City School for the Blind, in the capital of Hubei province, because it offered a range of music classes that catered to Guo’s recently discovered love of music.
The spell was cast in 2014, when Guo enrolled at a school in Beijing. “We visited the school and happened to meet students playing the hulusi in class. Binbin tried the instrument and then told me again and again that he would like to learn it,” said Wang Wenli, Guo’s mother.
Zhang Long, Guo’s teacher, said music has helped the boy change dramatically, bringing him happiness and helping him to overcome the incident that changed his life.
“At the very beginning, he was well-behaved, but silent, introverted and timid, and there was a lack of childish innocence,” Zhang said. “Now he is just like other children of his age, listening carefully in class and playing happily with his classmates during breaks. You often see a smile on his face, and he talks a lot with the other children.”
‘Perseverance’
Zhang attributed Guo’s success to his “perseverance”. “He is not that talented musically. When he arrived, he had almost no musical knowledge, and couldn’t even sing a children’s song. But he is studious. He fell behind at the beginning, but he is catching up,” she said.
Every afternoon, Monday through Thursday, Guo has two music classes, and he often practices with other children until 9 pm, she added.
Wang, Guo’s mother, said he also practices for at least two hours a day at weekends.
Zhang said that although Guo initially fell behind children from urban backgrounds, he is now a class monitor, and at exam time he is always in the top three of the 14 students in his class.
Guo has also developed a range of afterschool activities, including a game where colored blocks can be stuck together to form objects .“I made a sword based on what I once saw on TV ,” he said, gesturing to show how big the sword was.
Although Guo has made great steps in his recovery, he is haunted by a fear of being alone. “After he has used the toilet, he runs out quickly. I once asked him why he was so hurried. He told me he was scared,” Wang said.
One of the factors behind Guo’s improvement is Zhang’s stubborn nature. “I was thinking about one question: Why should blind people only end up as masseurs? The masseurs the school trains barely meet market demand, so why should kids who love music become masseurs? Why can’t they challenge their destinies?” said Zhang, who gave up a well-paid post at a regular school in 2011 and volunteered to teach at the blind school in Wuhan. “Music is an audio art, and the blind have an advantage.”
Before Zhang joined the school, there was only one music teacher for the 205 students. However, the teacher was also blind, and could only teach the students to sing.
Although Wuhan City School for the Blind, the only public school for blind children in Hubei, i sin the vanguard in arts education in China, it still lacks teachers. “I want to do a lot, but always feel there isn’t enough time, so I’m unable to do all the things I want to do ,” Z hang said.
Professional guidance
Lacking options, Zhang decided to ask her peer sat other schools and colleges to provide assistance .“I know the musical children will only improve quickly if they have guidance from professional teachers,” she said.
Qi Gaofeng, from the Wuhan Conservatory of Music, is one of four teachers who responded to Zhang’s invitation. He spends two afternoons a week at the blind school, teaching the hulusi and ocarina. He also provides extra tuition when students are preparing for competitions.
“Because of a lack of funds, at the beginning we chose to teach the ocarina and the hulusi; instruments the students could afford. We only began teaching students to play expensive musical instruments when we received some donations, which we used to buy Chinese lutes and basses,” Qi said, adding that Zhang was the driving force behind the fundraising efforts.
“We want to set an example to the whole country that blind children can become musicians, instead of masseurs. Although many blind children love music, most of them never even get an opportunity to touch a musical instrument,” he said.
The traditional view that blind people can only become masseurs has hampered the efforts of Zhang, Qi and the other teachers. According to Qi, some parents have told him that it’s useless to teach blind children about music, and they only want their children to learn how to become masseurs.
Qi’s aim is to provide joy, and although few of the children will make a living from their musical abilities, their skills will always help to bring them happiness.
“Isn’t it a waste for talented musicians to end up as masseurs?” he asked.
I want to be a musician. I would like to practice playing from 8 am to 8 pm every day.” Guo Bin, a 9-year-old blind boy from Shanxi province