Lang Lang visits the Oxford Union

Friday is always somewhat difficult to focus on working. Particularly, on 17th February, a Chinese pianist Lang Lang was supposed to visit the Oxford Union, so I left my office at 4pm with no hesitation. I had no information for Lang Lang other than his performance at the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics. But the rumor had it that he will play some pieces of classic music in the debating chamber, so I was excited about watching one of the best pianists and the performance. That's probably all graduates want to do on Friday.

He spent one and a half hour in the chamber. His performance was impressive as everyone would have expected, but his life story was also quite interesting. Even though I have quite many chinese friends in Oxford, I haven't seriously thought about China's 'One child policy' before. But Lang Lang's story in his early years allowed me to taste what the policy have been like in China.

In Asian culture, a child is a hope as well as a present. We are quite familar with the stories of a number of artists and sports stars encouraged (occasionally forced) to practice harder by their parents. As I have introduced previously, a Korean figure skater Yuna Kim is well known for her enthusiastic mother as well as her skating skill. I have neither negative nor positive opinion on those types of parents. To be honest, if I happen to find a great potential and talent from my kids in the future, I might do the same thing. It might be one of the most important parent's responsibilities to discover the kid's talent and encourage it. Children have right to be treated as independent human beings, and yet we also have to admit that their lack of experience, and this is where the parent's role comes in. According to me, the two most important responsibilities of parents are giving love under no condition, and discover, encourage their talents.

No one can earn everything losing nothing. Trade-off has to be remembered. To climb to the peak where no one can easily reach, you must give up something anyone can easily gain and experience. The important thing is there should be 'no regret' when you retrospect your past life.