At 10 a.m. on February 22, a reporter with the Tianfu Morning News stepped into the Chengdu Liu Shikun Piano Arts Center. A bright window brought soft sunlight into the rehearsal room where a young girl sat at a black piano. Her skilful fingers danced on the keys filling the room with quite lovely music.

She turned round and smiled when the reporter came in. Wearing well-cut jeans and fashionable leather shoes, the young pianist had long soft hair setting off fine, delicate features. What distinguished her from most other pianists was that she was blind.

Genius and tragedy

Her name is Luo Jia. Although she cannot see, her repertoire includes many difficult works from such world-class composers as Frederic Chopin and Ludwig Van Beethoven. She performs their music with never a wrong note. She is above the 10th grade standard for amateur pianists.

"It's true, I became blind in my childhood but so what? Like other people, I too have my hopes and dreams. I want to be China's Beethoven," she said.

Luo looked back on her life over the past 22 years. Three months after she was born, her left eye atrophied. Her parents who worked at the Ziyang Gas Engine Factory took her to a local doctor practicing traditional Chinese medicine. So she got herbal medicine rather than timely access to the specialized treatment she really needed. Within a few months she was blind in her left eye.

Now with only one eye, she continued to enjoy a colorful childhood. At kindergarten, her music teacher realized that Luo was able to follow any song after listening to it just one or two times. She was fascinated by piano music and would wave her little hands in time with the music. From then on, the magic of the piano was deeply rooted in Luo's heart and mind.

But when she was five, tragedy touched her young life once again. Her sight became blurred in the remaining right eye and she would often fall over when walking. Her mother took her to a top hospital. The diagnosis was an inherited bacterial infection and the doctor said it was necessary to extirpate Luo's good right eyeball otherwise her life might be endangered.

"Our little girl has lost her left eye, how can she cope with living in a world of darkness if she loses the other eye," her heartbroken parents went down on their knees asking the doctor for help, hoping he could work a miracle that would save their daughter's eye. But the only answer he could give them was that they had to choose between their little girl's eye and her life.

Hopes and dreams

With her sight lost forever, the smiles too were gone from Luo Jia's face. Her mother worried because her little girl now often locked herself in her room and wouldn't speak. She told her, "Jiajia (Luo's nickname) please don't cry, I promise to take you to the best school for blind children that there is. So you shouldn't worry."

When she was eight years old Luo went to the Chengdu School for Special Education. Here she was to learn braille and therapeutic massage. From then on, she would be inspired by stories of those who had struggled on to overcome adversity in their lives such as Gorky and Ludwig van Beethoven. She grew to love Beethoven's Fate Symphony finding it touched her heart and soul. Whenever she listened to this evocative masterpiece Lou felt a surge of emotion.
 
Attending a theatrical performance at the age of 15, Luo became acquainted with Shao Dakuan, an official with the Chengdu Association of Disabled People. Shao told Luo, "You have good musical perception and I think you should further your studies in music."

Before she could answer, an older performer named Yuan Yueyue who was standing beside them joined in enthusiastically, "Great, I can be your teacher." Luo was delighted but not sure whether she could make it as a blind person.

But in the end she became determined to give it a go for Yuan Yueyue was blind too and an excellent pianist.

So Luo began to study the piano under Yuan Yueyue. She practiced hard, playing day and night. When she played the first exercise Little Star on her keyboard and sang the lyrics, in her mind's eye she could see countless stars sparkling in a dark sky.

Frustration and willpower

Although Luo showed talent in playing the piano she lacked a sound basic knowledge of musical theory. Yuan told her, "It's a pity that you can only manage the notes instead of mastering the chords." He suggested that she should find another teacher who could help her take her studies further.

One day when Luo was at second grade in junior high school, she heard on the radio that the Children's Palace was enrolling piano students. She got one of her classmates to help her sneak out of school. But she returned disappointed for she hadn't been able to find the place. What was worse, she was asked to make a self-criticism for leaving the class without permission. Feeling wronged and crying bitterly she ran to the top of the building. Her classmates and teachers rushed to comfort her in every way they could, for they feared she might harm herself. The headmaster who was a kindly old man promised, "I will go and find a piano teacher for you if only you will come down from the top of the building."

The old headmaster was true to his word. Within a few days he had brought good news. Qin Qin, a piano teacher from Sichuan Normal University's arts department, had promised to teach her for free.

Luo was moved to tears when she heard the news. But in a minute her happiness changed to worry as she realized she didn't know how to get to the university since it would mean a journey of over an hour and she had to change buses.

But she was determined to take the class whatever the difficulties and went with the help of a guide at a cost of 25 yuan a time. To save money Luo only went once a week. She recorded the class on tape so that she could digest it better after returning home.

The school master was deeply touched by Luo's strength of will and breaking the normal rules, allowed her to practice on one of the school's pianos free of charge.

In 2002, Luo and her classmates began their internships in massage. To keep up with her piano classes, Luo found a bootblack who worked near the school and arranged to pay him 100 yuan per month for acting as her guide.

On qualifying she got a job in a blind massage center only to find that the boss, a married man, was in the habit of taking liberties with the female masseurs. She was so scared that she soon quit and went to work in a different massage center. Here the female manager took special care of Luo even exempting her from paying living expenses.

Confidence and creativity

Every day Luo played the classic works of Beethoven and Chopin. Meanwhile she began to create her own songs and has already written over seventy.

She said, "They depict not only the pangs and internal conflicts of my life but also my dreams for happiness. My first song After Getting Hurt was finished five years ago at a time when I was facing many difficulties."

In the words she wrote, "The wind cannot blow the tears from my face, the rain cannot wash the pain from my soul, I thought I was strong but now know I was wrong..."

Luo Jia's favorite is Beethoven's Storm with its gloomy first movement, desperation in the second, and then bursting out with fiery passion in the third. Beethoven became deaf in his middle years, but he persevered through all the misery and hardship and went on to finish several masterpieces. Luo is deeply influenced by the example of this strong-willed musician, she said, "Yes, I want to be China's Beethoven and I believe I can make it."

At the beginning of 2004, Luo was delighted to learn that Changchun University in northeastern China's Jilin Province is to enroll blind students this April. Her family was very supportive when she decided to take the entrance examination. But Luo refuses to take money from her parents saying, "Now that I'm qualified how can I continue to take their money?" So today she's relying on her massage work to raise the money to go to Changchun so she can take the examination and realize her dreams.

And her plans for 2004? Luo says that apart from entering the university, she wants to buy a piano and hold her first piano concert in Chengdu. She is eager to share the work she has composed with an audience. She believes that through her music she can show that the blind can have talent too.

(China.org.cn by Li Xiao, March 19, 2004)