Birth of a Pianist - Part 3

My grandmother lost a tremendous amount of blood during delivery and had it not been for my grandfather's quick thinking nephew who set up the transfusions to counteract the hemmorhaging, my grandmother would not have survived. Her sixth and last child was a boy. Finally she could return to her workplace and not suffer her coworkers' snide quips, "Yo shi niu hai zi!" <Yet another girl!> She had given birth to 5 girls before HKC. In a strange way, my aunts owe their existence to HKC because in their great efforts to conceive the all important male heir, my grandparents sired his 5 sisters...  HKC would later portray his sisters as 'tigers' in a childhood story he wrote for school, "Living with Five Tigers." Each sister has a strong personality manifesting particular proportions of their parents’ traits: self-righteousness, neuroticism, arrogance, diligence, and intelligence. I asked my mother how exactly the sisters acted like tigers towards HKC. She laughed, “You know, ranging between 4-15 years older than him we would probably hen peck him with 'Hey, what are you doing? What are you eating? Where are you going?'" To the family, he was called 'xiao di', or little brother. To my grandfather, HKC was the gem. My mom would joke, in my grandparents' mind, "us 5 girls equals 1 boy."

My grandfather would bring HKC to factories to explain how things worked. Having grown up with my grandfather, I could imagine his dialectic with my uncle, pointing to one machine or another "how does this work? why is it configured in such a way? what is the main problem? how would you make it better? Do you see the problem? Now solve the problem.” And so on. This was the formative education of my uncle... the genesis of his operating system.

As a young kid, HKC wasn't one to play with stuffed animals or toy cars, he would look at electronics like tape recorders and radios wanting to know how they worked. He would open things up, take them apart and understand how they worked. My grandfather, noticing HKC's mental and manual dexterity believed music was the perfect calling for him-- a field where brain and hand go together. People tried to talk sense into my grandfather. “You know it’s a hard life to become a musician. Only a few people can make a living from it.” But my grandfather was not easily swayed. He saw the rat race in Taiwan. Students studying and working hard to eke out ordinary lives. “Beware of the student with the B+. Not the guy who can gets the best grade, but the guy who who takes time and thinks and understands,” my grandfather warned. During elementary school HKC displayed his musical talents in playing tympani, trumpet and piano. Despite my grandmother’s protests and reservations, by 13 years old, HKC was sent off to German musical conservatories to develop his craft.

Growing up, I didn't think of 'xiao di' as a talented pianist... he was my uncle. the most unusual thing I found about my uncle was that he didn’t have kids. Everyone in his family had kids except for him. Given my grandparents' drive to conceive a male heir to carry on their line and provide a measure of immortality, HKC's not having kids was difficult for them to comprehend. 

My grandfather probably could not play or understand a single note of music or make a drawing to save his life, but he provided his son with an operating system -- factory tours provided a strong approach to artist. Being an artist aware both outwardly and spiritually, not satisfied with societal norms, and very observant. While my Grandfather was looking at gas particles, yogurt cultures, and sound waves, my uncle looks at how notes phrases are made, how notes should be ended... the difference in their artistry was what they were looking at.