Today is the last class in our current four class set. We will begin class with a casual conversation. Our class material will be Yibin’s story. Please listen to as much as you can. I have included a transcript. We will also make time to have a conversation about American culture. Your writing this week will be about the discussion topic. I will introduce some local phrases and insight about life in America. Please watch once. We will finish with a review of your writing question.

Click HERE for a link to your class page

When Yibin describes what it was like to grow up in a town in the Gobi Desert, just first the simple physical hardship of it. Harsh winters. Summers so hot the asphalt on the road would melt and get on her white school uniform, she says. This is China in the 1970s. Her town, Jiuquan, had a big factory that made products out of metal and steel. There were some really poor farms. Yibin's dad had a job that was better than most, Yibin says. He led the musicians for the local song and dance ensemble, making shows for the government, basically propaganda. They would tour to smaller towns. When she turned four and a half, her dad told her, you're going to want to play an instrument. And she started on the violin. It wasn't until she got older that he explained why.

Yibin Li

He doesn't want me to have a job that has to be under the sun, in the factory with my hands, with heavy labor.

Ira Glass

And then would your dad tell you you have to do this because this is your future?

Yibin Li

Yes.

Ira Glass

He would.

Yibin Li

He would.

Ira Glass

What would he say?

Yibin Li

I remember one time when he took me to the market. There are people selling garments on the street. It was really hot. And he says, look, if you don't practice, you going to work here. Did you see that girl? She was trying to help her dad to sell a pair of pants. Do you want to be here? I thought, oh, so hot. I can't stay there.

Ira Glass

And did that motivate you? Would you think about that, and it would keep you practicing?

Yibin Li

No.

[LAUGHTER]

Ira Glass

She was a kid. She hated practicing. And dad had her doing like two hours a day and four or five hours on days there wasn't school. Sometimes while she practice, she'd put rubber bands around the chair legs and do Chinese jump rope. Other times--

Yibin Li

I was just playing the comic books I put on a music stand.

Ira Glass

You were playing the comic books? What do you mean?

Yibin Li

No, I was flipping comic books. I would just play, and I would flip the comic book on my music stand. And I set the alarm maybe half an hour before Mom comes home and then squeeze my skin to make it very red. So when she comes in, I said, look, I practice two hours.

Ira Glass

You mean you squeeze the skin on your neck.

Yibin Li

Yeah. So it--

Ira Glass

Where the violin rests.

Yibin Li

--looks red, I said.

Ira Glass

Yeah.

Fortunately, she had a good ear and natural skill. And her dad, she says, was a patient and kind teacher. But to turn her into a musician, she and her dad faced some pretty daunting and extraordinary challenges. All this was happening during a very particular moment in China, during the Cultural Revolution.

Starting in the 1960s, Western classical music was banned in the country. It couldn't be performed or played on the radio. Violins and pianos were smashed or burned. Her dad, who loved Western classical music, would stay up late at night to hear it on Russian radio stations. He knew Yibin wouldn't be allowed to play this kind of music in public, but violins were permitted in China if you were playing revolutionary music. Now, from the beginning, to send her down this road of becoming a musician, he had to be incredibly resourceful. He just had to jump into battle just to get her violins to play. He found one in a school warehouse in a nearby town where old instruments were locked up. Another he secretly saved from a fire where it was going to be burned. And then he had his next obstacle.

Ira Glass

If it's so hard to get a violin, where do you get the music?

Yibin Li

He hand-copied music he borrowed from his friends. In his organization, there were violinists. They were all some sort of self-taught.

Ira Glass

They had these books of etudes for beginners that they'd hand-copied from someone else, who'd hand-copied them from someone else, each book 80 or 90 pages long. Neighbors hearing this stuff didn't recognize it as Western music. Just sounded like exercises.

Yibin Li

Yeah. He borrowed from everybody. Do you have a book five? Do you have book four? He would just spending time at night just hand copy.

Ira Glass

Your father would.

Yibin Li

Yeah. I saw him copying. I was fascinated. He would cut the pen diagonal, and then he put the ink in. And the thick edge, if you put it down, would be already a note.

Ira Glass

Oh, because it would make a black dot.

Yibin Li

Yeah. He'd just go like that. He said, look, this is very fast. This is a flat. This is a sharp. And then quickly, if you go quick, the lines are very straight. You can't be slow. You can't shake your hand.

Ira Glass

Then, in 1977, Yibin's seven years old. She gets home from school, and her dad is all excited.

Yibin Li

He says, come, come. I have something to tell you. I thought I was in trouble. He says, no, no, no. We're going to audition for Xi'an Conservatory.

Ira Glass

A year after Chairman Mao's death, China's music conservatories were open again and holding auditions. Suddenly, playing the violin could open up a whole world to Yibin, a world far from their town in the Gobi.

Yibin Li

He says, if you get in, then that would be great. You have your future.

Ira Glass

Did he want you to get out of the Gobi Desert area, though?

Yibin Li

Yes.

Ira Glass

So was his goal you'll play the violin, and then you'll end up in some big city somewhere?

Yibin Li

Yes. Then I'm on my way. In a big city, it's class up.

Ira Glass

If she aces this audition, she'll be in Xi'an, one of the largest cities in the country. It could get her into a big city orchestra or get her into university, which would be nearly impossible otherwise, coming from where she came from. And so this became their single-minded goal.

And I'm telling you this story because this is This American Life from WBEZ Chicago, and our whole show today is about people who set out on some path, and they are ripped off that path by bad luck, by fate, by mistakes they made that they didn't even know they were making, and then they have to fight and claw their way back. The biggest thing to throw Yibin off course is still to come and is one where her father is really left with no options, where he has to try and invent something out of absolutely nothing to fix things and get back on course. Stay with us.

Act One: The Audition

Ira Glass

OK. So Yibin's dad tells her about these auditions when she's seven years old. But the conservatory in Xi'an, it's a middle school, and so she can't actually audition till she's old enough for middle school. That day finally comes. She's 11 and 1/2 years old. It's 1981 when she finally gets her chance to grab at this special future that her dad has been preparing her for for years, though before they can do that, they have one rather serious obstacle to overcome first. They don't have enough money for train tickets to get to Xi'an for the audition or for a hotel.

So Dad gets relatives to donate some money, he sells off stuff from their house, and there was some money from when his dad died that had never been distributed. Getting some of that money led to a squabble with his older brother that lasted for years. But at the end of all that, money in hand, one spring day, Yibin and her dad headed off on the train. The ride to Xi'an took 36 hours, a trip unlike anything she'd ever taken in her life. First time leaving her part of China. First time visiting a big city. And what does she remember? The thing she brings up right off the bat when we talk about it--

Yibin Li

I was very excited because my dad would give me steamed cake. Each bag has 12. It was very brown.

Ira Glass

What is steamed cake? I don't know what that is.

Yibin Li

Steamed cake, basically, made of egg and flour, sugar. And they're very fluffy, and has the smell of eggs.

Ira Glass

And you never had this back home.

Yibin Li

I saw it in the store, but we don't buy very often. But there, that's all for me. [LAUGHS] Each morning breakfast, I get to eat two.

Ira Glass

And then you had never been away from the Gobi Desert, right?

Yibin Li

No.

Ira Glass

So what was it like? What were your impressions of the city?

Yibin Li

My god. By the last, I think, last six hours, we enter Xi'an. Everything was green, and we open the window. The air was moist. I remember our heads were sticking out of the window. I said, wow, can you breathe this? And the mountain, the hills, were all covered with green. We were both thinking, wow, so many trees.

Ira Glass

In the train station, they were selling fresh fruit she'd never seen. Pomegranate. Persimmon.

Yibin Li

And we stayed in the hotel. I'd never been to a hotel. And then I got very excited. I thought, this is a great life if I live here.

Ira Glass

The hotel was close to the conservatory and noisy, she says, with the sounds of kids' instruments, filled with parents and kids who were also auditioning. She and her dad started to get nervous.

Yibin Li

And then he went to our neighbor next door and the girl from just bigger town next to Xi'an. But her father played in the orchestra. And she had nice clothes, and her father knows all the repertoire. And then they had a book.

Ira Glass

Like a printed book.

Yibin Li

Printed book. And the first time, my dad says, can I see your book? And he took the books and said, oh, I have never seen the book.

Ira Glass

He had never seen printed music in a book?

Yibin Li

Yeah. Western composers book.

Ira Glass

That music had been banned. He'd seen books of Chinese music, which uses a different notation. Yibin made it through the first round of auditions, and the second round. After that, not many kids were left in the hotel.

Yibin Li

The hotel was very quiet, I remember, at the breakfast.

Ira Glass

15 violinists were left. Yibin was the very last one to play for the judges.

Yibin Li

I remember I walked into the room. It was a big room. There were six people on the panel. I was very confident because I get to play with the pianist the conservatory provided. I remember I really enjoyed having the piano to play. I thought, wow, listen to that sound. I sound so good with piano.

Ira Glass

Because you never heard yourself do that.

Yibin Li

No. I never played with a pianist. And we were very confident. I thought the concerto was so well prepared. I also like the concerto because it has a melody. There's a technical part. You can show off.

[MUSIC - "VIOLIN CONCERTO IN A MINOR" BY JB ACCOLAY]

Ira Glass

This is Yibin basically sight reading for me the concerto that she played that day by JB Accolay. She's also played the other solo violin pieces we've heard in this story. Anyway, so at the audition, she's playing, feeling great. Barely a page in--

Yibin Li

Someone in the panel clap their hand and says, OK, that's it. Thank you. You can go. I was shocked because the best part, I haven't reached there yet. I look at them. I saw them talking. One teacher, I remember, he had a double chin. He was shaking his head. I saw the chin was moving. And I heard he says, no, no, no. It's just impossible. We don't need to hear more.

Ira Glass

And then what?

Yibin Li

I walked out of the room. I remember I was terrified. I thought, my dad's dream is over.

Ira Glass

She says she also thought, I'm 11 and 1/2. No more green city. No more hotel. No more excitement. Her dad was waiting for her in the hallway.

Yibin Li

He was like, so how did it go? I said, Dad, I think-- I think I did very bad. They asked me to leave. He says, but maybe you were good enough. They don't need to hear more. I said, no, no, no. One man was shaking his head. He says, no, it's not possible. My dad was so-- he held his fist, hammering under the edge of the window. The sound was behind him.

He says, there got to be a way. Got to be a way. Then in Chinese he says, [SPEAKING CHINESE]. What's the solution? What's the solution now? Got to be a way. I looked at him. I felt terrified. I thought, I disappointed him. He says, have to find a way. You wait here, he said. I said, don't go.

Ira Glass

Why did you try to talk him out of whatever this is?

Yibin Li

Because I was embarrassed. I don't want to be more embarrassed when people tell him how terrible I was. I said, I-- I really didn't do well. It's my fault. I'm very, very sorry. He said, did you make a mistake? I said, I don't know. He said, just wait here.

Ira Glass

Let me just remind you. Most people, you fail your audition, it's over. Not her dad. He went into the classroom where the auditions were, and outside the room a college student was packing up papers because Yibin was the last audition. She follows, violin in hand.

Yibin Li

I heard my dad. He says, could she play again? If she was so terrible, can you talk to them? The guy says, no, I don't think so. It's over. And my dad says, but what happened? Can you find out? The guy says, I can't go in to talk. I'm a student. I only work here. Then my dad says, you know, we took train 36 hours. You know where I'm from?

The guy didn't answer. He said, I'm from Jiuquan. The guy says, oh. You know, my uncle lived in town nearby. I know Jiuquan. My dad says, so you know. You know how hard this is. And I think the guy, young guy, had a little soft spot for that.

Ira Glass

Her dad says, can you just ask them to give her another chance? At least let her play to the end of the concerto. The guy says, I don't think I can do that. But I have to turn in these papers. I'll find out what happened with her.

Yibin Li

So we waited outside. I don't know how long. I just thought it was so hopeless, why my dad is embarrassing me. The guy came out, told my dad, they told me that she has good posture. She has good intonation. But she played many wrong notes. That's not acceptable. My dad says, what do you mean, wrong notes? I'm a musician. I correct every note. I played it with her, practice with her. I know every note.

The guy says, but maybe you don't read music well. Maybe you were wrong. He said, wait, I can show you the score. Every note is correct. So he run back to his bag, then took the music, the hand-copied sheet music, came over. He was basically begging. He says, please, please. I can't go back home like this. This is my only chance, our only chance.

Ira Glass

He says this to him? It's our only hope?

Yibin Li

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You, you are lucky. You study in the conservatory. But do you know how many people study in the conservatory from our hometown? None. Violinist? None. Please, just help me.

Ira Glass

Her dad hands the student the score, and he looks at it.

Yibin Li

He was surprised. He saw the score was all hand-copied. He says, did you copy this? Who wrote this? He says, me. But who you copied from? He says, my friend. But where the score came from? He said, I don't know.

Ira Glass

The student says, wait a minute, and goes back into the audition room. This time he's gone for longer.

Yibin Li

I remember my dad was not looking at me. He would just swallow. And then this time, one violin teacher came out. It was not the one with double chin. He says, come over here. Did you play from this copy? I said, yes. And he asked my dad, that's your hand copy? My dad said, yes. You know there are many wrong notes, right?

My dad says, no. I don't know. I copied right. I correct-- checked many times. I don't think it's wrong. But the teacher said, but she played many wrong notes. It's from this score. This is the wrong key. There's no F sharp. But here, you are missing a flat, and there's many mistakes. My dad says, but that's all we had. My dad says, can you let her play-- finish-- if she didn't play well?

He says, no, no, no. It's not about that. There's no second chance. We don't give a second chance. There's no second audition. It's not fair to other people. My dad was so hopeless. He says, OK. I will talk to my colleague. My dad says, will you give her a chance? He says, no, don't ask question like that. I'm not going to say anything. Dad says, but how many you will keep out of 15? He says, nine.

Ira Glass

Six will get in, he says, and then three backups.

Yibin Li

That's all I can say. Now you have to go.

Ira Glass

What happened then?

Yibin Li

We went back home. There was two weeks of wait.

Ira Glass

Did you think you had any chance at all?

Yibin Li

I was completely hopeless. One day he got a telegraph from the post office.

Ira Glass

Telegram, yeah.

Yibin Li

Oh, telegram. One sentence. Yibin Li is selected, congratulations. He had that telegram in his hand. He read it many, many times. Read to my mom. Read to me. He was shaking. He says, I can't-- unbelievable.

Ira Glass

He couldn't help himself, had to reach out to the school. Wrote a letter to the admissions office thanking them, saying how grateful and overjoyed they were.

Yibin Li

And he asked, how come you picked her? The guy working at admissions was a very nice man. He was about retiring. For some reason, he took moment to wrote letter to my dad. He says, I had sympathy. I heard your story. We were shocked about hand-copied each note, and I'm very touched. By the way, she got in because three other kids did not pass Chinese and math exams. She's on the bottom, but she's in. Congratulations.

Ira Glass

In other words, she was on the waitlist, number nine of nine kids. Then three kids didn't have the academic qualifications to enter the school, so she got in.

Yibin Li

That's how I got in. I was lucky.

Ira Glass

I mean, it's interesting. Your dad puts you on a path starting when you're like 11 and 1/2, and everything is going perfectly. And you're at the audition, and then everything gets thrown off course. And then your dad just fights and fights and fights, grabs at any straw, and he just wills you back on course. Have you thought about that moment very much in the years since?

Yibin Li

I always think my dad made me. Without him, I wouldn't be me. I don't know what the other life could be. I don't know. But I love what I have. I mean, I'm so lucky, doing what I love to do. It's all because of my father.

Ira Glass

From the conservatory in Xi'an, she graduated and went to an even better conservatory for college in Shanghai. She graduated there and joined the faculty there, came to America, studied at Juilliard, now is in New York. When she first came to America, her father cried on the bus to the airport, thinking he'd never see her again. The way he saw it, she was in a dream job in Shanghai. Why would she ever leave it? But then, her parents moved here in 2016. Her dad died two years ago. Today, Yibin performs and records and teaches and has a 15-year-old daughter of her own.

Ira Glass

Have you had moments with your daughter where you felt like, OK, you need to jump in the way your dad did with you to save the day, to make her future?

Yibin Li

No.

Ira Glass

No.

Yibin Li

No.

Ira Glass

Why?

Yibin Li

She grew up in New York City. She can have any cake she wants.