A few entries back, I mentioned that Frank has a student that lives upstairs from us in our apartment building.  Her name is Ye Si Jing (we've named her Suzie, but she never uses this name--her nickname, and what she is often called, is "Beibei", pronounced "Bay-bay").  She's 13 years old, and she's from the southern part of China, near Hong Kong.  She hasn't actually been playing the piano that long, comparatively.  Here in China, as in most single-party political systems or dictatorships, the country's athletes and musicians (to name a couple) are primed from birth.  There is no life outside of your sport or instrument or whatever it may be.  It's all or nothing.  Like, for example, if we had a little girl here and wanted to enroll her in ballet lessons, it would be nearly impossible to find a teacher that would accept her if they knew that she were only in it for recreational purposes.  The other expatriate families that we've talked to have to deal with this quite often -- from violin lessons to soccer teams, getting their child enrolled in extra-curricular activities without agreeing to take their child permanently out of school or signing a contract releasing their child to the constant supervision of the state/teacher is, needless to say, a hassle.  For Chinese people, though, the parents seem to be ready and willing to do such.  There are currently 38 million children studying piano in China (mind you, there are 307 million children in China altogether).  That's about 12-13 percent of China's child population studying piano on a very serious level.   

Of this 12.4% of China's child population, Si Jing is one of the top three child pianists in the country and is quickly heading to the number one spot.  We actually met Si Jing's mother first on the elevator.  She was kind of in a panic at the moment because she had just received Si Jing's acceptance letter to a prestigious international piano competition in America two weeks late (lost in the mail) and had missed the deadline to pay the registration fee.  I mentioned her in an earlier post because she was the lady that was fascinated by the use of credit cards.  Frank basically told her that he would email the organizers about the mishap and pay for the registration fee on his credit card instantly.  It was if she almost didn't trust us that it could be that easy.  Things all worked out in the end, though.  After our first encounter with the mother, we had to keep in touch with her because a lot of the communication from the organizers in the States passed through us.  She soon found out that we were English teachers, and she thought Si Jing could use some lessons.  Frank had some time in his schedule for her, plus his price was cheaper than mine per hour, so Si Jing and Frank started lessons.  Since then, it's been on and off because she's away giving concerts and at competitions very often.  For the first lesson, after Frank taught for two hours in their home, the mother didn't pay him the right amount - she had misunderstood the price - she though it was per lesson and not per hour.  So that's when she told Frank the low-down on their situation...

There's a famous, very-recognizable (in this country, at least), older-lady pianist from China that plays for all foreign dignitaries on their visits.  This lady was in Si Jing's hometown one day and somehow discovered Si Jing's talent.  The lady iterated to Si Jing's mom that she had to move to Beijing to let her study with her at a real music school.  China's laws are pretty strict about who can move where within the country, so only Si Jing and her mother were permitted to leave and move to Beijing.  Her father had to stay behind with his job there.  The only stipulation was/is that Si Jing's mother is not allowed to hold a job while in Beijing.  Two problems with that: (1) it obviously breaks the family apart to where they only get to see each other about two to three times a year at best, and (2) it stretches the family financially.  Usually in China both the parents work, so shifting down to one income while at the same time increasing expenses (music school tuition, living in a higher-cost-of-living city) was a big leap, to say the least.  For the first several months of their time in Beijing, the two were "living", (more like existing) on the outskirts of the city (and this city is unimaginably big, both geographically and population-wise), sleeping on the bare earth or some cardboard that they had foraged for, and traveling a very long time to get to the center of the city for her lessons.  The piano teacher, when she became aware of the family's sacrificial move, without hesitation cut her usual fee-per-hour-of-study in half (from 500 RMB per hour --about $60USD-- to 250 RMB).  We live next door to China's National Music Conservatory (for young students), but even having this renowned teacher teach at this school was an honor.  After a while, though, Si Jing's family could no longer afford to keep up studying with the teacher.  Turned out to be no matter to the teacher - she said she would keep her on for free, if that meant her continuing her piano study.  So it was and has been that way for a while now. 

Si Jing recently came back from the year's biggest international competition held in the U.S. for child pianists with the #2 prize.  Why didn't she win first prize, you ask?  Her mother informs us that she was the second one to play, and her piano was a bit out of tune (go figure) at the premier competition, but because she is so used to playing on out-of-tune pianos in her own home, she continued without it hindering her much.  The girl that played after Si Jing complained as soon as she started playing (she practices on perfectly-tuned pianos), and they switched the grand pianos.  That girl won the big money prize.  But Si Jing came away with enough money to let her family live a little more comfortably for a while.  Those U.S. bills will be stretched pretty far by them.