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Bamboo flute player who has a heart of gold
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ON the wall of a riverside pavilion in Bacheng, an ancient town in Suzhou, is a sheet of hand-written text bearing the title “Good Man Dongbao.” I noticed the poster as I walked past with a few friends last week.
One of them, a veteran journalist from Xinmin Evening News, meant to introduce me to this very same Dongbao, a renowned dizi (bamboo flute) player. It was an unplanned visit at dusk, and none of us expected to read about Dongbao before actually meeting him at his studio. Curiously, I browsed the text on the wall of the pavilion — a few steps away from Dongbao’s studio — and found that it praises him for having bravely jumped into the adjacent river to save the lives of three people from 2013 to 2015. He is 62 years old now.
Having finished reading this account, I found my friends had already struck up a casual conversation with Dongbao (surnamed Chen) at the doorstep of his studio. Dongbao and his son had just finished their simple supper, and were joyous to see us — a group of uninvited guests. He treated us with the best of tea he had, and briefly told us of the vicissitudes of his business life and how he finally settled down in his hometown, where he teaches local students the dizi and composes music.
Ordinary story
It was an ordinary story of an ordinary entrepreneur and artist. I told him that I studied the bamboo flute with two teachers in Shanghai. Upon hearing their names, Dongbao said: “Oh, they are the best!” At that moment, I thought to myself: Here’s a good man indeed, as he readily said good things about other people — a traditional Chinese merit now often lost on the new generation.
But is such an ordinary story worth being publicized by local authorities on the wall of a public pavilion? I rarely see similar publicity in other cities or towns, where high-profile exposure is usually reserved for historical instead of living figures.
Bacheng town, with a history of about 2,500 years, public promotes the daily good deeds of ordinary souls. This speaks volumes about the importance it attaches to “the power of small,” which Allison Zhu mentions in her article today.
In fact, Dongbao has seen the world. He has been there, and done that, as a successful entrepreneur. After he failed because of a strategic mistake, he was able to find satisfaction first in being a vagabond flutist across China and finally in teaching at home. Life’s hardship has not defeated his optimistic and altruistic spirit. In an age where celebrities and other public figures are increasingly associated with scandals or shameless promotion, Bacheng has done the right thing by giving the story of this “small fry” the huge respect it deserves.
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