It’s winter~. It’s cold, isn’t it? Has snow already fallen where you live? There is a special scene I remember when I see snow. It happened when I was taking university entrance exams.

That unforgettable snowy day

When I was in my fourth year of elementary school, I passed an exam that allowed me to skip a grade and I entered a school specialized in music. The school was in Chengdu and had both junior and senior high. The piano was my compulsory subject and the erhu my specialized subject. At that time I wasn’t thinking about becoming an artist, but it has been my dream to become a performer since I was little.

As for university; at first I wanted to go to the same university my father and mother had gone to. But when I went to visit that university, I saw students from the university across the street pass by. Both the boys and girls were wearing cool uniforms, so I immediately thought, “I’ll go there!” (laughs). That school is called the PLA Art Academy and it’s in Beijing. It’s a famous university that’s really difficult to enter. All the adults told me, “It’s totally impossible”. But I thought, “No, it’s not!”. I started working hard on singing from that point on. Because singing was one of the compulsory subjects for the entrance exams (sweats).

The day of the entrance exams was a really cold day. Instruments, singing, math, Chinese – I had to take several tests. The families of the students weren’t allowed inside, so everyone waited outside. I said “I’ll do my best” to my mother and went inside.

Halfway through the exam, I saw snow starting to fall outside my window. I couldn’t see my mother outside, but I imagined her standing there. My mother used to be a singer so she’s strict on me. I constantly rebelled when I was a child. But at that time, when I taking my test, I cried a little. When I was finished I immediately ran outside to my mother. Her hands were really cold. I’ll never forget how cold her hands felt then. I really wanted to enter that university for my mother’s sake too, because she had waited in the cold for me. Maybe I was able to enter because of that?

Here’s a little side story. It’s about the second day of the exams. During my singing exam, the CD player was broken and the music sped up. So I stopped the music and sang acapella. I was convinced that I had failed the exam because of that. I ripped up my admission ticket for the exam after I went outside, and started crying. I told my mother, “Mom, it’s hopeless. I’ll just go back to Chengdu.” But my mother picked up all the pieces of my ripped up ticket.

Then, when we went to the university after a few days to hear the results, my number was called out! I thought, “I did it~!”. And my mom and I quickly went back home to fix up the ticket (laughs). I still have that ticket with me. I brought it with me when I went to Japan. At times when I have to hold on and give it my all, I look at that ticket and hold on. And when I see snow, I think of those entrance exams and of the snow outside the window, and then I keep trying.