When the thanksgiving is coming, I begin to think of my father who is now with my sister very far away from here. I am very much grateful to my father, because he not only brought me up, but also always understands me and supports me. 　　 　　Although my grandfather was a teacher, my father did not receive good education. During his childhood, China was at war with Japan. He graduated from a middle school and then began to work. However, he always hopes me to be able to receive good education. He thought about this even when I was very young. 　　 　　During my childhood, my father often spent quite a lot of money buying me science fiction books and books about scientific and technological experiments. From him, I learnt to set up transistor radio, install electrical appliance, design electrical circuit, do chemical experiments. That laid a good basis for my future studies in sciences and technologies. 　　 　　When I was about ten years old, I remember, he asked me to go to the theater with him. We watched dramas, opera, brass band concert and Pingtan, a local drama style in Shanghai and southern Jiangsu Province. He is an amateur trumpeter. Whenever he participated in stage performance, he always brought me with him. So, I was able to listen many music works and see various kinds of musical instruments. I began to love them and even wanted to practice them. 　　 　　During that time, I could not understand anything. However, because I began to know these things early in my childhood, I could develop my interest in arts, especially in drama, opera, music, etc., later when I became a university student. When I was about 15, my father taught me to play trumpet. After several years, I became the first trumpeter of the brass band of our school and participated in numerous performances and parades in Shanghai. 　　 　　After I entered the high school, I played trumpet no longer. However, I was more and more interested in listening to classical music. During my university studies, I read many books in social sciences, humanities and musicology. Many people, including my mother, did not understand me. They always asked me: “why do you spend so much time in reading unrelated books instead of reading more mathematical books to become an excellent mathematician?” They thought I was crazy. Although I studied mathematics for 7 years, I liked mathematics less and less. I would like to do something more interesting. My father did not say anything. He thought I should do what I liked. 　　 　　I learnt Russian when I was a pupil in elementary school and middle school. According to Chinese education system, I would continue to study Russian when I entered the university and would have no opportunity to learn other foreign languages. However, my father bought an English dictionary for me as early as 1978 when I was in middle school. At that time, China had just been open to the outside world, and we were very difficult to buy English dictionaries. He said: “It will be useful to you one day.” Several years later, I entered Fudan University. With my excellent marks in the Russian Examination, I was allowed to finish studying Russian and begin to learn English. I immediately went home and found the dictionary my father bought for me. Later, I learnt also French, German and Italian in the university, and a little bit Spanish and Latin in my spare time. 　　 　　After I got my master’s degree in mathematics, I became a librarian. Nobody understood me. My father just said: “Let him do what he likes.” During my spare time, I began to translate the Concise Oxford History of Music written by Gerald Abraham, a notable English musicologist. This was a hard work and would not earn much money. I did not know any publishers and musicologists. I just wrote letters to try to contact them. My father always helped me to do these things in Shanghai. Several months later, Shanghai Music Publishing House signed an agreement with me and decided to publish my translation. After 2 years, I completed the translation. Because of the copyright problem, however, the book hasn’t been published yet. The publisher promises to publish it in 1998 and has already signed an agreement with Oxford University Press by now. 　　 　　When I am going to complete such a hard work, I am thinking of my father. I would like to tell him that my 8-year efforts will not be in vain, and I have done what he wants me to do. I will be succeed in many aspects, such as musicology, librarianship, information science, etc. This would be impossible without his understanding. I appreciate him for his physical and mental supports. I hope he will be proud of me, a son having received better education and being more successful than himself.

原文November 26, 1997 发表于Beijing  浏览：2185

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