1990: Starting from Baojia Street

The young man did not seem to intend to finish playing "Eternal Night". When he finished the third motive and was about to move on to the fourth motive, he ended it.

After he finished playing, the young man saw the onlookers around him were very excited and bowed to greet them. The audience also applauded as if they were on stage.

However, the young man soon discovered Zhou Yan and the other three, because the other onlookers were standing at a distance from them, making them very conspicuous.

The young man must know Zhou Yan, as he was able to perform "Eternal Night" so proficiently. He didn't even recognize Wang Zuxian wearing sunglasses at first, but recognized Zhou Yan first.

"You are……"

The young man opened his mouth and made a sound that only he could hear.

Although he didn't hear what the young man said, Zhou Yan probably knew from his expression that he recognized him, so he smiled and said, "You play this piece very well. This is the first time I heard this piece of music on the street."

"You are really Zhou Yan." the young man said excitedly.

"It's genuine." Zhou Yan smiled and walked to the piano. "Besides 'Eternal Night', what other pieces of mine do you usually play?"

The young man scratched his head and said a little embarrassedly, "I mainly play "Eternal Night" and "Flow·Wind". I also practice "Early Morning·First Snow·Red Sun" occasionally, but I'm not very good at playing them."

For professionals, most of Zhou Yan's songs do not require a lot of time to practice, especially songs like "Secret Joy" and "Reunion", which they can play as soon as they get them.

"Croatian Rhapsody" is a little more difficult than "Cheating Joy" and "Reunion", but the difficulty is not too great.

The difficulty of "Early Morning, First Snow, Red Sun" is not very high, basically the same as "Croatian Rhapsody". They are completely not on the same level as "Eternal Night" and "Flow·Wind".

The previous songs can be played by ordinary enthusiasts, but "Eternal Night" and "Flow·Wind" are beyond the reach of enthusiasts.

Not to mention amateurs, even professional students find it difficult to win.

"Are you the pianist of the orchestra?" Zhou Yan asked.

The young man shook his head and said, "I am a sophomore student studying steel watches at the Chinese University."

Hearing that he was still a sophomore, Zhou Yan was quite curious, "Do you still have time to practice "Eternal Night"?"

For students majoring in piano, the study load in the second year is quite heavy. If we talk about the coursework alone, it is a bit more tiring than that of the composition department, because students majoring in piano have to practice their instruments for several hours almost every day.

They have to learn music theory in the remaining time. Basically, they have to learn everything learned in the composition department.

The young man smiled and said, "Because my research topic is Chinese modern music, studying "Eternal Night" is also within my research scope."

Zhou Yan was a little confused by what he heard.

A sophomore student majoring in steel watches actually has a research topic? Could it be that the teaching model of the steel watch major at Hong Kong Chinese University is completely different from that of other schools?

The teaching models of each school are different, which is normal. The well-known universities in mainland China basically have their own exclusive models.

Moreover, even in the same school, the teaching methods are different in different periods and by different teachers.

But Zhou Yan had never heard of any school's students of steel watch starting research projects in their sophomore year. In fact, students of steel watch mainly focus on live performances.

For students of piano, playing the piano well is the most important thing, which can be seen from the name of the major.

However, Zhou Yan did not ask in detail. After all, this was not a suitable occasion to talk about these things.

"If you want to study Eternal Night, you can listen to the latest version. There are many differences between the latest version and this one. Perhaps comparing the differences between the versions will help you with your research."

The young man showed an embarrassed expression again, "I heard that the version you played at your first concert in Hong Kong was changed, but I didn't buy a ticket for that concert at that time, and you didn't play "Eternal Night" in other performances. I'm waiting for the live CD now, but I haven't got it yet."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "I'm afraid we'll have to wait until next year."

"It took so long to wait." The young man said with some regret, "In fact, I mainly study your works and Tan Dun's works. Compared with Mr. Tan Dun, you have relatively fewer works circulating outside."

If people outside the industry heard this, they would definitely be surprised, because in terms of the number of songs and their popularity, Zhou Yan definitely beats Tan Dun.

In fact, most people have never even heard of Tan Dun's name.

Zhou Yan believed that it would be basically impossible for any random bystander at the scene to know who Tan Dun was.

But Zhou Yan knew what the young man meant. He did have a lot of songs, but most of them were New Age, popular, and even pop and rock. There were very few big songs like "Eternal Night" and "Flow·Wind". The other songs did not have much research value for professional students.

Zhou Yan pondered and said, "If you want to study my music, you can pay attention to it during this period of time."

The young man looked surprised and asked quickly, "Are there any new songs to be released? In what form, will it be a musical performance or a direct record?"

“The record may come a little later, but maybe we’ll be able to hear the live performance in October.”

The young man was confused and didn't understand what Zhou Yan meant.

What does maybe mean?

October has passed quickly, is it still uncertain whether or not to perform live?

Zhou Yan smiled but didn't elaborate.

"What's your name?" Only then did he remember to ask the young man's name.

"My name is Kevin Hu."

"Yeah." Zhou Yan nodded, "I'm glad to meet you today. See you again if there's a chance."

After saying that, Zhou Yan gave Wang Zuxian and the others a look, then walked towards the west again.

……

They walked along the coast, and the number of people around them did not decrease at all. Finally, they had no choice but to walk to the main road, hailed a taxi and got in.

The main reason was that they were really hungry at the moment and had to find a place to eat quickly.

Originally, Joey Wong wanted to go back to the hotel, but Chen Derong said that she had not shopped enough and recommended a clay pot rice restaurant, so the three of them took a car over there.

This time, Chen Derong was very careful and wore her hat and sunglasses tightly, even when eating.

While eating, Chen Derong talked about what happened when he met Hu Kaiwen just now.

"I thought you were going to play a song for everyone. Many people at the scene must have had the same idea as me. They all looked forward to it. But you left suddenly and everyone was very disappointed."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "The piano has a big problem with pitch. I don't really want to play it. Besides, I don't need to make a fool of myself in front of professional students."

Chen Derong asked in surprise, "Is he better than you?"

Zhou Yan shrugged, "Isn't this obvious?"

Chen Derong curled her lips, "Obviously, this is not something obvious. I think you are better at playing the piano." She turned to Wang Zuxian and asked, "Sister Xiaoxian, don't you agree?"

"Maybe because he's on stage, that's why he feels better?"

"That's true. It may also be because I'm good-looking." Chen Derong grinned.

"You just said there is a new song, what does that mean?" asked Joey Wong.

"I'm talking about Xu Sanguan."

“Oh, it’s this one.”

Zhou Yan spent a long time writing this piece of music, longer than any of his previous compositions, so Joey Wong was deeply impressed by it.

It's just that a long time has passed since she heard Zhou Yan mention this song, nor did she see it released, so she has already forgotten about it.

"What is 'Xu Sanguan'?" Chen Derong asked.

"It's a song that was composed by Third Brother after he read Yu Hua's novel 'Xu Sanguan Selling Blood'." Joey Wong helped explain.

“Is there anything special about this song?”

"Nothing special, it's just a little long." Zhou Yan said with a smile.

"that's it?"

"that's it."

“Is this song going to be released?”

"Well, this piece of music was submitted to the Yenching Symphony Competition to commemorate the 130th anniversary of the birth of Sun Yat-sen. If it wins, it will be performed at the evening party at the end of October. Of course, whether it wins or not, an album will be released later."

"Oh, then he will definitely win the award." Chen Derong is very confident in Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan smiled and said nothing more.

Chen Derong didn't know much about these awards, and subconsciously thought that Zhou Yan should be able to win an award if he went.

In fact, it is not easy to win a prize in this selection of works. The Sun Yat-sen Birthday event organized by Yenching University is very popular, so there are many entries submitted.

This type of competition has few restrictions on the entries. No matter when you composed the music or whether the work has been publicly performed before, you can participate in the selection.

Many people will submit their works that they have been polishing for many years and even have been verified by the market, and Zhou Yan’s competitors are not unknown people.

Just talking about his senior brothers, as far as he knows, Xu Zhenmin, Ye Xiaogang, Du Mingxin and Tang Jianping have all submitted their works.

Moreover, Zhou Yan had listened to all the works they submitted, and they were all of very high quality.

For example, Xu Zhenming's "Nostalgia for Nanjing" was performed in Nagoya two years ago. The response was very good and it has been performed many times in the past two years.

The key point is that the name "Nostalgia for Nanjing" is very relevant in this competition, which can be considered an advantage.

Zhou Yan had thought about submitting "Eternal Night" before, but after much deliberation, he chose "Xu Sanguan". Compared with "Eternal Night", "Xu Sanguan" is stronger in narrative, especially in historical narrative, which is in line with the theme of this competition.

Of course, there are quite a few prizes in this competition, so the competition is a little easier. Zhou Yan's requirements are not high, and he doesn't want to win gold, silver, or bronze. After all, he is still young, and a third prize would be pretty good.

His teacher Shi Wanchun and the principal Liu Lin had similar ideas. They all believed that it would be great if he could win the third prize in this competition.

It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t win the award, he is young and has many competitions to come.

Wang Zuxian remembered something again, "Hey, I remember you said before that there was a composition competition in October? Is that it?"

Zhou Yan shook his head, "That's not it. You're talking about the first national film music awards."

"Also in October?"

"Well, the results will be out in two days."

"Isn't this award a little simpler?" asked Joey Wong.

Zhou Yan nodded: "It should be simple."

In fact, what Zhou Yan said was a bit conservative. When the two selections are put together, the difference in difficulty is so huge that they cannot be compared at all.

Zhou Yan can say with great confidence that once the results of the National Film Music Awards come out in a few days, "The Chorus" will definitely be on the list of winners.

First of all, in terms of the number of participating works, the two competitions are not on the same level.

The selection scope of the first national film music awards is very narrow. Only films from last year and this year are eligible, and the registration for this award ends in July.

In other words, only films released last year and the first half of this year can participate in the selection, and they must be feature films.

Even if all the films released in the past year and a half were registered, there would actually not be that many, and general commercial films would not come to join in the fun.

"The Chorus" just won an award in Berlin at the beginning of the year. Even if it is just to take advantage of the popularity of the Berlin Film Festival, the jury will definitely give this movie an award. It just depends on what award it is.

"The results will be out in two days. Does that mean you won't be able to attend the awards ceremony?"

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Their selection is in Shanghai, I definitely can't go there."

The organizer did send an invitation to Zhou Yan and contacted him more than once, hoping that he could attend the award ceremony, but Zhou Yan really couldn't go.

This is a new selection for them, so of course they hope that an internationally renowned director and composer like Zhou Yan will be present. No matter how you look at it, Zhou Yan's identity is very consistent with their selection.

In fact, Zhou Yan also knew that if he arrived at the scene, he would definitely gain some advantage in terms of awards.

Of course, the organizing committee also hopes to give the awards to those who can attend the event. Otherwise, if one person is awarded and another is absent, the scene will not be very good.

"It would be great if we could win awards in both categories." Wang Zuxian looked expectant. "How about we give the crew two more days off and let's go to Shanghai."

Chen Derong also immediately said, "I'll go with you."

Zhou Yan rolled his eyes. "I don't have time to bother. I'm going to hang out all day today, and I have to work hard when I get home tonight. There are actually a lot of awards every year. If I sign up for every one of them and attend every one of them, then I won't have to do anything all year long, just attend award ceremonies."

"That's true. You didn't even show up at the Academy Awards."

Missing the Academy Awards can be considered one of Zhou Yan’s “great achievements”, but because he has missed the Academy Awards before, few people would gossip about him if he misses other awards later.

After all, he could even miss the Oscars, and even won the award, so it is understandable that he would miss other award ceremonies. (End of this chapter)