My Life Story
Many, many people are interested in my story. I have had a dramatic life since I was 2 1/2 years old. When I am alone I can replay videos of my life in my head and I don’t feel bored. Due to my busy schedule I will post some stories that I published on social media, and when I have time I will try to post new ones. I hope my story can inspire students. In the future you can learn more from my biography.
After my mother made a big effort to convince my father and the piano teacher to let me study, I finally took my first piano lesson. A few days later, a tragedy happened. It was very difficult for my father to take advice from his 7-year-old daughter to avoid tragedy. My mother was in the hospital in a coma for a long period. Many doctors examined her and just shook their heads, thinking there was no hope.
Every day I prayed twice at a shrine on the way to and from school. I said to God, If my mother dies, I will lose my mother and my piano, and I will also end my life. So I begged God and offered my final method to save my mother if necessary.
At school I often hid in the corner and cried, and my teacher noticed. I appreciate that she gave me mental support in that rough period.
After more than a month, my mother finally returned home, and she hadn’t lost any of her abilities. The only thing she lost was her bad temper.
Finally I could resume piano lessons at 8 years old.
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Less than 2 months after I resumed piano lessons at 8 years old, my teacher stopped demonstrating new pieces for me, but I knew she still did for other students. After a while, I became upset and mentioned to my mother that maybe she doesn’t like me because she had complained that I’m quiet and never talk, so she doesn’t want to demonstrate pieces for me.
So my mother asked her, and told me my teacher said she stopped demonstrating pieces because I picked up whole pieces immediately at a tempo even faster than hers. She said on the surface that looked good, but she worried that, if I continued that way, at a certain point I might eventually crash because I had not built a solid foundation. So she wanted me to do it on my own . . . . In this way she helped me build a solid foundation that helped me conquer studying on my own throughout the rest of my life.
Many years later at Teachers College, we had only 40 minutes of lessons every 2 weeks. Judging from my level of playing, my teacher, Ms. Su-Chi Kuo, suspected that I must also be studying with an outside teacher. But after searching, she could not find anyone else who was teaching me. She finally asked me directly, and I told her I did not have another teacher. She wasn’t convinced, and kept trying to persuade me to tell her who it was. So I finally said, “Whoever else you think is teaching me, then that’s who it is.”
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After I had studied piano about 7 months, my schoolteacher asked me to accompany my class for a singing competition. My mother asked if I wanted to tell my piano teacher so that she could help prepare and offer me a score that included the accompaniment. I told her that would be unnecessary — I could improvise the accompaniment, and that would save her money. She was happy to hear that, and she agreed. I successfully performed at the singing competition using this method.
A month later, my teacher happened to hear my mother telling other teachers how I accompanied at the singing competition. My piano teacher was furious and scolded my mother, asking her why she had followed my words and didn’t have her prepare me.
At my next lesson, my teacher yelled at me furiously—it was the only time she ever yelled at me, and I almost cried. She told me to show her how I had played the singing piece. I started playing by memory, including my improvisations. Her face changed immediately and she became calm. When I finished, she didn’t make any more comments. She just said, “Let’s move on to the lesson pieces.”
When my mother came home the next day, she told me my teacher urged her to tell me that she was embarrassed that she had scolded me. She was shocked that I could improvise accompaniment so brilliantly, and she said my version was better than the score she had. She asked my mother to apologize to me for her. I have always appreciated her great personality.
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When I was 12-15 years old, Sundays were my nightmare. Every Sunday I had to take a 4-5 hour round trip to the home of my 2nd piano teacher (a tiger). And what did I get? I paid high tuition to get only 40-50 minutes of lesson, which she spent preparing meals, making coffee, reading the newspaper, holding her baby, talking on the phone. I played 10-15 pieces for her each time, and every lesson she told me 1 or 2 words: “good” or “not good.”
In this way, I kept learning new pieces on my own. My mother often asked why there were no marks or words in my scores. Every book looked brand new. If I told my mother the truth, she would want me to quit. (When I was in 4th grade I wanted to quit, and she threatened to hit my piano with a hammer to make me practice.) So I asked her, Do you feel my playing is improving? She said yes. So I said as long as I make progress, you don’t need to worry that I’m wasting your money — don’t ask any more questions. She agreed. But I did feel it was wasting money, so I started canceling more lessons.
At that age, I was very good at math and sometimes even secretly helped my teachers to answer students’ questions. And my math teachers didn’t hate me — they loved me even more. I considered changing my focus to math, but due to my passion for music I decided to continue . . . .
I finally left that tiger teacher (at 15 years old) when I chose Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 as an audition piece for Teachers College — she was strongly against it because she said it was for college-level students. After I quit with her, I studied on my own and won a top competition prize and got the top 1 grade in piano to get into Teachers College. Follow your intuition when you know you are right!
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My piano is 127 years old. I got it in 1994 after 40 days and nights of searching. I tried about 1,200 pianos before I finally decided to buy this one.
I had planned to buy a Steinway, so I went to the Steinway factory and tried hundreds of pianos. But I only ended up choosing pianos for a long line of other customers who wanted me to help them find a good piano — all without any commission!
I finally found my piano in a dream. This piano is marvelous and has spirit. It has given me tons of challenges, step by step, to unlock my hidden special power. My dream came true!
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Do clocks listen to Beethoven?
I have always loved Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, “Fate,” so I got the piano transcription and tried to play a little bit. When I finished practicing, I discovered my clock was delayed 5 minutes. Later, when I wanted to adjust the time, I realized it was somehow showing the correct time. Very strange!
One night I had only 5-10 minutes to practice Beethoven’s Fate, so I was watching the clock. Soon I realized that the clock had stopped when I started to play Fate.
I once heard a famous pianist say that he needs to do a lot of show to attract the audience because people do not go to concerts to listen to Beethoven and other classical music. I don’t think that’s true. 26 years ago, I discovered that dogs listen to classical music. That night playing Fate I discovered that clocks also stop to listen to Beethoven!
Mysteries do exist in this world, don’t they?
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Around 2001, the father of one of my good students at a conservatory came to talk to me. He told me that he had suffered a powerful electrical shock at his job that might prevent him from working for one or two years and might even eventually kill him. He said his daughter might have to withdraw from the conservatory.
I immediately invited him into my studio and played the Chopin Etude op. 10 no. 8 for him. At the time I played it at a very fast tempo,12 notes a second. He sat next to me, and after I played it one time his face had turned red. He said he loved it, so I played it for him again.
The next week, his daughter told me that her father had already felt much better the night after I had played the etude for him, and when he went to his appointment with a specialist the next day, the specialist told him that he had already recovered! He returned to work within about one week.
It seems this student had some kind of connection with me. A month after her family moved to Arizona in 1998, I was practicing at home and I saw an image of her and her family all moving back to New Jersey. Later I confirmed it with her, and the day and time matched.
Also, she was the only student at the conservatory who studied with me from my first day teaching there to my last day teaching there. I feel sad that I couldn’t stay in touch with her, as she requested in her final lesson, because a few sour musicians had been calling her and I wanted her to be able to grow up normally.
In human life, sometimes there are limitations on what you can do and say, but you keep those things in your heart. In the world of music, you are free to express all your feelings and all sides of your character!
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I posted the message below on Facebook on April 21, 2022. I realize that most people have been blocked from seeing my FB posts, including my performance videos — one of the reasons I don’t use FB anymore — so I’m also posting it here. A lot of people feel that FB is negative. In February 2020 Elon Musk said on Twitter that everyone should delete FB. And I agree. Here’s my FB post:
A belated thank you to All for your kind birthday wishes! Because I don’t use FB anymore. Also, I have gotten Covid-19 twice. The first time was at Christmas 2021 — that was Covid Delta, very serious condition — and the second time was in late February of this year — not as bad as the first time. Both times I got it from my friend, and he got the vaccine shot twice, but I did not have any vaccine. The first time I was in bed at home for 17 days, and I ate only 2 apples and orange juice each day — without any medicine. Finally, I forced myself to play piano to heal myself and my friend. After 1 hour of playing, my condition got much better. So, soon we recovered. I will post more details on my website later, and I welcome you to visit my website BACH & WU VITAL ARTS .
This experience demonstrated that the healing power of my music can beat Covid too! Maybe this is the real reason I got Covid twice! Covid is NOT over yet. According to what I saw in January 2021, Covid will end in 2023 — at the earliest. So, everybody be careful, be alert, and take care. Thank you All again for your kind birthday wishes.
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At my second lesson at Boston Conservatory, in 1992, my teacher, Michael Lewin, asked me to show him how I practice. So I simply started playing through the piece just like a concert performance. After 15 seconds he looked upset and yelled angrily, “Stop!” I thought that maybe he misunderstood and thought I didn’t want to reveal to him how I really practice.
Two years later, before my graduation, he again asked me how I practice. I answered, “I just play.” This time he smiled, nodded, and repeated, “You ‘just play’. ” I guess maybe he finally could accept it.
I had a similar experience after one month of studying at Boston Conservatory when I learned my first Scriabin piece, Sonata No. 4, which is technically very difficult. I learned the whole piece in a few weeks and then played it for Mr. Lewin and asked him, “What is the caracter of Scriabin’s music?” He looked unhappy and paused. Then, sounding very annoyed, he said: “Why are you asking me that now? Why didn’t you ask me before you learned the piece? Scriabin’s music is just the way you played it!”
I know that musicians study theory, key, harmony, structure, and composers’ lives to help them make music. But I just sit down and play. When I look at a score, the music immediately plays in my head. For me, my work is getting the notes and technique into my fingers. After that, the music takes me in. I never think about how to create the music. This is why when I play any composer people think that that must be the composer I play the best — just as water takes the shape of whatever type of container you pour it into. People often ask about me, “Who is she?” Actually, there is no “myself.”
I am sad that I had some unfortunate misunderstandings with a few of my teachers, and that caused some unnecessary trouble and harm. But fortunately I do have good memories of happy experiences with one of my teachers at Teachers College, Ms. Su-Chi Kuo. She was able to joke with me, “If everyone were like you, then the school would have to shut down, and I’d lose my job!” She also guided me in life, and I have always greatly appreciated her valuable advice, so it was a win-win situation.
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Does karma exist?
Yes, both good karma and bad karma exist, whether you believe it or not. Sometimes it happens immediately, and other times not until later—it depends on the situation.
I will share one of the extraordinary examples of good karma from my life. When I was 18 years old one beautiful, sunny, clear day, I got off the bus at my school and suddenly saw something that would happen 40 minutes later, something that I wanted to avoid. I knew that the only way to avoid it would be a complete change in the weather, but the forecast was for sunny, clear skies all day. So I stood on the sidewalk, looked to the sky, and told God who I am and what my situation was. I requested heavy rain after 35 minutes so that the college would be forced to cancel the event. After the college canceled the event, then a couple minutes later the weather could change back to being a bright sunny day.
I then went into the school. 35 minutes later, the beautiful, clear, sunny sky became darkened by heavy clouds, and there was sudden, heavy rain. The school immediately announced it was canceling the event. After only a few minutes of heavy rain, it stopped—the clouds cleared, and the weather returned to being a sunny, beautiful day. This is my own true experience. I heard a lot of students commenting that it was so strange to have such a sudden, brief change in the weather.
Currently, one of the big issues in the world is climate change. If every human would examine their own heart and behavior, have a shiny personality, and don’t be greedy, and don’t do nasty, evil things, then I know that we will be able to conquer climate change. Believe it or not.
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I experienced a 5-year nightmare living in hell at Teachers College during my golden age of 16-21 years old. It almost ended in suicide.
My parents made a deal with me so that I would agree to study at Teachers College. But after 1-2 months of study, I wanted to quit, for many reasons. My parents and college teachers worked hard to convince me to stay. While I remained intent on quitting, God showed up and convinced me to stay at Teachers College and promised me he would help me get out of the dormitory in a month.
A month later, I was in a department chairman’s office as he signed the final paper allowing me to leave the dorm. He looked at me very seriously and asked, “Who are you? You have super powers? Getting out of the dorm breaks a government rule that’s been in place throughout the school’s over 120-year history.”
But this brought another challenge: my classmates were very upset that I was leaving the dorm, and some started to attack me. If any classmates are reading this, I hope you’re not upset that I’m describing my life history, but right before I came to the U.S.A. I already moved on. And since God convinced me to stay at Teachers College, he clearly knew that those 5 years would give me valuable training to face future challenges.
In my third year of college I changed my piano teacher to Ms. Su-Chi Kuo, which was a turning point. She was kind-hearted and understood me well, so I hoped my remaining time there would be smoother and not feel like living in hell.
While studying with her I often had to comfort her that it was OK that I would take only 3rd or 4th prize for performing before a jury, not 1st or 2nd prize, so that would make my classmates attack me less. Then I would be more free to pursue my big goal.
After I finished my third year, I expected my parents to honor their promise to support me in going to Europe or the U.S.A. to focus on studying music performance and participating in international competitions. But they broke their promise. That crushed me. Ms. Kuo said it was pitiful to see a genius buried here.
After that I was hit with another big challenge. At Teachers College you couldn’t graduate if you failed gym, and the requirements to pass were demanding. I am not an athlete so I had to work harder, and in the process I seriously injured my arms and hands. For 2 years I was unable to practice and therefore had no piano lessons in those 2 years. I only showed up for the final performance before a jury. Within those 2 years I was on the edge of suicide.
Finally, I graduated after 5 years and woke up to the fact that I would have to prepare all the money to pursue my goal. For 3 years while I was teaching full-time at school and up to 30 private students each week, I also won 1st prize at Taipei Piano Competition in 1991. I had only 7 days to learn 2 new required pieces by Bach on my own, and in those 7 days I continued teaching full-time plus 30 private students (30 hours). So I could memorize the scores only in my dreams while I slept. And it worked — I won 1st prize. I got offers and scholarships from famous schools, so I finally came to the U.S.A. in 1992.
I do enjoy teaching, even though it is not the best fit for me. And I understand how important the teacher’s role is. While I was a student, I encountered many good teachers and some bad teachers who attacked me. Good teachers can save your life; bad teachers can ruin your life. Being a teacher requires not just ability — it also requires moral quality. You have to expect that you might encounter a very talented student — and you should not get jealous. And if you are a male teacher, you should not want to possess a talented, pretty female student. And when your personal desire is not satisfied, you should not stab your former student in the back for over 2 decades. Teachers play a very important role in human society. A good teacher can create a lot of merit. A bad teacher can crate a lot of sin. Karma exists.