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1、Two KindsAmy TanMy mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money down. You could become rich. You could become instantly famous. Of course, you can
2、be a prodigy, too, my mother told me when I was nine. You can be best anything. What does Auntie Lindo know? Her daughter, she is only best tricky. America was where all my mothers hopes lay. She had come to San Francisco in 1949 after losing everything in China: her mother and father, her home, her
3、 first husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls. But she never looked back with regret. Things could get better in so many ways. We didnt immediately pick the right kind of prodigy. At first my mother thought I could be a Chinese Shirley Temple. Wed watch Shirleys old movies on TV as though they
4、were training films. My mother would poke my arm and say, Ni kan. You watch. And I would see Shirley tapping her feet, or singing a sailor song, or pursing her lips into a very round O while saying Oh, my goodness. Ni kan, my mother said, as Shirleys eyes flooded with tears. You already know how. Do
5、nt need talent for crying! Soon after my mother got this idea about Shirley Temple, she took me to the beauty training school in the Mission District and put me in the hands of a student who could barely hold the scissors without shaking. Instead of getting big fat curls, I emerged with an uneven ma
6、ss of crinkly black fuzz. My mother dragged me off to the bathroom and tried to wet down my hair. You look like a Negro Chinese, she lamented, as if I had done this on purpose. The instructor of the beauty training school had to lop off these soggy clumps to make my hair even again. Peter Pan is ver
7、y popular these days the instructor assured my mother. I now had bad hair the length of a boys, with curly bangs that hung at a slant two inches above my eyebrows. I liked the haircut, and it made me actually look forward to my future fame. In fact, in the beginning I was just as excited as my mothe
8、r, maybe even more so. I pictured this prodigy part of me as many different images, and I tried each one on for size. I was a dainty ballerina girl standing by the curtain, waiting to hear the music that would send me floating on my tiptoes. I was like the Christ child lifted out of the straw manger
9、, crying with holy indignity. I was Cinderella stepping from her pumpkin carriage with sparkly cartoon music filling the air. In all of my imaginings I was filled with a sense that I would soon become perfect: My mother and father would adore me. I would be beyond reproach. I would never feel the ne
10、ed to sulk, or to clamor for anything. But sometimes the prodigy in me became impatient. If you dont hurry up and get me out of here, Im disappearing for good, it warned. And then youll always be nothing. Every night after dinner my mother and I would sit at the Formica topped kitchen table. She wou
11、ld present new tests, taking her examples from stories of amazing children that she read in Ripleys Believe It or Not or Good Housekeeping, Readers digest, or any of a dozen other magazines she kept in a pile in our bathroom. My mother got these magazines from people whose houses she cleaned. And si
12、nce she cleaned many houses each week, we had a great assortment. She would look through them all, searching for stories about remarkable children. The first night she brought out a story about a three-year-old boy who knew the capitals of all the states and even the most of the European countries.
13、A teacher was quoted as saying that the little boy could also pronounce the names of the foreign cities correctly. Whats the capital of Finland?” my mother asked me, looking at the story. All I knew was the capital of California, because Sacramento was the name of the street we lived on in Chinatown
14、. Nairobi! I guessed, saying the most foreign word I could think of. She checked to see if that might be one way to pronounce Helsinki before showing me the answer. The tests got harder - multiplying numbers in my head, finding the queen of hearts in a deck of cards, trying to stand on my head witho
15、ut using my hands, predicting the daily temperatures in Los Angeles, New York, and London. One night I had to look at a page from the Bible for three minutes and then report everything I could remember. Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance and.thats all I remember, Ma, I said. And after
16、 seeing, once again, my mothers disappointed face, something inside me began to die. I hated the tests, the raised hopes and failed expectations. Before going to bed that night I looked in the mirror above the bathroom sink, and I saw only my face staring back - and understood that it would always b
17、e this ordinary face - I began to cry. Such a sad, ugly girl! I made high - pitched noises like a crazed animal, trying to scratch out the face in the mirror. And then I saw what seemed to be the prodigy side of me - a face I had never seen before. I looked at my reflection, blinking so that I could
18、 see more clearly. The girl staring back at me was angry, powerful. She and I were the same. I had new thoughts, willful thoughts - or rather, thoughts filled with lots of wonts. I wont let her change me, I promised myself. I wont be what Im not. So now when my mother presented her tests, I performe
19、d listlessly, my head propped on one arm. I pretended to be bored. And I was. I got so bored that I started counting the bellows of the foghorns out on the bay while my mother drilled me in other areas. The sound was comforting and reminded me of the cow jumping over the moon. And the next day I pla
20、yed a game with myself, seeing if my mother would give up on me before eight bellows. After a while I usually counted only one bellow, maybe two at most. At last she was beginning to give up hope. Two or three months went by without any mention of my being a prodigy. And then one day my mother was w
21、atching the Ed Sullivan Show on TV. The TV was old and the sound kept shorting out. Every time my mother got halfway up from the sofa to adjust the set, the sound would come back on and Sullivan would be talking. As soon as she sat down, Sullivan would go silent again. She got up - the TV broke into
22、 loud piano music. She sat down - silence. Up and down, back and forth, quiet and loud. It was like a stiff, embraceless dance between her and the TV set. Finally, she stood by the set with her hand on the sound dial. She seemed entranced by the music, a frenzied little piano piece with a mesmerizin
23、g quality, which alternated between quick, playful passages and teasing, lilting ones. Ni kan, my mother said, calling me over with hurried hand gestures. Look here. I could see why my mother was fascinated by the music. It was being pounded out by a little Chinese girl, about nine years old, with a
24、 Peter Pan haircut. The girl had the sauciness of a Shirley Temple. She was proudly modest, like a proper Chinese Child. And she also did a fancy sweep of a curtsy, so that the fluffy skirt of her white dress cascaded to the floor like petals of a large carnation. In spite of these warning signs, I
25、wasnt worried. Our family had no piano and we couldnt afford to buy one, let alone reams of sheet music and piano lessons. So I could be generous in my comments when my mother badmouthed the little girl on TV. Play note right, but doesnt sound good! my mother complained No singing sound. What are yo
26、u picking on her for? I said carelessly. Shes pretty good. Maybe shes not the best, but shes trying hard. I knew almost immediately that I would be sorry I had said that. Just like you, she said. Not the best. Because you not trying. She gave a little huff as she let go of the sound dial and sat dow
27、n on the sofa. The little Chinese girl sat down also, to play an encore of Anitras Tanz, by Grieg. I remember the song, because later on I had to learn how to play it. Three days after watching the Ed Sullivan Show my mother told me what my schedule would be for piano lessons and piano practice. She
28、 had talked to Mr. Chong, who lived on the first floor of our apartment building. Mr. Chong was a retired piano teacher, and my mother had traded housecleaning services for weekly lessons and a piano for me to practice on every day, two hours a day, from four until six.When my mother told me this, I
29、 felt as though I had been sent to hell. I whined, and then kicked my foot a little when I couldnt stand it anymore. Why dont you like me the way I am? I cried. Im not a genius! I cant play the piano. And even if I could, I wouldnt go on TV if you paid me a million dollars! My mother slapped me. Who
30、 ask you to be genius? she shouted. Only ask you be your best. For you sake. You think I want you to be genius? Hnnh! What for! Who ask you! So ungrateful, I heard her mutter in Chinese, If she had as much talent as she has temper, shed be famous now. Mr. Chong, whom I secretly nicknamed Old Chong,
31、was very strange, always tapping his fingers to the silent music of an invisible orchestra. He looked ancient in my eyes. He had lost most of the h air on the top of his head, and he wore thick glasses and had eyes that always looked tired. But he must have been younger that I though, since he lived
32、 with his mother and was not yet married. I met Old Lady Chong once, and that was enough. She had a peculiar smell, like a baby that had done something in its pants, and her fingers felt like a dead persons, like an old peach I once found in the back of the refrigerator: its skin just slid off the f
33、lesh when I picked it up. I soon found out why Old Chong had retired from teaching piano. He was deaf. Like Beethoven! he shouted to me: Were both listening only in our head! And he would start to conduct his frantic silent sonatas. Our lessons went like this. He would open the book and point to dif
34、ferent things, explaining, their purpose: Key! Treble! Bass! No sharps or flats! So this is C major! Listen now and play after me! And then he would play the C scale a few times, a simple cord, and then, as if inspired by an old unreachable itch, he would gradually add more notes and running trills
35、and a pounding bass until the music was really something quite grand. I would play after him, the simple scale, the simple chord, and then just play some nonsense that sounded like a rat running up and down on top of garage cans. Old Chong would smile and applaud and say Very good! Bt now you must l
36、earn to keep time! So thats how I discovered that Old Chongs eyes were too slow to keep up with the wrong notes I was playing. He went through the motions in half time. To help me keep rhythm, he stood behind me and pushed down on my right shoulder for every beat. He balanced pennies on top of my wr
37、ists so that I would keep them still as I slowly played scales and arpeggios. He had me curve my hand around an apple and keep that shame when playing chords. He marched stiffly to show me how to make each finger dance up and down, staccato, like an obedient little soldier. He taught me all these th
38、ings, and that was how I also learned I could be lazy and get away with mistakes, lots of mistakes. If I hit the wrong notes because I hadnt practiced enough, I never corrected myself, I just kept playing in rhythm. And Old Chong kept conducting his own private reverie. So maybe I never really gave
39、myself a fair chance. I did pick up the basics pretty quickly, and I might have become a good pianist at the young age. But I was so determined not to try, not to be anybody different, and I learned to play only the most ear-splitting preludes, the most discordant hymns. Over the next year I practic
40、ed like this, dutifully in my own way. And then one day I heard my mother and her friend Lindo Jong both after church, and I was leaning against a brick wall, wearing a dress with stiff white petticoats. Auntie Lindos daughter, Waverly, who was my age, was standing farther down the wall, about five
41、feet away. We had grown up together and shared all the closeness of two sisters, squabbling over crayons and dolls. In other words, for the most part, we hated each other. I thought she was snotty. Waverly Jong had gained a certain amount of fame as Chinatowns Littlest Chinese Chess Champion. She br
42、ing home too many trophy. Auntie Lindo lamented that Sunday. All day she play chess. All day I have no time do nothing but dust off her winnings. She threw a scolding look at Waverly, who pretended not to see her. You lucky you dont have this problem, Auntie Lindo said with a sigh to my mother. And
43、my mother squared her shoulders and bragged: our problem worser than yours. If we ask Jing-mei wash dish, she hear nothing but music. Its like you cant stop this natural talent. And right then I was determined to put a stop to her foolish pride. A few weeks later Old Chong and my mother conspired to
44、 have me play in a talent show that was to be held in the church hall. But then my parents had saved up enough to buy me a secondhand piano, a black Wurlitzer spinet with a scarred bench. It was the showpiece of our living room. For the talent show I was to play a piece called Pleading Child, from S
45、chumanns Scenes From Childhood. It was a simple, moody piece that sounded more difficult than it was. I was supposed to memorize the whole thing. But I dawdled over it, playing a few bars and then cheating, looking up to see what notes followed. I never really listed to what I was playing. I daydrea
46、med about being somewhere else, about being someone else.The part I liked to practice best was the fancy curtsy: right foot out, touch the rose on the carpet with a pointed foot, sweep to the side, bend left leg, look up, and smile. My parents invited all the couples from their social club to witnes
47、s my debut. Auntie Lindo and Uncle Tin were there. Waverly and her two older brothers had also come. The first two rows were filled with children either younger or older than I was. The littlest ones got to go first. They recited simple nursery rhymes, squawked out tunes on miniature violins, and tw
48、irled hula hoops in pink ballet tutus, and when they bowed or curtsied, the audience would sigh in unison, Awww, and then clap enthusiastically. When my turn came, I was very confident. I remember my childish excitement. It was as if I knew, without a doubt, that the prodigy side of me really did ex
49、ist. I had no fear whatsoever, no nervousness. I remember thinking, This is it! This is it! I looked out over the audience, at my mothers blank face, my fathers yawn, Auntie Lindos stiff-lipped smile, Waverlys sulky expression. I had on a white dress, layered with sheets of lace, and a pink bow in my Peter Pan haircut. As I sat down, I envisioned people jumping to their feet and Ed Sullivan rushing up to introduce me to everyone on TV. And I started to pla