IT IS BETTER TO BURN OUT THAN TO FADE AWAY

Fu Lei is well-known for being a translator, art critic and a blunt intellectual who was forced to commit suicide during the early culture revolutionary period. he is father of Fu Cong who ever won an international Chopin Piano Contest Award in Warsaw，Poland.
　　
I got into this book entitled Fu Lei’s Family Letters which collects many letters Fu Lei wrote to his son Fu Cong when I was a medical student, the amazing thing is, after having read this book over, it did get me tossing and turning in my bunk then. This is a book about a father expressing selfless love, care, expectation to son in letters and an artist’s artistic perspective into music. I can tell that it is a book about relationship between father and son. since both of them are reserved and introverted person, when they were together living in Shanghai, they ain’t got nothing to talk over, and father’s reserve kept those strong feelings from expressing face to face, but after Fu Cong’s moving to Poland further learning piano when they were far away from each other , those feelings just jumped through his throat , came out of his mouth through letters. And that is what this book is all about.

Sometimes I can not help thinking about my relationship with my dad, I did not know and understand my dad well until my wife gave birth to my own son. As former US president Jimi Carter said about his relationship with dad, when those rare time we did cross the bridge between us, pure joy survives. I wish I could have more pure joy with my dad .
　　
Fu Lei always tells it like it is, and he is very blunt, straightforward person who cares about speaking up his mind, getting his point across. This brave quality of him unfortunately got him killing himself, because he said the truth during that special period of extreme dictatorship. I wish I were this kind of person who is always loyal to truth instead of yielding to authority. As Neil Young said, it is better to burn out than to fade away. I think Neil said it all. He is gone and he will never return, let us remember him for his genius, his art and this great book entitled Fu Lei’s Family Letters which he left behind to everyone of us.