Loneliness is for amazing bloom

When he was young, he was lonely because he had no one to play with. He loved to draw and often doodled alone at home. When he was older, he used chalk to draw little people, trains, and houses on the gray walls. Ever since he was in elementary school, he has felt different from others. "The child, they say, is noble. In fact, when I play with others, I always feel that there are two of me, one is playing, one is watching calmly beside." He likes painting and reading. He wants to be a famous painter when he grows up.

When he finished his college entrance examination, his parents were firmly opposed to his artistic dream. He did not dispute, to the parents to drop a sentence: if science and engineering can draw he read. It was just a willful reflexive, never thought that my parents really found a painting can major, called "architecture department".

What does an architect do? At that time, let alone he did not know, the whole of China also few people know. The Department of Architecture was restored in 1977, and when he entered Nanjing Institute of Technology (Southeast University) in 1981, it was not only the department of architecture. After the "Cultural Revolution", the university resumed classes, and the society was in an adolescent atmosphere of hunger. He said the principal at the time, Qian Zhonghan, a cousin of Qian Zhongshu, had traveled to Europe for six or seven years, visiting four or five schools and returning without a degree. Qian Zhonghan had told him: "Don't be superstitious about teachers, teach yourself. If you study hard for three days, you will find that the teacher has not prepared the lesson at all, and simply asking a few questions will embarrass the teacher."

So in the sophomore year, he began to skip classes, often in the library to read books, Chinese and western philosophy, art theory, history and humanities...... Look at the black sky. Recalling that time, he said: "Just after the reform and opening up, everyone had a strong thirst for knowledge about the outside world."

After graduation, he entered the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, intending to do something like architecture education, but found that the art world knew nothing about architecture. In order to make a living, he worked in a company affiliated to Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts. He got married at the age of 27 or 18 and lived a quiet life. But he never felt free, and the other he stood watching with cold eyes. After several years, he finally quit.

Over the next decade, while the architects around him became extremely wealthy, he seemed to be isolated from architectural design, living a secluded life, spending his days on construction sites doing manual labor with craftsmen, hanging out by the West Lake, drinking tea, reading books, and visiting friends.

In his loneliness, he did not give up thinking about architecture. He does not encourage demolition, is not willing to "repair the old as the new" on the old house, does not like landmark buildings, almost does not do commercial projects, in the rapid urbanization of rural China, architectural design industrialization, he always keeps a certain distance from the trend, which makes him controversial, but also makes him unique, and makes his alternative become great.

Although his preference for traditional architecture once put him on a pedestal, he held fast to his ideals. "I will walk alone in silence and see how far I can go." Based on this idea, in the past eight years, from the Wusan House to the Ningbo Museum and the renovation of the Southern Song Dynasty Imperial Street in Hangzhou, he has been "sticking to the alternative". "My principle is that after the renovation, the building will smile at you."

His name is Wang Shu, 49, and he is the dean of the School of Architecture at the China Academy of Art.

On the afternoon of May 25, 2012, the Pritzker Prize award ceremony was held in the Great Hall of the People, Wang Shu on the podium. For the first time, the international architecture prize, which is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize and the Oscar, has gone to a Chinese.

"I have all those lonely years to thank." Talking about the secret of his success, Mr. Wang said that loneliness at an early age led him to develop an interest in painting and a vague conception of architecture. After graduation, because of loneliness, I could calm down and think, and many of my future design inspirations come from that period.

Although Zhang Chu sings in the song, "It is shameful to be lonely. Life blossoms like a flower and we must not let ourselves wither." But we also can't forget another saying: "The truly outstanding people must feel that they are lonely, they also clearly realize that their excellence comes from a lonely."

Wang Shu is lonely, but the formation of China's first real estate brand should be grateful for this independence; Zhang Haidi is lonely. The wheelchair-bound writer, with amazing concentration and perseverance, has completed a book unimaginable to ordinary people. Forrest Gump and Xu Sanduo are lonely, but with their unique sincerity and tenacity, they amazed the world.