Zhang Haochen Photo: courtesy of Liu Liping

Ask Liu Liping how to get your child to the Shanghai Concert Hall by the age of 5, and you won’t hear advice on the necessity of being a strict and overbearing mother. 

Born in the year of the Rat, Liu is no Tiger mom ala Amy Chua, the Yale Law Professor whose book on the “Chinese way of parenting” is just about the opposite of Liu’s approach to raising a star. 

Liu’s 21-year-old son, Zhang Haochen, has become the latest Chinese pianist to amaze the classical music world with talent far beyond his years. His most recent conquest was becoming the first Chinese to win the Gold Medal in the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, which bills itself as one of the world’s top four international piano competitions.

The road from the Shanghai Concert Hall as a 5-year-old prodigy to the top of the ultra-competitive adult world of classical piano has been guided by his single mother.

Zhang was obviously musically gifted when he started playing piano at age 3, yet his mother didn’t push him as some Chinese parents do to their far less talented kids. “I know others may require their child to play longer, but I was told three hours (of practice) a day is enough,” Liu said.

Liu lightly supervised her son’s burgeoning talent which included winning the  Shanghai Piano Competition twice by the time he was 9. That was also the year she arranged for him to study at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

Two years later, he transferred to the Shenzhen Arts School where he studied with renowned professor Dan Zhaoyi.

Early in her son’s childhood, Liu taught him lesson that involved love, confidence and consequences. 

Her boy was only 6 and was competing in his first competition. He made it to the second round but he became over anxious and overwhelmed with fear of failure. Liu remembers her boy asking what they would do if came last.

She immediately replied they would go to KFC and enjoy his favorite meal. 

He asked again what they would do if he placed 4th or 5th.  The mother’s reply was the same each time. “We’ll go to KFC,” Liu told her son calmly giving him a hug.

“From then on, I was no longer afraid of competitions,” Zhang told the Global Times after a June recital at the National Performance Arts Center in Beijing.

“Prizes are small matters. I gained confidence after my first recital,” said Zhang. “I play well because I have the confidence I gained from performing. The more I play, the more confident I become.”

Liu says she never had to push him to practice after he started to enter competitions. Her main worry now is that her son remains modest. 

“I don’t want him to get too proud of himself. I knew he was a prodigy almost right away. Three days after his first lesson he could read the music fluently. After taking lessons for a month, he could play music that he had heard on the street,” said Liu.  

Even now as a young man with an apparent fabulous career ahead of him, Liu insists her son stay on an even keel. 

“I need to keep reminding him to keep a low profile, especially when things are going well. We all keep our eyes on the ground when we climb. In times of difficulty, I ask my son to hold his head high, and not lose his morale,” Liu said. 

“I never worry that he would give up, but I do have concerns – the classical music industry is on the way down,” said Liu, voicing the typical Chinese mother’s worry about the future. 

Liu Liping (left) and her son Zhang Haochen Photo: courtesy of Liu Liping

Lui has also seen her son rise through challenges as he develops into young, ambitious man. 

“Before he studied the piano he was a shy, diffident boy who wore glasses. He’s changed and become so confident,” said Liu. 

While Liu has seen her son bloom into one of the world’s special talents, she wouldn’t have treated him any differently if he had been average. Her advice to parents is to nurture, and push gently.   

“Every child is gifted in some way. It needs good parenting to bring it out,” Liu said. “Parents should always praise their child’s talents while urging them to work harder.” 

“A prodigy is raised with kind words and lots of encouragement.” Liu said proudly. 

Zhang has conquered all the competitions he has entered. Along with twice winning the Shanghai Piano Competition, he was the youngest first prize winner at the Forth International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition for Young Musicians when he was 12. At 14 he won the Fifth International Chopin Competition of Asia, and was chosen that year to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. 

When Zhang first arrived in the US as a young teen, his first apartment was infested with mice. “The American mice are smaller than their Chinese cousins and look very much like Mickey,” said Zhang.

After Liu was twice refused an extension of her US visa, she had to leave her 14-year-old and return to Shanghai.
Zhang seldom mentions his early days in the US, but his mother remembers them clearly. “He was so afraid of the mice that he couldn’t sleep and he got stressed during morning lessons. I would talk to him on the phone; that’s all I could do from Shanghai,” said Liu.

After winning the Cliburn, Zhang is now represented by the Van Cliburn Foundation. He has contracts for 70 concerts a year and at 21 has achieved professional and economic success, moving from his mouse-infested apartment in a $2,200 a month pad in Philadelphia. 

Of course he says he owes it all to his mother. “My mother is neither too severe nor overindulgent. She advises and I decide,” said Zhang.