A reporter from China News Network learned from his family that the famous composer Sun Chuan died of illness in Beijing on February 7, 2024 at the age of 67. Because his family wanted to keep a low profile, no memorial service was held. As one of the leading figures in the contemporary Chinese music scene, Sun Chuan has composed well-known songs such as "Looking at Flowers in the Smoke", "Everything Goes As You Like", "Peacock Flying Southeast" and "Chinese Martial Spirit".
The famous composer Sun Chuan. Pictures provided by family members
icu’s last birthday
“It happened so suddenly, there were no signs before.” According to Sun Chuan’s lover Du Kang, the couple has always been in good physical condition.
On August 7, 2023, Sun Chuan suddenly suffered from leg pain that made him unable to walk. He originally wanted to hold on, but after waiting for a day, there was still no sign of improvement. At his daughter's suggestion, Du Kang sent her husband to the emergency room of Peking University People's Hospital.
At that time, the hospital performed an emergency minimally invasive surgery on Sun Chuan and issued a critical illness notification. Fortunately, the operation was successful. After Sun Chuan's condition became slightly stable, he was found to have a tumor on his pancreas. Although later results showed that the tumor was benign, considering that Sun Chuan was old and the risks of surgery were too high, conservative treatment was ultimately adopted.
In the past few months, Sun Chuan's illness continued to relapse, and his family members were also in a state of anxiety. Du Kang was most afraid of receiving a call at night. In the middle of the night, Du Kang received a call from the hospital telling her that Sun Chuan's heart rate had suddenly become abnormal and asked her family members to come over quickly.
Sun Chuan, who usually has lower blood pressure than ordinary people, had his heart rate extremely fast at this time. Du Kang, who was waiting anxiously outside the ward, was heartbeating. I don’t know how long the resuscitation took, but Sun Chuan’s heart rate finally gradually calmed down, and Du Kang was told by the doctor that his husband needed to be transferred to the cardiology ICU.
Another month passed from the ICU to the general ward. At this time, Sun Chuan had not been on the ground for four months, and his legs had atrophied to the point that he could not walk normally. On the doctor's advice, they were transferred to a rehabilitation hospital, and their overall recovery was pretty good.
While Sun Chuan was hospitalized, her daughter Sun Connie followed all the accounts of major hospitals, and she also took over all the inspection reports of her father. Sun Connie was afraid that Du Kang would be sad, so she always "reported good news but not bad news" to her mother.
Later, a sudden high fever caused Sun Chuan to contract pneumonia, and they were transferred back to the ICU of Peking University People's Hospital. February 6, 2024 is Sun Chuan’s 67th birthday. Du Kang asked the director if he could celebrate his birthday and sing happy birthday to his husband? After receiving a positive reply, the mother and daughter took advantage of the half-hour daily visit time to simply celebrate Sun Chuan's birthday.
Because they were afraid of being infected with other viruses in the ICU ward, the two did not bring a birthday cake. They just put on birthday hats for Sun Chuan and then sang a happy birthday song. The family of three spent the birthday smoothly.
Unexpectedly, at 11 o'clock in the middle of the night, Sun Chuan's condition deteriorated rapidly. The doctors continued to rescue him until 5 o'clock in the morning the next day, and finally they were unable to save him.
"He passed away peacefully." Du Kang and his daughter met Sun Chuan for the last time with the doctor's permission.
A courageous idealist
Sun Chuan was born in Sichuan in 1957. His parents have worked in Tibet for 20 years, and Sun Chuan grew up in Beijing. In 1976, after Sun Chuan graduated from Beijing 86 Middle School, he could choose to stay in Beijing according to the policy at the time.
But as an idealist, Sun Chuan at that time just wanted to venture into the outside world, so he took his household registration book and ran to Ganquan County, Yan'an to become an educated youth, going to the countryside to join the queue.
Later, Sun Chuan started working as a sheep herder again. While herding sheep in the vast land of northern Shaanxi, he learned theoretical knowledge such as harmony and acoustics. Sun Chuan once told his wife about his life at that time, which was an unforgettable "good memory" in his life.
After graduating from Xi'an Conservatory of Music in 1981, Sun Chuan began to prepare for the postgraduate examination. He felt that his musical dream could only be realized by going to Beijing, so he secretly determined to take the exam back to Beijing.
Sun Chuan advocates a simple philosophy of life. When he was young, he was focused on nothing but moving forward. When Sun Chuan applied for a graduate degree at the China Academy of Arts, his instructor Miao Tianrui was a leading figure in the music industry, but he was just a nobody and no one in the music industry knew him.
However, these have never been within the scope of Sun Chuan's consideration. He thinks that having his own works is enough. So when he went to take the exam alone, he only had the registration fee of 5 yuan in his pocket. There were more than 70 students who applied for that class, but in the end, he was the only one recruited nationwide.
In 1988, Sun Chuan graduated from the Music Department of the Graduate School of the China Academy of Arts. According to the assignment, he could stay in school or go to the China Encyclopedia Publishing House, but both of these were jobs that required sitting, and Sun Chuan wanted to engage in creation more. . Sun Chuan, who has a strong execution ability, decisively gave up the assigned work and began to call major art troupes to recommend himself.
At that time, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions Art Troupe had recruitment quotas, and Sun Chuan called the leader of the art troupe himself. Although the two had never met before, the group leader happened to be holding a party at that time, so he arranged for Sun Chuan to be responsible for composing the entire party. Sun Chuan lived up to expectations and handed in a satisfactory answer, and then naturally joined the art troupe.
Let your works speak for you. Don’t be afraid of offending people.
Don’t rely on any relationships and only let your works speak for yourself. This is the principle of life that Sun Chuan has always adhered to.
According to Du Kang, Ding Baizhi and Yin Xueni, who once worked for Beijing Television, were kind to Sun Chuan. Both directors gave Sun Chuan high praise for his work without knowing anything about him. Later, many of the programs directed by Ding Baizhi used Sun Chuan's compositions, which received rave reviews from the audience.
In 1993, Sun Chuan composed the song "Seeing Flowers in the Smoke" for CCTV's "Trademark Law" Gala (now the 3.15 Gala). After the song was broadcast, he brought the tape to the Beijing Music Station (also known as "Beijing Music Broadcasting"). He originally just hoped that more people would hear the song, but he did not expect that the music station's phone number would be called as soon as it was broadcast. burst.
"People really understand!" Later, when Sun Chuan talked about "Small Flowers", he could still never forget the excitement he felt at that time.
Since the 1990s, Sun Chuan has produced a large number of outstanding musical works and has published more than 300 songs so far. He valued his work more than anything else, and he offended many people for this.
"Music works are my children, I can't write them randomly for money." After becoming famous, many people came to Sun Chuan and asked him to help write songs. There is a saying in the music circle that "if you want good songs, go to Sun Chuan". His works are well-known, but his creative principles have never changed.
Whether there is a company that wants to promote or someone comes to him with some slogan to create, he ignores it. People found that they couldn't talk to Sun Chuan, so they called Du Kang repeatedly to ask her to help him say something nice.
Du Kang said: "I look up to and admire his personality and attitude from the bottom of my heart. So even when he came to me, I helped him to get back. Some people say that he is stupid and doesn't make money, but we think that the work is for the sake of production. One by one, this is what really makes sense."
Music is the common language of this family. His wife Du Kang was a folk singer, and his daughter Sun Connie studied guqin. Before his death, Sun Chuan was still focused on creation, and his two songs "I'm Waiting for You Here" and "Are You Tired" were not yet completed. According to Du Kang, his daughter Sun Connie will take over and continue to create, passing on her father's legacy to the world.
Source: China News Network
