Veteran opera singer Tian Haojiang has become somewhat of a philosopher over the years.

The 59-year-old often takes time to reflect on life and sees it as positive way to think about what can be done in the future.

“I don’t think I can make the right decision if I refuse to review my past,” says Tian, who once performed with Luciano Pavarotti. “Everything that I have experienced will definitely influence my future as that tells who I really am.”

He opened up his heart and shared some of his most cherished memories in the drama "The Past Only Comes Back in Memories" earlier this month. It was the first time he took the stage as an actor and he did it in collaboration with Taiwan producer Wang Wei-chung.

The drama also featured a few other actors, but it was predominantly about Tian and Wang.

“All the stories are based on our lives,” says Tian, adding he and Wang conceived the idea during a casual conversation in which they recalled their childhood.

The drama will be staged again in a few months, and Tian talked about his eventful life with Shanghai Daily after the show.

Rebellious childhood

Born into a military family in Beijing, Tian says he has always had a rebellious streak and loved breaking the rules. His teenage years coincided with the cultural revolution (1966-76).

He recalls living in a da yuan, or military neighborhood, where children were often left by themselves because their parents were busy. 

“We were not depressed or sad,” Tian says. “We were rebellious. Smoking, drinking, singing banned overseas pop songs and reading banned Western books. We did it all. And it made us happy, purely happy.”

He also remembers hiding under his quilt every night and listening to overseas radio channels on a shortwave radio. This was how he learned the song “The Past Only Comes Back in Memories.”

“It was so different from the firm and strong voices heard on our channels,” says Tian. “I was obsessed.”

With Tian’s parents being classical musicians in the army’s art troupe, Tian says classical music was pure “torture” to him at a young age.

At one time, he says he had infected hair roots, which required pulling out all of his hair. His parents played classical music in an effort to distract him from the pain.

“Whenever I heard the music, all the painful memories would flood back,” he says. “How could I ever fell in love with that?

“Yet amazingly, it did happen, when I saw the glory on my father’s face when he explained Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony for the first and last time to me and my brother.”

He says it was in 1969, when his family, in trouble politically, was packing to leave Beijing after being labeled counter-revolutionaries. Tian’s father played Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony at home and explained every note.

“It was the first time I saw my father’s face shine,” Tian says. “He had always been so serious.

“For some reason, I understood it was the music that had created the change in my father. This is when I started believing in the great power of music.”

After this life-changing moment, Tian says he started playing guitar and singing popular songs of the day.

His life changed again in 1976. And it seems as though fate had a helping hand.

Tian recalls working at a boiler factory at the time when he was asked to run an errand. When he reached his destination, he says he shouted out the name of the person he needed to see. The person didn’t appear. But, he says, a professional singing instructor stepped out onto a balcony and asked Tian whether he would like to learn to sing because he had a “good, big voice.”

He was eventually recruited by the Central Conservatory of Music. After graduating he was hired by the Central Philharmonic Society of Beijing.

Do ‘something big’

But Tian says he still wasn’t satisfied and wanted to do “something big.” By this time, the central government had launched the reform and opening up policy and Tian says he decided to go abroad.

The University of Denver in Colorado accepted him. The only problem was he couldn’t afford a plane ticket.

Tian says he took a big risk, taking up a friend’s offer to smuggle 600 watches from Guangzhou, in south China’s Guangdong Province, to Beijing. “It was the only time I felt like doing something really dangerous,” he says.

He earned 500 yuan (now about US$82), which was a considerable sum at the time and he embarked on his American adventure. 

“I didn’t have a well-established plan about what I wanted to do in the United States,” Tian says. “I was just desperate to get there and see the difference.

“My singing experience, scholarship and four English word were all that I had when I left for the United States.”

Once in Denver, Tian says his days went like this: five hours of English class, two hours of vocal studies and four hours of washing dishes or cleaning floors. Most importantly, Tian says, “I was happy.”

In 1989, his girlfriend asked whether they should get married and, he says, it changed his life again.

“I suddenly realized I had to establish something as a man and husband,” he says. “I gave myself two years to make a career in singing, otherwise, I told myself I would give it up forever.”

First overseas debut

Less than two years later he made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. He married his girlfriend the day he signed a contract with the opera. In 1993, he received worldwide recognition when he appeared opposite Luciano Pavarotti in Verdi’s “Lombardi.” By this time, he was known as one of the world’s most talented basso cantantes. He has been cast in 40 operatic roles while appearing in more than 1,300 performances.

Despite all the international acclaim and success, Tian has always kept a place in his heart for China.

He has collaborated with numerous Chinese organizations and artists in recent years. He has appeared in Tan Dun’s “The First Emperor,” performed in Shanghai Opera House’s “Poet Li Bai” and the National Grand Theater’s “The Orphan of Zhao,” to name a few.

He has also recently organized “I Sing Beijing,” a program that recruits young talented vocalists from around the world to study and sing Chinese songs in China and present them in the opera way. The program has been well-received worldwide and he now plans on setting up “I Sing Shanghai.”

“It will be great when East meets West,” says Tian.