When I was working with the Idyllic Symphony Children's Orchestra, I initially thought that as long as the teacher taught well and the method was right, the children would succeed. Later, I realized that wasn't the case. Through training, an ordinary person can change many habits and acquire many skills, thereby becoming a professionally trained individual. But top-tier talent is not like that.

Talent is discovered, not cultivated. Shui Junyi asked Dong Lu: Can China produce a Ronaldo? Dong Lu's answer was direct: "You can't cultivate one, because even Ronaldo wasn't cultivated. Ronaldo was forged playing street football on the streets of Madeira." That sounds harsh, but he's stating a fact. It's not just football—in every field, top-tier talent is discovered, not cultivated. When I was running the Idyllic Symphony Youth Orchestra, I initially believed that as long as the teachers taught well and the methods were right, the children would succeed. Later, I realized that wasn't the case. Ordinary people can change many habits and learn many skills through training, becoming professionally trained individuals. But top-tier talent doesn't work that way. Take bow hold and bowing, for example. Some children place their hand on the bow and it's naturally correct—from grip posture to power application, they instinctively meet the standard requirements. Many more children need correction to get there. Of course, this is just a small part of learning the violin and doesn't mean too much. But with a large enough base, there will always be some who excel at every aspect that sets them apart from others. Those are the ones most likely to become truly outstanding talents in the future. So I've become increasingly convinced of one thing: truly exceptional talent is not cultivated—it's discovered. They are scattered among the masses, among the children of ordinary families. What you need to do is give them a chance to emerge on their own. I've been reading a lot about Dong Lu lately, and I've found that the "violin gatekeeper" system in the music world and the Football Association system in football are essentially identical. So these two identical systems have both been proven failures in their respective fields. What's the problem with the Football Association? The exorbitant cost of youth training keeps the vast majority of families out, shrinking the talent pool to an extremely narrow circle. The result? For decades, Chinese football has been fishing in this small pond, and when they finally pulled out a national team, it became a laughingstock for the whole world. Isn't the music world the same? The cost of learning an instrument keeps rising, inbreeding becomes more common, and you can't complete the whole journey without spending millions. Those who make it to the end aren't the most gifted—they're the wealthiest and best-connected. The violin gatekeepers think they're "cultivating" talent, but really they're just entertaining themselves within their own small circle. The true geniuses were already shut out at the door. So I'm increasingly convinced of one thing: public welfare orchestras are the real key to elevating China's musical artistry. Only by lowering the barrier to zero, giving every child the chance to touch music, pick up an instrument, and join an orchestra, can those talents buried by the gatekeeper system have the opportunity to surface. This principle seems to hold universally. Just last week, the 2026 Fields Medal (known as the "Nobel Prize of mathematics") was announced, and Chinese mathematicians Wang Hong and Deng Yu won—the first time Chinese mathematicians have stood on that podium. Wang Hong comes from Pingle County, Guilin, Guangxi—an ordinary small county town. When she was admitted to Peking University at 16, she wasn't even in the math department; she was in the School of Earth and Space Sciences, and only transferred later out of passion. If she'd never had the chance to encounter mathematics, how could this girl from a small county have solved the Kakeya conjecture that had stumped mathematicians for over a century? Deng Yu is the same—when he was at an ordinary middle school in Shenzhen, his talent was already impossible to hide, winning a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in his sophomore year. They weren't "manufactured" by some training program; their talent was already there, just waiting to be seen. The success of Dong Lu's Chinese Football Youth is statistically supported. With a population of over a billion, children with athletic talent are everywhere. But under the old youth training system, a full training program costs 600,000 to 2 million yuan, and families who can afford that account for no more than 5% of households nationwide. That means 95% of children never even get the chance to be seen. Trying to screen for genius from such a tiny population base and still expecting results is statistically untenable. Dong Lu himself said: "What we can do is create a platform that gives talented kids the opportunity to challenge themselves. But whether a Ronaldo emerges depends on whether the raw material is there." What the Idyllic Symphony Youth Public Welfare Orchestra is doing is exactly this—lowering the barrier to learning music to the minimum. We're not trying to "cultivate" the next Lang Lang or the next Jay Chou. What we do is give every child a chance to engage with music. If there truly is a genius among them, we hope to be the ones discovering them at the scene. Tian Lifu, Founder of the Idyllic Symphony Youth Public Welfare Orchestra

Talents are discovered, not cultivated.