Some time ago, singers Zhou Shen and GAI Zhou Yan sang a song called “The Young Rose” on the stage of “The Voice of Heaven”. They sang it with passion and enthusiasm, which was very infectious.Upon first listening to this song, I feel that there is a story behind the lyrics and music. The tone has a lingering charm of sadness, loneliness, helplessness, resentment, struggle, and resistance, filled with injustice, regret, pain, and melancholy.
Later, when I accidentally learned the story behind “The Rose Boy,” the feelings of sadness and sadness could not dissipate for a long time.
“Rose Boy” describes the life experience of Taiwan’s 15-year-old Ye Yongzhi. Ye Yongzhi is a clever, gentle, and sensible boy with a delicate appearance, a quiet and introverted personality, and a kind and careful personality.
He sympathizes with his mother’s hard work, so he prepares meals before her mother comes back from work, waits for her to come home, massages her exhausted mother, pulls out her white hair, and helps her parents share the housework.
Compared to activities such as playing games, he prefers washing and cooking, likes doing housework, and likes raising flowers and plants. However, it is because his personality and behavior are like girls that he has suffered from campus violence.
He never dared to go to the bathroom after class because other boys would force him to take off his pants to check if he was a girl, and other boys threatened to beat him, leading to his only daring to go to the bathroom five minutes before class, or to the faculty bathroom.
He once wrote a note asking his mother for help, saying, “Mom, you want to save me, someone wants to hit me.”.
Mom and the school reported, but the school maintained an indifferent and discriminatory attitude and did not take any measures.
On April 20th, 2000, during Ye Yongzhi’s favorite music class, he went to the bathroom five minutes before class ended as usual, but he never returned to the classroom.
People found him lying in a pool of blood in the toilet, his mouth and nose still emitting blood, and his rescue was ineffective. His life remained forever on April 20th, 2000, and he stopped at the best age of 15.
He should have had a passionate and free life, but all his misfortunes stem from worldly prejudices.
I saw some touching comments on Ye Yongzhi’s departure online:
“People can accept that every rose in the mountains and plains has thorns. Why can’t they accept that at the age of 14, he is different from others?”
“The rose blooms in May, and the rose youth withers in April.”
“The same rose, some people have seen its beauty, while others have only seen the thorns on the stem.”
“Girls can like blue, why can’t boys like pink?”
“Strange animals are protected, but strange people are ostracized.”
“I send you two roses, one against disease and the other against worldly affairs.”
“One day, the pure white dove in the church will kiss the dirty crow on the moor.”
“In the end, the rose withered under the tree, and it was buried forever under it. No one knows. What was buried under the tree was the remains of the rose, and even more, the reluctance and regret left by the rose. Shh, the wind is strong, don’t wake him up.”
The first thing the school did after the Ye Yongzhi incident was to clean the toilet, wipe off blood stains, and publicly declare that Ye Yongzhi had a heart attack.
Ye Yongzhi’s mother refused to accept the school’s explanation and insisted on appealing to seek justice for her son. This insistence lasted for six years, and she survived a hard time to remember. Finally, she won, promoting the drafting and implementation of Taiwan’s Gender Equality Education Law.
Mother Ye said, “My child is gone. I want to save a child like him.”
Ye Yongzhi is unfortunate because he has suffered unfair treatment in the world, prejudice, ridicule, exclusion, and discrimination, as well as oppression and bullying on campus, and has borne the pressure and pain that he should not bear.
Because he is a gentle and quiet boy with a gentle personality, and because he is a handsome and clean boy with a clean appearance, he seems out of tune with the world in the eyes of others, so he has suffered from stereotypes and humiliation from around him.
Suffering from these misfortunes, he became increasingly silent, living in darkness and fear, lonely and helpless, unable to feel the warmth and beauty of the world, with only endless ridicule and discrimination.
He has also resisted and struggled, but his strength alone is too weak, and his voice is too small to withstand the indifference and prejudice of the world.
As the lyrics say, “You are not guilty, it is the world that is guilty; born innocent, you do not need to apologize.”
Yes, he has no sin, the free soul has no sin, the guilty is the world, and it is the world that should be redefined.
The world lacks understanding, respect, and empathy. Each of us has the right to choose freely to do what we love. We have the right to choose what we love.
Whoever stipulates that boys must wield swords and guns, and girls must play zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting.
Ye Yongzhi’s departure revealed more truth and awakened countless sincerity.
Cai Yilin once said, “In any situation, I can become a certain minority, so I need to love anyone around me with empathy.”
We should respect everyone around us with an equal attitude and empathy, because we can also become a minority like Ye Yongzhi.
“Which rose has no thorns, the best revenge is beauty, and the most beautiful blooming is counterattack.”
Burn and bloom heartily, just like a rose, sonorous, colorful, legendary, passionate, boiling, born free, loving and fearless!
