01, make a living music road
In 1971, Pang Long was born in Fuxin, Liaoning Province, an ordinary family of workers, he has three sisters.
His father was a miner, and his mother had no regular job, repairing bicycles and washing dishes in restaurants.
With a family of six and six mouths to feed, Panglong said he could only eat at best when he was a child.
But as the youngest and only son in the family, Pang's father has always doted on his son.
Time flew by and Pang Long went to middle school without a care in the world, but life got in the way.
Originally, according to the Internet, at the moment Panglong fell in love with music and his father bought him a guitar.
But due to over-indulgence in music, his father threw the guitar from the sixth floor in a fit of rage.
But the truth of the matter was far less dramatic, and the real situation was something else.
In an interview, Pang Long said he didn't love music at the time, but only sang to earn money.
Pang Long, who had a good singing voice at the time, was singing in a mine to pass the time when he met a coal owner.
"That boss heard, think I sing well, then recommended me to go to the opera house as a resident singer."
Pang's father also discussed with his son many times after he returned home, and finally agreed to let him earn money by singing in opera houses at night.
Pang Long also learned to play guitar and voice under the guidance of several singers at the opera house.
During the day, he went to school regularly, while at night he was always on time to sing at nightclubs.
Though the mining industry in Liaoning has long been in decline and there aren't many people in the city, let alone this small part of Fuxin.
Pang Long was paid only 3 yuan a night to sing, but that was enough for him.
Two years later, Panglong's older sisters all became adults and went out to work, making the family's burden much smaller.
The family's situation was expected to improve, but then disaster struck.
When he was 19 years old, his father died of advanced lung cancer after years of working in the mines.
The family was devastated, and Panglong's mother became increasingly depressed and thin.
"At that time my dad was gone. The family was in pain, but the family had to go on facing life."
Pang Long graduated from vocational high school, ran a construction site as a mechanic, but also rode a three-wheeled recycling second-hand appliances.
Tossed a year, he still wants to go down the mine to dig coal, after all, do miners to money fast.
On weekdays, Panglong still sings a lot, and when he comes home, he always takes out his guitar and flips through the sheet music.
Music, once seen as a means of earning a living, is now taking root in his heart.
02. "Restless" youth
Seven years of work, day in and day out, with only his guitar at night to keep him company.
Pang Long in Fuxin County also gradually lost, he did not know where his future road.
His mother died a few years after his father, and he was unable to enjoy the blessings of being a child.
In 1996, Pang Long was already 25 years old, and there was always a "restlessness" in his heart.
"At that time there was a strong feeling that I had to embark on this path of music."
Thinking about it, Pang Long decided to quit his job and enroll in the Shenyang Conservatory of Music.
But what he didn't expect was that he would actually get into the singing major of the popular department with a score in the top ten overall.
The year 2000 was Pang Long's graduation day and the era of the Chinese music scene.
That year, Jay Chou released his first album, and Fish Leung wrote the song "Courage".
Yuquan came out of nowhere, and Eason Chan dominated the charts for many months with his own "King of Karaoke".
"I think it was the best era at the time, it came for my generation."
Fresh out of school, Pang Long turned down an invitation to sing from his friend Niu Chaoyang to prove himself.
Despite the discouragement of several sisters, he sold his house in his hometown in Liaoning province and scraped together 500,000 yuan.
In a few days, he took a train to Beijing and "smashed" the money into his debut album.
But the reality was not what Pang Long had hoped for, and his "Trilogy of Life" ended up selling only a few dozen copies.
The passionate Pang Long undoubtedly hit the wall, he lost his album and at one point contemplated suicide.
"When I was waiting for the subway, I almost couldn't think straight, so I was going to jump down from the platform."
He spent his decades of savings on the album, and for a while had to rely on friends to help him.
Until one night, Panglong was taking a walk when he saw several musicians huddled under a bridge hole, singing.
That's when he finally realized that he had to put aside his worthless dignity in order to make a living.
A friend introduced Panglong to Xi'an, where he returned to his old job as a bar singer.
While the album failed miserably, it didn't mean that Pang Long's singing skills were poor.
Soon, he "brought" the bar to life, with people coming to hear him sing every night.
Pang Long also became the bar's business director, life and career gradually improved.
When his good friend Niu Chaoyang heard that Panglong had a residency in Xi'an, he asked him again if he could record a song.
After four years, Pang Long was too embarrassed to turn down his friend's invitation again, so he agreed.
The song was titled "Two Butterflies", and Panglong had always hated it for its "dirtiness".
03, the road to fame
The recording of "Two Butterflies" was an interesting episode.
At the time, investor Liu Xiaoqing kept urging Pang Long and Niu Chaoyang to hurry up and finish recording the song.
Pang Long got off work after 2 a.m., and a group of arrangers and Niu Chaoyang crowded into his house to record the song.
"It was so busy that the studio and my work schedule were staggered, so I had to record it that way."
Inside his rented house in Xi'an County, Panglong recorded songs under the covers for fear of disturbing his neighbors.
That's right, the song you hear, "Two Butterflies," was originally sung by Pang Long under the covers.
At the time, many people didn't have much hope for the song, and were damned if it was a hit.
Even the band's arranger cast a disdainful eye: "If this song catches on, I'll hit the wall."
It's corny and cheesy, just like last year's hit "Learn to Catcall".
But it's not the art of the song that makes it a hit - the public says it's good, and you can't beat that.
In 2004, Two Butterflies was released to accompany the TV series 281 Letters.
Only the TV series did not have half a sound, and the episode was released, immediately red all over the country.
By then, "Two Butterflies" had slapped down the "rice-loving rat".
The revenue of "Two Butterflies" was 70 million yuan higher than that of "Mice Love Rice".
While Pang Long was happy, he was more puzzled, wondering why such a "rustic" song could be so popular.
Soon, Panglong's agency followed suit and put three of his songs on an album for sale.
Two Butterflies, Cup of Water, and Blow Your Eyes became hot records that year.
He also got a 5 percent cut from the label, and in '05 had already been paid $2 million.
In the following days, Panglong had a lot of commercial performances and appeared on the Spring Festival Gala four times in a row, which made him an instant hit.
But with the heat came the word "annoyance".
The cell phone ringtone on the street was the phrase: "Dear, you fly slowly ......".
Just as "Learning to Catcall" was trolled by netizens, so was "Two Butterflies".
When the song was honored with China's Golden Melody Award, it was also teased by countless people as the No. 1 of China's top 10 disgusting songs.
There were also many who questioned Pang Long for not being a professional musician by trade and for writing a song that didn't make the grade.
Many music critics even criticized him, saying, "Pang Long's appearance has set Chinese pop music back 20 years!"
For a while, it was as if Pang Long had gone back to the days when his debut album was a setback.
04, Famous Retirement
While Pang Long was upset, his agency didn't care if he was in a good or bad mood.
Taking advantage of the heat, he created another song, "You Are My Rose".
While he was torn between the two, he was the one who signed the contract, so he had to pay his debt today.
The song is similar in style to "Two Butterflies", and is very well known and sung.
Pang Long is back at the top of his game, but he's no less vicious at the moment than he was before.
On one occasion, he went to a university performance and sang the "bad" song "Rose", which immediately drew a lot of ridicule from the students.
The students booed from the stage, and some even threw nickels and dimes at him.
Pang Long had no choice but to stop and say, "I've been singing for eighteen years, so show me some respect."
What he didn't realize was that his words triggered even greater discontent, as sneers and boos overwhelmed Panglong.
At the end of the performance that day, he negotiated with the person in charge and planned not to sing the two songs in informal settings in the future.
The company's director of human resources, who is in charge of artists, was also puzzled and thought Panglong had gotten sick.
But after learning about his situation, the company had to comply with Panglong's request and "hide" him.
Many media outlets claimed that Panglong was "shut down" by the company after this and remained depressed.
But in fact it was Pang Long himself who asked the company to "block" him and take back his two hits.
In fact, Panglong always wanted to create music that he thought sounded good and make a good album.
But after all, it was the company that made him famous, and he couldn't just cross the river and turn his back on them.
"It would be too selfish to be bent on doing only what you want to do."
Pang Long had been holding back until the day his contract with the label expired.
Pang Long, who left the label, has spent the years searching for his singing roots.
"Home in the Northeast" and "Brothers Hug Me" were produced in turn, which was the song he really wanted to sing.
In order to realize his dream, he resolutely spent all the money he had saved over the years on album production.
In 2015, he even spent a million dollars to produce the album We Float on the Blue Sea.
At the time, producers even warned him that he would lose money releasing the album, but Panglong just laughed dumbly.
"I knew for sure it wouldn't be a hit, but it didn't matter, I could afford to lose money."
While searching for his first love, Pang Long also returned to his alma mater, the Shenyang Conservatory of Music.
Today he's a professor of music, with a part-time job at the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music and his own postgraduate place.
"When I was a kid, my teacher said I was especially suited to be a teacher, and that's when I thought it would be nice to be a teacher."
Decades of time, Panglong bounced around in life, and eventually, prophetically, became a teacher.
Now Pang Long enjoys the podium more than the big hit he once had on stage.
The mockery and criticism of the past is long gone, but Pang Long has always been in the place that the times have given him