Fei JiaLing, The Go Prodigy

            I gathered all the small rocks near the stream and brought them home.  I dump half the pile into the white paint and the other into the black paint.  I left them there over night to make sure that the paint settled on the rocks. 

            The next day I grabbed a piece of wood that was thrown out and drew a 19 by 19 grid on it.  Once the grid was made I marked the 4x4 point in each corner, the sides in between the 4x4 points, and the center.  When the board was ready, I turned it over and wrote my name down, Fei JiaLing. 

            The teacher did not notice me in school again.  When I raised my hand he never called on me and when he gave a difficult answer he would always pick me to answer.  The boys in my class were lucky.  The teacher favored all of them and praised them when they did good work. 

            After school I would run back home.  I learned to run home when I was young since the boys would tease me outside the school and on the road to my house. 

            I lived in a small village in China, far away from civilization.  Everyone in the village were farmers and helped one another, but no one helped us.  I lived with just my mother, which was another reason why the boys teased me.  They all had a mom and a dad, while I lived with just my mom and we dependent on each other.  We had our own field to work with but our field did not have good soil and we barley survived each year.  We also lived in a hut that had only one room.   Although it was just the two of us, we loved living our simple lives together. 

            Once when mom sent me into the market, I saw two men playing a board game that I never saw before.  It was on a 19 by 19 grid with black and white stones.  One man was playing black and the other white.  I saw that each player could only make one move and the point of the game was to get as much territory as possible.

“What is this game called?” I asked but they ignored me.  I asked again and one of the men slapped me across the face and told me to mind my own business.  Instead of crying or walking away I stood there and watched.  The men ignored me but I watched them play through three games. 

            That was when I was determined to get my own set.  It took me a week and a half to find the right piece of wood at the junkyard and two days to find the right rocks.  Once I had the set, I knew I was ready to go, but I did not know the rules.

            I returned to the market when my mom sent me to do errands.  I again found the same pair of men playing the game.  I stood there and watched and again they ignored me.  

“Do you play Wei Qi?” asked an elder woman. 

“What’s wei qu?” I asked.

“That is the game my husband and his friend are playing.  He tried to teach me but I could not understand it.  Do you play?”

“No, I just want to watch,”

            For three months I watched the men play and I learned that there were shapes that were good and shapes that were bad.  I learned that sometimes there were certain sequences that both players followed and I saw how one group could be killed. 

“Can I play?” I asked with fear in my voice.  The men looked at me with angry faces and then went back to their game.  I watched in silence until I saw one of the men make a mistake.

“That’s not right, if you go here then black can’t cut you and you’ll have influence in the middle, let me show you,” and I did not waste anytime.  I played out to them what would had be the best result for the player.  Both men looked at me in surprise. 

            One day I came home from school and there were five people in my hut.  My mom told me they wanted to play a game of Wei Qi with me and told me to get my set.  When I came back they were all surprise to see my Wei Qi set, that I made. 

“This man is one of our best players, can you play him?” asked a very old man and I told him that I would be glad to play their best player.

            Our game lasted for two hours and their best player bowed down to me and said, “I lost,” meaning that he gave up because he knew that he could not beat me.  I bowed down to him and put my set away.  The group of people allowed me to go outside to the field to do my chores while they talked to my mom.

            I finished my chores early and when I returned home the people were still there and my mom started to pack some things. 

“Are we going on a trip?” I asked my mom with a big smile on.

“No,”

“Then where are you going?”

“I’m not going anywhere,” That was when I knew that something was going to change.

“Where am I going?”

“The people who came today saw a great gift in you.  They want to take you to their Wei Qi school in Beijing.  Listen my daughter, this school will help you get better and you’ll bring pride to this village,”

“I don’t want to leave,”

“You do not have a choice.  You leave tonight.  I love you, Xiao Fei,”

“I love you too, mom”.

6 Months Later

            I sat at the board waiting for my opponent to show up.  I was surprised that my opponent traveled all the way from Canada to take the professional exam in China.  But like all my opponents before him, he lost.  His lost was a guarantee for me that I would become a professional Chinese Wei Qi player. 

“Congratulations Fei JiaLing,” said the director of the Wei Qi Association. 

“Thank you, sir.  I will make my country proud,”

“Your first tournament will be in Japan and we will like you to stay there for a few years and show Japan that China is not far behind,”

            The Association would not allow my mom to travel with me, however I sent her money so that she could buy food instead of growing it.  Although she has told me that she still enjoys working in the fields and that the village built a house for her to live in.  The villagers started respecting her because of me. 

            Once I landed in Japan my instructor and I headed for the rented room in Tokyo.  I was told that I would be here for at least three years. 

1 Year

            In Japan I had gone undefeated in their tournaments and after a whole year I could speak fluent Japanese.  My instructor and I had to change from one apartment to another since many Japanese are upset with me, being a prodigy from China. 

            In Japan they call the game Go or Igo and in China my rank had been changed to 7 dan professional.  Due to my improvements and tournaments I had gained a large sum of money and I have sent it back to my mother.  By this time, the Japan Go Association had decided to pay for my stay and pay for me to teach their insei students, the children who are trying to become professional Go players. 

“Fei JiaLing, how about going to the Go Congress in New Jersey next year?”

“What’s New Jersey?”

“It’s a state in the United States in America.  Many of the insei will go there and so will some Chinese Go players.  Would you like to Go and try playing in an American tournament?”

            Besides studying Go, that whole year I started learning English to help prepare myself for America.  Just like how quickly I learned Japanese, I also learned English at a rapid rate, especially during the professional Go exam in Japan, since they attract many Western players.

            When I arrived in the US, many people started asking me questions and taking pictures with me.  I shared my story with them and how Go change my life.  I was once a poor village girl that no one cared about and then overnight I became a Go prodigy. 

            On the last day of the Go Congress, the Wei Qi Association had two surprises for me.  One was that I was granted the rank of 9 dan professional and the second was that my mother flew all the way from China to America to see me giving out awards to the winners at the Congress that year.  When I saw my mother I gave her a huge hugged and she said, “We are all so proud of you, Xiao Fei,”