Nana Ouyang performs Popper's Concert Polonaise. (Photo : YouTube/Harker Aquila)
Most young people should make decisions like choosing a college and living on or off campus. Such decisions can be critical in their lives, but very few teenagers have their choices exposed to public criticism--as it was the case for 15-year-old Ouyang Nana.
Ouyang is the envy of people her age. She is the daughter of a renowned Taiwanese acting couple. In addition to coming from a wealthy family, Ouyang has studied cello since she was 6.
At the age of 12, Ouyang held her first solo concert, and she was admitted in one of the world's top music academies, the Curtis Institute of Music. When she was 13, Ouyang featured in movies like "Beijing Love Stories" and in many different shows like "Up Idols."
However, the celeb announced in the summer of 2015 that she was leaving the Curtis Institute of Music, a move that found her in the middle of controversy. She was widely criticized online for what many saw as wasting a golden chance that many music students dream of, and her mother was compelled to post emails from the institute to dispel speculations that Ouyang had been expelled from the institute for attending too many business-related events.
Speaking about her two years at Curtis, Ouyang told the Global Times: "It was the first time I studied abroad. When I lived there it was very real and nothing like a dream. Everyone was so in love with music, they didn't just teach me music but how to live life."
The cellist explained that she was still pursuing her education through an online school.
Ouyang said, "People think I've stopped studying, but that's not the case. I'm still taking classes and earning credits online."
According to Ouyang, she is trying to find a lifestyle that fits her, and therefore, she has the right to study whenever and wherever she wants, at any time.
Ouyang emphasized that she was not abandoning music behind. In her view, 2015 could be taken as the true start of her music career. Besides solo concerts at the National Centre of Performing Arts in Beijing, the cellist signed with the Universal Music Group's Mercury Classics and released her first album in December, a unique achievement for her age.
