Instructed by HNUST volunteer teachers’ team named Xin and Xin (which means sincerity and warmth), the left-behind children choir from Qi Hang School in Qidong county received the invitation from CCTV to participate in the recording of a ‘Chinese Dream’ Series Concert. This was their second time to show up on the stage of CCTV after they had performed in the CCTV Gala.
A Dark Night Needs Stars
Wang Yulin and Chen Liangwei, the headmaster of Qi Hang School, founded the left-behind children choir in 2017. They recruited 66 left-behind children and later formed the first choir composed by left-behind children in Hunan Province.
Though none of the children were able to play an instrument or knew the music theory, they formed a choir whose members were left-behind children. Having lacked the companion of their parents for years, they became solitary and ineloquent.
Knowing it was difficult for these children to communicate with strangers, the volunteers realized that they should open these children’s tightly closed hearts before asking them to open their mouths. In order to know more about each child, volunteers paid visits to their families, knowing their family conditions and their characters.
Spring Breeze Melts the Solid Ice in the Hearts
During the four years, the volunteer teachers’ team has travelled between Qidong and Xiangtan every week so as to help the left-behind children in Qi Hang School with aesthetic education and cultural courses.
After school hours, they provided the children with free cultural courses teaching.
On February 10th, 2021, the joint rehearsal of CCTV Gala was under way. Members from Xin and Xin volunteer teachers’ team were instructing the children who were preparing for the Gala in Beijing. On Chinese New Year’s eve, Zhang Yanlin, Chen Yuxin, Xiao’en and Zhou Shiqi from the choir showed up on the stage of the CCTV Gala and sang Tomorrow Will Be Better together with many artists.
Starlight Makes the Milky Way
Volunteer teachers’ team successfully held the benefit concert to raise donations for Qi Hang School in 2019, which collected donations of more than 200 thousand yuan in total. On January 11th, 2021, the volunteer teachers’ team went to Qi Hang School to greet the teachers and students before Chinese New Year and donated their ten thousand bonus which was awarded from “Furong Students—the Power of Role Model” to the left-behind children choir.
Music is the wing of their dreams, carrying them to a vaster stage. All of this can’t do without Xin and Xin volunteer teachers’ team’s giving. It is they who inherit Lei Feng spirit, open children’s minds with art education, let love and gratitude boost their growth and light up the brightest starry sky belonging to the children.
(Translated by Liu Jia)