Song flying out of Taihang Mountain (Watch)

"I wasn't chosen to go to the show." "You can continue to sing in the maran band, and the doors of the band will always be open for you." In a hut in Malan Village, deep in the Taihang Mountains, an old man with gray hair is comforting a little boy. The boy nodded and continued to sing to the beat: "If one day, you come to the beautiful Maran..." The childish song drifted out of the window and flew out of the mountain.

The 78-year-old man, deng Xiaolan (see pictured, photographed by Zhang Zhifeng, a reporter of this newspaper), came from Beijing from Beijing to Malan Village, Chengnanzhuang Town, Fuping County, Hebei Province, to teach Shan Liwa to sing, and silently insisted on it for 18 years.

"Malan Village is my home"

"Malan Village is my home." Deng Xiaolan said with a smile while debugging the violin.

Home in Beijing, what is her relationship with Ma Lan? In the 1940s, Deng Xiaolan's parents worked for the Jin-Cha-Ji Daily in Malan Village. At the end of 1943, Deng Xiaolan was born in Yijiazhuang near Malan Village.

Her parents were busy at work, so they sent her to a fellow villager in the nearby Ma Shed Village for foster care, and the people in the old district used millet porridge to feed "Xiao Lanzi" for more than 2 years, and then she transferred to Zhangjiakou with her parents.

Following his parents to many places, Deng Xiaolan later went to Beijing to study, was admitted to Tsinghua University, and never returned to Malan Village when he grew up, but in his heart he always regarded it as his hometown.

An opportunity for her to decide to return to the village of Maran. When the enemy swept away that year, 7 comrades were sacrificed in the Jin-Cha-Ji Daily. On the Qingming Festival in 2003, Deng Xiaolan, who had been retired for many years, returned to Malan Village to visit the graves of the martyrs, and more than 20 primary school students of Malan Primary School participated in the commemoration ceremony.

After the event, Deng Xiaolan wanted to sing a song with the children, but the children were confused, "I can't sing any song." Deng Xiaolan was very unhappy in his heart, and a thought arose: he must come back to Malan Village and teach the children to sing.

In the summer of 2004, Deng Xiaolan returned to Malan Village again. At that time, There was only one teacher at Maran Elementary School and no music classes. So she became a volunteer music teacher here, coming every half a month to teach the children to sing the national anthem, the Young Pioneers song, and songs such as "Singing and Smiling".

She initially thought it would be easy to teach children to sing. However, some parents of children believe that in the future, they will not take the test to sing in the future, and spend their time in vain. She understood the parents' feelings, and explained one by one, "Learning to sing after class will not affect learning, but also promote learning!"

"I love teaching children to sing"

Time flowed quietly with the song, and the golden chrysanthemums planted by Deng Xiaolan on the hillside bloomed every year, and unconsciously, she had been teaching singing in Malan Village for 18 years.

In order not to affect the children's normal learning, she uses weekends, after school and holidays to teach the children. Beijing to Malan there are more than 400 kilometers, there was no high-speed rail that year, she rushed to the bus early in the morning, changed the subway, took the train from Beijing West Railway Station to Dingzhou, Hebei, and then changed to the shuttle bus, rushing to Malan Village often at 6 o'clock in the evening. The mountain road was winding and potholed, but she never felt bitter.

Later she moved into the school and lived deep in the mountains. Winter is often more than ten degrees Celsius below zero, the cold wind drills through the cracks in the door into the house, the towel is frozen into a "hard board", and she has to wear a hat at night. Some relatives and friends wondered: Why did you run to the mountains to teach your children to sing? She smiled and said, "I like to teach children to sing, and I like to listen to children sing." ”

The majestic Taihang Mountain, the Qingqing Rouge River, the old man worried about the small mountain village. Winter to spring, run twice a month, winter and summer vacations live in the village.

In October 2006, she brought several guitars, accordions and violins from her home in Beijing to form the Malan band of six children.

Fifth-grade Sun Zhixue had only seen the electronic keyboard on TV before, and she couldn't help but press the key curiously, "Dang--" The electronic keyboard made a beautiful sound, and she was suddenly attracted. Later, she was admitted to the Conservatory of Music of Northwest University for Nationalities. This winter vacation, she came to see Teacher Deng, "The sound of the electronic keyboard opened my music road." ”

Gradually, some of Deng Xiaolan's friends were touched by her and joined in one after another. Her friends also wrote songs for children, such as "If One Day You Come to Maran."

"Music opens a window for children"

In the past, the conditions were harsh, and many children in the village had never even been to the county seat or even the town. On National Day in 2008, Deng Xiaolan brought the Malan Band to Beijing, and the mountain dolls took the train for the first time and the subway for the first time. They toured the "Bird's Nest" and went to Tiananmen Square to see the flag raising... Along the way, they also brought the song to Beijing.

At that time, some cities often held music festivals, but there were very few children's music festivals, and Deng Xiaolan thought: Can you hold a music festival for children?

In the summer of 2013, Deng Xiaolan decided to hold a forest concert in the valley of Malan Village. The county helped build the stage, and Deng Xiaolan rode an electric car to keep an eye on the progress every day. On July 24, she rushed to the construction site and accidentally fell into a large pit on the side of the road, and her left leg fell into a bone...

The stage was built, resembling a bird flying with its wings outstretched, and like a hand supported in both directions. "I hope the children let go of hope and hold up tomorrow's dreams." On August 24th, the first Malan Children's Music Festival was held, with 20 team members performing violin, chorus and so on. listen! The dolls in the mountains played the violin, and the melodious sound of the piano flew through the woods and flew out of the mountains.

In October 2021, a new moon stage was completed. In recent years, the local children's music festival has been held for four times, attracting young singers and big singers from all over the country to share "singing and smiling" in Malan.

Musically, you can open up a whole new world for children. In recent years, the small band has trained nearly 100 people, and Beijing, Shanghai and other places have left their footprints and songs, and also brought more children from the mountains. Now there are many children in the village who go to high school and college, and 4 members of the small band are admitted to the art major in the university.

Today, there are more than 90 people in Malan Primary School, and Deng Xiaolan also teaches the new music teacher to play the violin in order to inspire more students. "Music opens a window for children." Deng Xiaolan said, "A generation has a mission of a generation, and I want to do something meaningful." ”

People's Daily ( 2022-01-17 06 edition)