Pure, ethereal children's voices sounded, and 44 children from the depths of the Taihang Mountains sang the Greek Olympic song "Ode to the Olympics" with their natural voices.
This moment at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics deeply touched people's hearts.
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the XXIV Winter Olympic Games was held at the Beijing National Stadium. It's children singing Olympic songs. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li An
The children of these "Ma Lanhua Children's Voice Choir" are all from rural primary schools in Fuping County, Baoding City, Hebei Province. Fuping County, once a typical poor area, the per capita arable land is only 0.96 acres, "nine mountains, half water and half field" is the true portrayal of this mountainous county.
However, in such a poor mountainous area, a seed of music was planted very early.
Since 2004, a retired elderly man named Deng Xiaolan has come to Malan Village in Fuping County to teach children music, hoping to use music to make children's childhood full of color.
More than ten years ago, Fuping County did not have a highway, deng Xiaolan every time he went to Malan Village, he had to take a long-distance bus and then change to a bus, bumping for more than 7 hours, just to give the children in the mountain village an authentic music lesson.
Deng Xiaolan took a group photo with the children of the "Ma Lanhua Children's Voice Choir" backstage. Courtesy of respondents
She was pleasantly surprised to find that these children, who had never been exposed to music, were actually very talented, and only taught a few times to sing a song in its entirety. After teaching one song after another, watching the children learn faster and faster and sing better and better, Deng Xiaolan was happy in his heart.
Since then, she has moved violins, electronic keyboards, accordions, flutes, trumpets and other instruments from Beijing, and has spent more than half of her time here every year to accompany the children to grow up, and it has been nearly 18 years.
In 2013, a special "Maran Children's Music Festival – Maran Forest Concert" was staged in the secluded valley of the village of Maran. Deng Xiaolan, who initiated the event, said that he hopes to hold such a concert for children in the mountains, so that they can feel the charm of music and touch their hearts with music.
In 2013, at the Malan Children's Music Festival, Deng Xiaolan and the children of Malan Village sang "Friendship for a Long Time" together. People's Daily Shen Yaxin photo
The children followed the music out of the mountains and walked to the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics at the Bird's Nest.
"Wouldn't it be more conducive to children's memorization if you labeled the song according to the sound correspondence of the International Phonetic Alphabet and pinyinized it?" During the language training for the children at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, Deng Xiaolan was also accompanied by the children, while learning to sing songs, while discussing with the Greek teacher the method suitable for children to remember the lyrics, and striving to achieve the standard of every pronunciation they sang.
On the evening of February 4, the opening ceremony of the 24th Winter Olympic Games in Beijing was held at the National Stadium.
Dressed in tiger-headed coats and pedaling tiger-head shoes, children in the mountains sang the Olympic anthem in Greek. In the song, the Olympic flag was slowly raised, flying high with the five-star red flag.
"Malan's children are going to the world!" When the clear children's voice sounded at the opening ceremony, Deng Xiaolan, who was sitting in the audience, wanted to tell his father the news.
Malan Village is home to one of the predecessors of the People's Daily, the Jin-Cha-Ji Daily. Deng Xiaolan's father was Deng Tuo, the former president of the Jin-Cha-Ji Daily.
In 1943, Deng Xiaolan was born in Yijiazhuang Village, Fuping County, and after birth, he was fostered in a family of fellow villagers in Mapeng Village near Malan Village for 3 years. Today, nearly 80-year-old Deng Xiaolan, accompanied by the children of this small mountain village, has come to the front of the world.
Deng Xiaolan introduced the members of the small band in Malan Village. People's Daily Zhang Jihang photo
In Deng Xiaolan's home, there are many photos of her and her children, the first students she taught have graduated from college, she pointed to the children in the photos, one by one, introduced: "This is Sun Zhixue, who is admitted to the Music Major of the Northern University for Nationalities, and continues to learn flute at the university; this is Bai Baopeng, who went to a normal college, and is now also engaged in early childhood quality education." "Between the words, full of happiness and pride.
Music inspires the heart and transforms the village.
Along with the children in the mountains, there is a grander symphony of the era of poverty alleviation in Fuping County.
At the beginning of 2014, 164 of the county's 209 administrative villages, accounting for 78.5%, were poor; there were 108,100 poor people, with a poverty incidence rate of 54.37%.
In February 2020, Fuping County, Baoding City, Hebei Province, lifted the hat out of poverty as a whole.