With no dedicated music teacher at Jieban Primary School, its piano sat idle, gathering dust for years.
Meanwhile, even though there is a music teacher at Huanxi Primary School, which has
Before 2020, almost none of the students at the mountain-encompassed schools in Fuzhou, capital of the eastern province of Fujian, had ever touched a musical instrument.
However, early last month, a combined orchestra performed eight traditional folk tunes with professional musicians at a concert venue.
This seemingly impossible achievement was made possible by a group of musicians, mostly music teachers, who visited Huanxi every Friday afternoon for three years and provided free music classes for the students.
The idea of founding an orchestra occurred to them in April 2019. Yang Xiumei, a local housewife and also one of the orchestra's founders, invited her flute teacher to visit her home area during spring.
After finding that the township has delightful natural scenery, the teacher invited some musician friends to a gathering in Huanxi, and they all fell in love with the place, according to Yang.
"While dining and having tea together, some of the musicians casually proposed setting up an orchestra for the children," she said.
Positive response
Without giving the idea much thought, she responded positively. "I just thought it would be good for children in this mountainous area to learn musical instruments. I didn't imagine they would reach such a level," she said with a smile.
As a native, Yang automatically became the contact point between the musicians and local schools, and a recruitment drive was quickly held at Huanxi Middle School.
Though the classroom was packed with students and their parents, only one girl and her brother had a slight familiarity with the erhu, a traditional two-stringed instrument played with a bow, and the hulusi, a gourd flute.
The other students had never touched an instrument before.
"Actually, the siblings didn't know much, either. You could hardly say they knew more than those who had never learned to play an instrument," Yang said.
Neither the students who signed up to join the orchestra nor their parents had any idea of what an orchestra was, and they didn't know how long the children would persist with the music classes, she added.
In total, there are no more than 300 students at the two schools, she said. After excluding those from higher grades who are busy with classes and those in lower grades who are too young to learn, there is a very limited number of candidates for the orchestra.
Moreover, members leave constantly: some go after graduating, while the children of migrant workers quit because they have to return to their hometowns. These factors have made it difficult for the orchestra to operate, Yang said.
Nie Zhiyong, the orchestra's conductor and one of its founders, said that though they would like to recruit members and decide what instruments are suitable for them based on physical attributes, such as hand size, it would be hard to get enough members if those standards were applied too rigorously.
"So, if some students have a strong passion and really want to join, we usually tell them that they are welcome," he said.
He noted a series of other factors that hamper the orchestra's operations. For example, not all the musicians are able to drive more than 30 kilometers to Huanxi — part of the journey is along winding mountain roads — every week, he said.
To date, 20 to 30 musicians have volunteered to teach, but only seven visited regularly in the past three years. Usually, they make 400 to 800 yuan ($58 to $116) per 90-minute class, but they only received a subsidy of 200 yuan for some of the classes they gave in Huanxi, each lasting 2.5 to 3 hours, he added.
The township government provided the subsidies for the first three months, while the Fuzhou Cultural Center covered the cost for one month. Now, though, the Fuzhou Committee of the Communist Youth League of China regularly provides funding.
Nie recalled that the musicians taught without receiving any subsidies for an extended period of time.
Initially, funding from the township government ensured that all the musicians received free dinners if they went to give classes, but the money soon stopped. Nie estimates that Yang has spent 20,000 to 30,000 yuan to provide food for the musicians. "She knew we had not asked for payment for the classes, and she insisted that we should not have to pay for our food as well," he said.
He added that a lack of equipment poses another challenge, as a standard traditional Chinese orchestra requires more than 10 types of instruments, he said. Many of the originals — some bought by the Huanxi township government in 2019 and others donated by the Fuzhou Cultural Center in 2020 — are badly worn and need to be replaced. "As we recruit more members, we obviously don't have enough instruments," Nie said.
Magical transformation
He noted that the children in Huanxi are not as confident as their urban peers, so it was understandable that they were nervous when they went to rehearse at the Jiuritai Concert Hall in urban Fuzhou on March 4 for their performance the following day. "Despite there being not even a single audience member, they looked extremely uneasy when they took the stage," he said.
He has discovered that music has the magic to transform these children, which has encouraged him and the other musicians to remain devoted to the orchestra, despite all the difficulties.
A Grade 5 boy in the orchestra used to be socially awkward, and he even felt uneasy when he had to stand next to a girl, Nie said. However, he is a different person now: he is poised when communicating with others, and he outperforms his peers in playing the sheng, a reed pipe wind instrument.
Since the March 5 performance, Nie has noticed that many of the students are more confident and mature.
"You can feel from the way they play that they are relaxed," he said, adding that their performance is now even better than that of some university orchestras in Fuzhou.
Chen Zhongsheng, principal of Jieban Primary School, is also impressed by the changes in his students. "I have seen their determination improve, and they have become increasingly capable of deep concentration," he said.
He added that his school's poor musical education facilities have made him appreciate and cherish the opportunities offered by the musicians.
More than 20 of his 69 students joined the free music classes at the beginning, he said. However, he noted that many of the children have had to stop because of inadequate transportation.
Some of the students live 30 minutes from the school by foot, he said, and though local buses between the school and Huanxi township often visit to pick the children up and then take them back when the class ends at 6 pm, it is quite late when they get home.
Moreover, in winter, the sun sets at 6 pm, so it is difficult for the students to get home on the dark, hilly roads, he added.
Chen Shuming, principal of Huanxi Primary School, is proud of his students because he never imagined that they would one day stage a performance in a professional concert hall.
"None of them had any background in playing musical instruments, and most had never even heard of the sheng," he said, recalling the time the Friday classes were launched at his school.
"It was a great achievement for them to stage a performance at the Jiuritai Concert Hall, but they went even further by performing eight songs," he said. "They are much more confident now."
Dreams, influence
Despite never having touched a musical instrument before, Chi Yuxin was one of the first students from Huanxi Primary School to join the music classes in 2019. Now age 12, she has discovered a world of joy through music.
First, she studied the erhu for about two years, before changing to percussion. Now, she concentrates on percussion, but still plays the erhu when she has enough free time.
"If I'm busy with homework, I practice (percussion) for half an hour a day. If not, I spend an hour," she said, adding that she has bought a drum pad to improve her skills at home.
Chi has enjoyed singing since she was very young, and has seen her sense of rhythm grow stronger since she joined the classes. "Every day when I am taking a shower, I sing songs. I really enjoy that," she said.
She is happy that her brother, a third grader, has joined the orchestra this year. He has chosen to learn the ruan, a traditional plucked stringed instrument. "He chose to join, probably under my influence," she said.
Chi said she plans to keep learning music after she enters middle school. "My dream is to be a doctor. That dream has not changed, but music will enrich my spare time," she said.
