Promoting music of ethnic groups

Video by Liu Xudong

On May 3, the “Multiethnic Children’s Choir in Concert” was staged at Shenzhen Grand Theater. The concert invited children and traditional ethnic music inheritors of the Uygur, Wa and Miao minorities from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces to participate. After the show, Wa and Miao minority children toured Hong Kong to have an exchange with Hong Kong Children’s Choir, a local school and Hong Kong citizens.

The events were from a program called “Chanson de Montagne” by the Green Pine Foundation in Shenzhen. It sends teachers to minority-inhabited areas to establish children’s choirs each year, promoting ethnic culture. Since 2019, children from 12 minorities have held various shows in Shenzhen.

This year, the foundation invited an Ecuadorian musician to Yunnan to experience Wa ethnic music culture and perform on stage with children.

A group photo of the “Multiethnic Children’s Choir in Concert” at Shenzhen Grand Theater on May 3. Courtesy of Green Pine Foundation

Wa minority kids dance at an exchange event at Shenzhen Adolescent Activity Center on May 1. Liu Xudong

An expat talks to the Wa minority kids in Hong Kong on May 5.

Osman Amat, an inheritor of national intangible culture heritage “Twelve Muqam,” sings at the “Multiethnic Children’s Choir in Concert” at Shenzhen Grand Theater on May 3. Courtesy of Green Pine Foundation

Hu Manxue (L), an invited conductor of “Chanson de Montagne,” has a lesson with children at Cangyuan Guomen Primary School in Cangyuan, Yunnan Province, in March. Photos by Lin Songtao except otherwise stated

Wang Fang (L), general secretary of Green Pine Foundation, poses for a photo with the headmaster of Buddhist Chung Wah Kornhill Primary School and a Wa minority teacher (R) in Hong Kong on May 5.

Angelo Castagneto (R) from Ecuador records a video during his trip in Cangyuan, Yunnan Province, in March.

Miao minority children perform traditional lusheng (a reed-pipe wind instrument) dance at Buddhist Chung Wah Kornhill Primary School in Hong Kong on May 5.