On February 15, Li Yangguanyu, dressed in red, flicked the guzheng with both hands, and a beautiful melody of "Together to the Future" flowed on the strings. Beside her, there are more than 80 students who gently stroke the guzheng, as well as the famous "Jiao Tong".
Li Yang Guanyu is a teacher at the Central Conservatory of Music. In October 2021, she was stationed at the Lankao New Era Civilization Practice Center and became a literary and art lecturer at the center. Here, she heard many stories about Jiao Yulu, felt the deep feelings of the locals for "Jiao Tong", and understood the arduous journey and impressive achievements of the Lankao people in pursuing a better life inspired by the spirit of Jiao Yulu.
At the beginning of this year, as the Beijing Winter Olympics approached, Li Yangguanyu had the idea of adapting the theme slogan of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games into a guzheng song. Therefore, with the help of colleagues at the Central Conservatory of Music, the guzheng song "Together to the Future" was "born".
"Guzheng is one of the oldest national musical instruments in the mainland, with a wide range, beautiful timbre, rich playing skills and strong expression, so it is also known as the 'King of All Music'." Li Yangguanyu said in an interview with Xinhua Net that playing "Together to the Future" with a guzheng not only expresses people's good wishes for the Olympic spirit, but also contains the beautiful expectations of musicians for the community of human destiny.
Li Yangguanyu said: "It is the Winter Olympics, the song "Together to the Future" is full of appeal, plus Lankao has such an advantage in the instrument production industry, so I thought of doing such a thing. ”
After coming to Lankao, Li Yangguanyu learned after research that the national instrument processing industry in Lankao is relatively developed, and the children learn to play the guzheng with unique talent, so they have the performance of the guzheng orchestra under the "Jiaotong" tree.
The guzheng that he participated in playing on February 15 was all produced in Lankao. This former poverty-stricken county has now become an important national musical instrument production and sales base. The annual production and sales of various ethnic musical instruments are 700,000 units (put), 5 million sets of soundboards and accessories, the annual output value is 2 billion yuan, and the national market share reaches 35%. Lankao is taking a new attitude to "go to the future together".
This is the Exhibition Hall of Lankao County, Henan Province, taken on March 2, 2021 (drone photo). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Hao Yuan
Speaking of Lankao's national musical instrument industry, we must start from Jiao Yulu, the role model of the county party secretary, and it is under his leadership that Lankao County has the basis for developing the national musical instrument industry - paulownia industry.
Lankao is located near the last bend of the Yellow River in the Eastern Henan Plain. 60 years ago, it was often plagued by wind and sand, salinity, and internal waterlogging, and it was once a well-known poor county. In 1962, Jiao Yulu came here as the secretary of the Lankao County Party Committee. In less than two years, he led the people of Lankao to plant paulownia, fight sand, control salinity and alkali, and remove waterlogging, which not only left a valuable spiritual wealth for the people of Lankao - the "Spirit of Jiao Yulu", but also left a "green bank" for the future development of the people of Lankao - paulownia.
In front of Jiao Yulu Cadre College, in 1963, Jiao Yulu personally planted a small sapling, after 59 years, it is still upright, which is the famous "Jiao Tong".
This is a paulownia flower taken on April 20 near Jiao Yulu Cadre College in Lankao County, Kaifeng City, Henan Province (drone photo). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Hao Yuan
In the 1980s, a Shanghai musical instrument master stumbled upon the fact that the wood of The Lankao paulownia after the completion of the wood is moderate, not easy to deform, the sheet has good sound transmittance and high resonance, and is known as "breathing wood". This discovery doubled the value of the worthless paulownia and was made into national musical instruments such as the qinser and the lute. As a result, the musical instrument industry has become one of the pillar industries of the local area, and the paulownia tree that is windproof and sand-fixing has become a "cash cow".
Walking into Xuchang Village in Liaoyang Town, Lankao County, you will be greeted by the green brick daiwa houses, the street design that integrates the elements of ethnic musical instruments, and the sound of national musical instruments can be heard from time to time, adding a bit of musical charm to this ordinary Central Plains village.
In recent years, Xuchang Village has made use of the advantages of local paulownia resources to vigorously develop the national musical instrument industry, and its products include guzheng, pipa, guqin and other varieties.
Xu Bing is making a violin at the Mowuqin Hall in Xuchang Village, Yanyang Town, Lankao County, Henan Province, on November 1, 2019. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Wang Xiaofei)
"After I came to Lankao, I visited many piano-making and kite-making enterprises, and I felt that the workshops of Lankao's piano-making workshops all have one thing in common, that is, a state of riveting and energy." Li Yang Guanyu said. As a professional musician, she has studied ethnic instruments. In her view, The national musical instrument production enterprises in Lankao are very energetic and passionate, which is the passion for the continuous pursuit of higher production technology and the passion for a better life.
Nowadays, Lankao County has built a national musical instrument industrial park, with more than 200 national musical instrument enterprises, and the musical instrument products with paulownia as raw material sell well at home and abroad. Generation after generation of Lankao people have worked hard, from managing the "three harms", to getting rid of poverty, and then today embarking on a happy road that paints a "new picture" of rural revitalization.
The strings are plucked, and the melodious and gentle piano tone flutters out, expressing the blessings for the Beijing Winter Olympics, as if to tell the nostalgia for Jiao Yulu, and singing the determination of the Lankao people to run to a better future together.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
Reporter: Gu Tingting