Overseas Chinese in Myanmar celebrate mid-autumn festival in vocal contest

A young female vocalist in modern dress, singing a worldwide popular song titled "The Moon Represents My Heart" at the grand hall of the Meihua restaurant in Yangon's China Town, drew hundreds of music lovers, both young and old.

This is the flashback of a rare live show vocal contest for students held on Saturday evening. The contest was hosted by an outstanding overseas Chinese music band to pre-celebrate the Chinese traditional Mid-Autumn Festival which is also known as the Moon Cake festival in the Chinese community in Myanmar.

With a number of invited teachers and scholars to judge in the competition, the live show vocal contest, sponsored by the Myanmar- Guangdong Music Band which is an independent music group comprising amateur artists, was participated by dozens of young vocalists, most of whom are university students studying Chinese language.

Member of the Board of Chairmen of the music band Cao Choucai stressed in her inaugural speech that the vocal contest was organized to promote the heritage of the Chinese culture.

With the presence of officials of the Chinese Embassy in Yangon, dignitaries of associations of the Chinese community, teachers, parents and students as well as invited guests, the contest was aimed at raising enthusiasm for studying Chinese language and promoting friendship among musicians and artists in the community.

At the competition, one of the experienced vocalists, Zhao Jinglan, chose to present a song titled "Moon on the 15th," featuring expectation for an early peaceful reunification of the Chinese motherland, while another singer selected "Ever Green Mountain" highlighting the fraternal friendship between peoples of the Chinese mainland and China's Taiwan.

As Sept. 3 also coincided with the fall of the 60th anniversary of the victory of China's War of Resistance Against Japan, the band presented a chorus titled "I am Chinese" to mark the historic event, recalling the hardship experienced by the Chinese people in the eight-year-long War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-1945).

Still another song and dance, titled "Only One No Two" and presented by young female university student Yang Zhihong representing the local Fuzhou Native Culture and Arts Center in the contest, won waves of applause from the audience for portraying heroism.

According to the band leader, prizes will be presented to the top five winners days after the result is revealed.

The variety of songs selected in the contest included those composed by musicians from Chinese mainland, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Taiwan.

In addition to the activities of the Myanmar-Guangdong music band, there had also been similar vocal contests occasionally organized by the local Myanmar-Chinese Culture and Arts Association over the past few years to gear up the enthusiasm of students in learning Chinese language which has become popular in the country in most recent years.

An audience said the live show vocal contest was not only a high-level one but also a gathering filled with Chinese tradition essence, adding that it was deeply moving to see the emergence of so many new young artists through the contest.

Source: Xinhua