Teacher focuses on service, undaunted by cancer

Yu Xiaodong, a former soldier in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, has been teaching left-behind children voluntarily in a remote village in neighboring Anhui province for seven years.

She first visited the village in Meishan township, Jinzhai county, in 2014. She noticed that all the children were seeing a Chinese zither, or guzheng, for the first time when she played the instrument for them.

Teachers asked Yu to instruct the students, and she agreed after learning of the life the children were living. Most lived with their grandparents or relatives while their parents worked to make a living far away in big cities.

Yu was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2010, and the fickle weather in the mountain village poses dangers to her health. But she ignored doctors' suggestions to stay away and lives in the village for at least 150 days a year.

Yu spent more than 200,000 yuan ($31,000) to buy 40 guzheng for the children, and prepared all the materials needed for the class.

"I told the school that I would pay all the expenses," she said. "No burden will be added to the children's families if they want to learn how to play the instrument."

The first batch of 32 students attend Yu's guzheng class in 2014. Many children learned to appreciate music and participated in social welfare music programs across the country.

"I cannot control my health," she said. "But I want my life to be meaningful. I hope that love can be passed on to the children."