Showing their brass

The Chinese Dream

After a lifetime of farming, members of a village orchestra arrive in Beijing with their French horns and trumpets - and a new outlook on life. Deng Zhangyu catches up with an unlikely band.

Three years ago, they were famers cultivating their land with hoes and sickles. Their daily life was all about planting corn and raising their families. Late last month, however, the 16 farmers from a village in Chongqing performed with the China National Symphony Orchestra at the Beijing Concert Hall, unveiling their new identity - the farmer orchestra from Beidou village.