Celebrating a memorable song

Li Guyi is to perform Homeland Love to mark 40 years of China's reform and opening-up, Chen Nan reports.

In 1980, Chinese singer Li Guyi performed a song, entitled Homeland Love, a mellow love ballad written by Ma Jinghua and Zhang Peiji, which made the then 36-year-old singer of the Central Symphony Orchestra - now known as China National Symphony Orchestra - into a household name in China.

"The song was well received by audiences and I was asked to sing it again and again when I performed across the nation then," recalls Li, 74, who once gave 72 performances in 50 days nationwide.