Musician and teacher hits all the right notes

Hua Yuchen, a 30-year-old music teacher at Guanghua Primary School in Wuhan, Hubei province, summarized her 2020 as a "tough year".

In January, as the COVID-19 epidemic broke out, Wuhan was one of the places hardest hit in the country.

It was so quickly and severely affected that the local government issued a citywide lockdown on Jan 23, two days before Lunar New Year.

After learning about the lockdown, Hua signed up for volunteer work, instead of returning home for the traditional New Year dinner.

She was one of the first people to volunteer her services. Knowing that her parents would worry, she didn't tell them what she was doing.

From Jan 25 until the lockdown was lifted on April 8, Hua worked at many volunteer posts. She stayed at a number of highway checkpoints to help traffic police monitor the temperatures of drivers carrying necessities to the city, transported medical workers between their homes and hospitals, and unloaded donated supplies at a railway station. Her happiest task, though, was broadcasting news and music to patients at a makeshift hospital.

"As a Wuhan resident, I didn't think too much when people asked me why I became a volunteer. I am a teacher. It was my instinctive reaction that, after so many big talks with the children, it was time to take practical action," she said.

"These thoughts came later. At the time, I was more emotional than rational. Now looking back, it was a tough journey. Whether it was the big measure to lock down the city or the cooperation of people or our solidarity to win this fight, every step was really difficult."

As the situation moved toward regular epidemic prevention and control nationwide, Hua returned to her class in September, but her work and life had changed.

The voluntary group she joined had people from all walks of life. Although they have returned to their jobs, the group has not been disbanded.

Along with other young teachers who participated in the fight, Hua formed a volunteer team and started providing support and aid for rural areas.

Following the epidemic, Hubei experienced severe floods, and Hua and her peers also traveled to Enshi in the west of Hubei and visited two middle schools in the mountains to help the students.

"At the beginning, many volunteers, including me, had very little experience and we were kind of united in a temporary and urgent way. But after experiencing the fight against COVID-19, we all had this idea that we shouldn't just break up, we should continue," she said.

Hua said one of the lessons the epidemic taught her is that she can shoulder a lot of responsibility. Before, she only needed to concentrate on teaching her class, but now she needs to be a good role model.

"I was surprised to find that the children's admiration for me is not only musical, as I sowed a seed of heroism in their hearts," she said.

Hua leads a choir at the school. During the outbreak, she arranged for the children to record a song, The Brightest Star in the Night Sky, and sent it to front-line workers. It soon became a hit online.

She hopes to continue leading the choir and sing more joyful songs to spread warmth to more people.

"I hope that together we can warm more people with our songs and make ourselves stronger, too," she said.