Mengyin senior folk band gains national patent and eight CCTV appearances

Five elderly villagers with an average age of 75 in Mengyin County formed a folk band named Hudagu, crafting musical instruments from waste kitchenware and winning a national utility model patent, while staging more than 400 free public performances over a decade and appearing eight times on China Central Television.

Led by Wang Xianshun, the five seniors from Hongri Village and Menglianggu Village could not afford commercial musical instruments, so they repurposed washbasins, ladles, kettles and paulownia wood into large hu, banhu and sheng. Their basin-made string instrument obtained an official national patent with a 4,000-yuan government reward, and the band registered exclusive trademarks for their handmade instruments. At first, they were rejected by talent show judges for their crude homemade equipment, yet they persisted and won wide recognition after winning provincial TV competitions in 2017. The band composes original operas centering on rural civility, simplified wedding rituals and Yimeng revolutionary tales such as Red IOU, performing in nursing homes and remote mountain villages free of charge. Supported by Linyi's mass opera creation project, more retired seniors join the team to inherit rural folk art, effectively reducing idle gossiping and card-playing among villagers and fostering harmonious village customs.

The grassroots folk troupe turns waste into cultural treasures and integrates rural governance with folk art. 

Editor：韩蒙蒙