Renowned Chinese singer and educator Zhou Xiaoyan [dfic.cn]

Renowned Chinese singer and educator Zhou Xiaoyan passed away at 99 in a Shanghai hospital on the morning of March 4.

Throughout her life Zhou sang for the people and the motherland, composing a soul-stirring "symphonyof life" with one musical note after another.

Singer Liao Changyong released the news with a commemoration for his teacher via WeChat, China's leading mobile social networking platform.

Zhou was born to entrepreneurs in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province in 1917. Her father Zhou Cangbo is called the "Father of East Lake" for creating Haiguang Farm Garden, a park in the center of Wuhan, which was later renamed East Lake. Zhou often played there as a youth.

Although he was not a musician himself, Zhou's father allowed his children to study playing the Saxophone, the violin and the piano.

In 1937, the outbreak of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against the Japanese Invasion forced Zhou to leave her studies at Shanghai State Music Junior College, the predecessor of the current Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and return home.

When she was 20, Zhou was asked to sing The Ballad of the Great Wall at the Yangtze River in Wuhan to bolster national spirit and her interpretation touched the hearts of numerous people determined to fight against the Japanese invasion.

In 1995 when China marked the 50th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against the Japanese Invasion, Zhou sang the ballad again.

"The first time I sang the Ballad of the Great Wall, everyone in China was afraid of becoming colonial slaves. The country I see now is one that my parents and many martyrs, including my brother, had wished to see," she said with excitement after her performance.

During the war, Zhou went to Paris to study vocal music. Seven years later, she had the chance to perform on the stage of the National Theater of Paris. Her singing combined Chinese and Western techniques, leaving a lasting impression that caused audiences to name her the "Chinese nightingale."

In 1949, Zhou started her teaching career at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

She married film director Zhang Yunxiang at the age of 35 with a simple ceremony in her uncle's home.

Zhou once said that her son envied her students because she devoted so much time to them. However, seeing Zhou surrounded by former students at her 90th birthday, her son understood her and knew that she had made the right choice.

"If you only had your children in mind, then you would have cultivated only two talents. But at your birthday party, you were surrounded by people of all ages. They love you so much. I feel you deserve it. I'm proud I have a great mother," he wrote.

Zhou believes that the purpose of learning vocal performance is not necessarily to cultivate the strongest technique, but to use these techniques to serve the nation's musical culture and to share Chinese songs with the world.

Seeing a "brain drain" of domestic opera talents, 71-year-old Zhou founded the Zhou Xiaoyan Opera Center in 1988, acting as the art director and adopting a new operation model unlike that of previous state-owned institutions.

Thanks to her efforts, the center performed many excellent works including Rigoletto, Camille, and the Chinese opera The Savage Land, opening a gateway for Chinese opera to go global.

Zhou continued to teach students through her 90s.

"When will you finally close the door and stop working?" she was once asked.

"When my coffin lid is closed. There is no retirement for me. I will do this for a lifetime," she answered.

(Source: WeChat Account "Huaxiazi"/Translated and edited by Women of China)

By Wu Zeyu & Gu ZhenliEditor: Kate Wu(women of China)