KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 21 -- As Chinese New Year draws near, drum beats sound louder at a village in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, according to The Publicity Department of the CPC Tongliao Municipal Committee.
According to a statement, local villager, Bai Haiquan who is one of the performers and a new member to the village yangko performing group, plays the drum hard and would practise after herding cattle.
He applied to be a drummer when the village decided to set up a yangko performance group. The village’s Spring Festival performance was staged on Xiao Nian, or the Preliminary Eve, about one week before the Chinese New Year.
Bai did not feel like drumming three years ago, when he was almost desperate about life. His wife was diagnosed with lupus nephritis, resulting in medical costs amounting to about 4,000 yuan (about US$584) to 5,000 yuan each month. (US$1 = RM4.08)
His family was in debt, forcing his son to drop out from high school to take care of the cattle. The family was near ruin when the local government lent a helping hand by qualifying the family as a poverty relief target.
With the local government's help, Bai obtained subsidised loans worth 30,000 yuan to breed cattle, and got another 15,000 yuan in subsidy. The whole family was included in the medical care insurance system, which covered most of his wife’s medical bills.
Currently, Bai owns 16 cattle, 32 mu (about 2.13 hectares) of corn, with each capable of producing 750kg of corn. He raked in 47,000 yuan in 2019 and expects more income this year.
-- BERNAMA
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