Singing their way to solidarity

Beijing's only Latin America-inspired choir revels in the power that music has to unite hearts and minds, Mo Jingxi reports.

Every Monday morning, as commuters go to work and children go to school, a group of elderly people gather at a small community hall in Beijing's Dongcheng district. With an average age of 71, they are no longer just someone's grandparents or spouses, but proud members of the Friends of Latin America choir.

Established in 2018, the choir stands out as the only one of the hundreds of choirs in the capital that performs in Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese. With 40-plus members — the eldest being 82 — their journey has been one of passion and dedication.

"We were initially started by former Chinese diplomats who had worked in Latin American countries, journalists, and Spanish teachers. Now, most of our members have never studied Spanish, and are learning the language from scratch," says Yang Mingjiang, founder and head of the choir.

Last month, they were invited to perform El Condor Pasa (The Condor Passes), a song composed by Daniel Alomia Robles that is based on a traditional Andean folk song, at an event hosted by the Peruvian embassy in Beijing. The choir's vibrancy and colorful Andean tribute costumes won applause from the audience.