GUIYANG: In a classroom, Long Jiao, wearing a pair of well-worn white sneakers and a blue-and-white school uniform, played the guitar on a stage made of concrete, along with her fellow schoolmates.
For Long, an elementary student in a poverty-stricken area in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, guitars and rock music were exotic and strange two years ago, but now they have become her greatest companions in sorrow and happiness.
The 13-year-old attends Haiga Elementary School in Haiga Village of Liupanshui City. The school, often called “the highest elementary school in Guizhou” by locals, lies in a mountainous region at an altitude of over 2,400 meters. Graffiti reading “rock school,” “music,” and “rock metal” distinguish the campus from most rural schools, that often provide few extracurricular activities. Long’s school boasts two rock bands and a soundproof music classroom. The performance that she put on with her band “The Unknown Teens” was broadcast live on Chinese short video platform Kuaishou, as part of the platform’s campaign to draw attention to rural education. –Agenices
