"Take my songs home with you, leave your smile here with me..."
Like fairies from a fairy-tale kingdom, children spread joy and repay love
with rich singing, graceful dancing and sunny smiles.

Leaving the blue skies and white clouds behind in Taroko Gorge, twenty-odd students and teachers from the Wuhan Tzu Chi Children's Welfare Institute in Hupei Province, China, returned to the Abode of Still Thoughts to prepare for their evening performance at the year-end party in Kuan Yin Hall.

Actually, the eighteen children didn't need much rehearsing, since they had had plenty of practice. All they really needed was to put on their makeup. Before they went on stage, they were elementary school students who needed guidance and care from their teachers. After they were made up, they were trained performers.

Happy Prince Chung Hua

At the end of December, 1998, I participated in a Tzu Chi relief distribution in the flooded region of Hupei Province, China. Before the relief team returned to Taiwan, we visited the Wuhan Tzu Chi Children's Welfare Institute, located on Garden Mountain in Wuchang. The children greeted us with such pretty faces and such wonderful singing and dancing.

After his drum performance, Chung Hua, with his large eyes and thick eyebrows, went up on stage again to sing "The Small Boat of the Happy Prince." Little girls--twin sisters Li Ti and Li Chu, Yao Na, Wang Hsia, Hsiung Cheng-cheng and Yu Wen-ching--accompanied him with their gentle dancing, facing the audience with smiling eyes.

A small flower is floating on the clear stream,
Like a small boat sailing on the wide ocean.
Little ladybird, won't you please go aboard the boat?
You are like a happy prince, handsome and spirited.
I will blow softly and let the boat sail forward,
May you have a smooth journey into fairyland.
Yi-ya-yi, Yi-ya-yi,
The young princess is beautiful and kind,
She is in the Milky Way, she is in the Milky Way...

Now as I watched their performance in Hualien, I felt as though I had had a long dream in fairyland and had woken up to the last day of 1999, except that the Yellow Crane Pagoda (a famous scenic spot in Hupei) was no longer outside the window. The same song I heard one year ago--"Evening Song on a Fishing Boat"--was being performed again by Yueh-hsiang, who I remember was always practicing the Chinese zither in the practice room. Holding the hem of her skirt, ready to go on stage for her solo performance, Yueh-hsiang stuck out her tongue a few times as a sign of her nervousness. After all, she was standing at the birthplace of Tzu Chi and in front of her sat Master Cheng Yen, the founder of Tzu Chi, and an entire audience of Tzu Chi people.

It was a different time and place from a year ago, and these children were now guests in a foreign land instead of hosts at home. However, Chung Hua, who had such a memorable voice, had not changed at all--his singing, bright smile, steady stage manners, appearance and his height had all remained exactly the same.

No run-of-the-mill dream

I was deeply impressed by, or rather I liked Chung Hua not only because he sang so well, but also because from a conversation with him a year ago, I found that despite being afflicted by congenital dwarfism and looking like a four- or five-year-old boy, he had a remarkable dream.

"What do you want to do in the future?" I admired his singing voice and his steady stage manners, and I hoped to hear from him words that would sustain the bright future I envisioned for him. "Are you going to be a singer?" From the twinkle in his eyes, I knew my guess was wrong.

"I want to found a music college." He did not blurt out his answer. Apparently he had given the matter careful consideration.

Since he did not seem in a hurry to explain, I supplied my own answer: "You want to teach a lot of people to sing, right?"

"I want to recruit students who have their own ideals about music." Speaking steadily and unhurriedly, his magnanimity made me feel embarrassed for myself.

Chung Hua was one of the rare cases of a boy in China being abandoned by his parents. Lee Kuang-hui, director of the institute, pointed out that of the 517 children in the institute, only ten percent were boys. Under China's one-child policy, a boy would not normally be abandoned unless he was physically impaired. Due to the traditional concept that favors boys over girls, many parents painfully give up healthy, lovely baby girls, hoping that their next child will be a boy who can carry on the family name.

The abandoned babies are usually found in trains, train stations, piers, and at the doors of welfare institutes or ordinary houses. There are even children who were deserted on the day they were born. By the time the babies are found, they are often starved and weakened, which can greatly affect their physical and psychological health.

Director Lee pointed out that there were infant, pre-school, special education and common education classes in the institute. The children's ages range from a few days old to college graduates. The institute also provides professional medical care such as rehabilitation training for particularly feeble or disabled children.

What is worth mentioning is that in addition to the general curriculum, the institute also arranges for children to study music, dancing and other art courses in accordance with their inclinations under special teachers.

Although born into misfortune, many children in the institute, like Chung Hua, display their buoyant, passionate vitality by pursuing their interests. They have such confidence in their future that one has to believe the 170 faculty members must be giving the children love in abundance.

Fairyland on the banks of the Yangtze River

The Wuhan Tzu Chi Children's Welfare Institute, originally founded in 1928 by American Catholics, is the only institute in Hupei Province that primarily adopts orphans. In 1994, Tzu Chi members visited the institute during a disaster relief trip. They found that due to insufficient funding, two babies had to squeeze into one crib. The buildings were old and small, so older children and infants had to live in different buildings, causing inconvenience in care and management. Furthermore, there was no heating or air-conditioning, so the children had to endure the summer heat of 41 to 42 degrees Celsius (106-108 F) and bitter cold in winter.

In 1995, Tzu Chi funded the construction of a multipurpose building with an area of 378,700 square feet, which functioned as hospital, rehabilitation center, school, recreation center, orphanage, etc. The building was inaugurated on October 4, 1997, and the institute was renamed Wuhan Tzu Chi Children's Welfare Institute. It was the first such institute that Tzu Chi sponsored in mainland China. It combines the functions of child rearing, medical treatment and education.

The institute, with its red tiles and white walls, stands on the bank of the Yangtze like a castle in fairyland. With good facilities and sound management, it has become the benchmark for welfare facilities in Hupei Province. Director Lee phoned us last year to say that with central air-conditioning and boilers to supply hot water, none of the children had any heat rashes.

Take the songs home

The group arrived in Taiwan on December 28, 1999. During their twelve-day trip, Tzu Chi arranged for them to visit tourist attractions such as Taroko National Park, Sun Moon Lake, Ox Ear Stone Sculpture Park, and the Science Museum. They also visited the Tzu Chi branch offices in Taipei and Taichung, the Great Love houses in Puli, Tzu Chi Hospital in Talin, and Tzu Chi TV so that they could learn more about the foundation.

The high mountains are green,
And the mountain stream is blue.
The lasses of Ali Mountain are as beautiful as the water,
And the lads are as strong as the mountain…

The children had especially prepared this popular Taiwanese aboriginal song and accompanying dance for this trip. Master Cheng Yen found their performance refreshing and commended their thoughtfulness.

Three circles to the right and three circles to the left,
Turn your neck and twist your bottom.
Sleep early and rise early.
Let's exercise together…

They stamped on the floor and whirled around on bare feet. The rejuvenating song and movements were performed in the lobby of the Tzu Chi Hospital as a gift from the children to the patients and their families.

The children also performed at the Abode of Still Thoughts for long-term care recipients on distribution day. When they started singing "Home Town by the Sea," the twin sisters Li Chu and Li Ti moved their slim arms in wavelike motions, like seagulls soaring in the skies. Their supple bodies swirled on the ground like ocean spray blown by the wind.

The children were guests of the foundation, but they were also volunteers who performed on stage and brought joy to their audience.

Liu Li-lin, their music teacher, said, "The children shouldn't only expect people to love them, but they should also learn to love others in return." Two years ago when the Yangtze flooded, Director Lee started a fund-raising event at the institute. The children donated their pocket money and clothes to young refugees in the disaster regions, and they also performed their songs and dances to entertain soldiers who were fighting the floods.

Whoever knows how to return love will never be short of love.

"One Hundred Children Playing in the Spring"

I remember when I first visited the institute, I saw a mural called "One Hundred Children Playing in the Spring."

As I contemplated the mural, formed of ceramic tiles of different colors, I thought of the children in the institute who had all come from different places and different backgrounds. They are like ceramic tiles that are produced through high temperatures and used to turn an ordinary, gray wall into a delightful, praiseworthy work of art.

The title of the mural, "One Hundred Children Playing in the Spring," tells us that it is about blessing and happiness. We could say that by supporting the institute and providing these abandoned children an opportunity to grow up in a stable environment, Tzu Chi is creating a real-life image of "One Hundred Children Playing in the Spring." Actually, the total number of children who have grown up here and become independent over the years far exceeds a hundred--it is tens of thousands.

Director Lee said, "Although these children have lost their blood relations, they have Master Cheng Yen, the Tzu Chi "fathers" and "mothers," and their teachers to care for them. And every year, Tzu Chi members come to the institute to see the children. During this trip to Taiwan, we have felt the love of Tzu Chi wherever we went. Although only a small portion of our institute's children came this time, we will share the love we have received here with the rest of them back home."