Love for music

"Food for the body; song for the mind" has been a motto among the Dong people for generations. Hu's father was a famous singing master in the local area and he made a strong impression on Hu throughout her childhood.

Hu soon became the best female singer in her village and her fame spread to the surrounding areas. Thanks to her good memory, Hu can perform over 100 Dong songs and has mastered various singing techniques. Such talents are seen as desirable by young Dong men. The story goes that it was during a local match-making ritual that a young man named Yang Shengjin won Hu's heart with his singing. They soon married and the couple moved to Zaidang Village where Hu started to work towards becoming a singing master.

Before a training school was built in the village, children would spontaneously gather at Hu's home after dinner; the living room became her classroom. Hu held voluntary classes at home for three decades, during which time she continued to learn, practice, and share Dong songs, teaching more than 200 students in total.

Her outstanding contribution to the inheritance of the Kam Grand Choir resulted in the local government selecting Hu as excellent singing master in 2004. In 2007, she won the title of Outstanding Inheritor of Chinese Folk Culture awarded by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Chinese Folk Literature and Art Society. In 2013, Hu was named an official inheritor of China's national intangible cultural heritage.

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