Zhao Zhiqiang's parents used to worry that their son would turn into a "bad boy" as he was, in their eyes, hanging out in the wrong company.

Growing up in Qitai county in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Zhao was raised by his father, but also spent time with his mother. He didn't like going to school, and spent a lot of time hanging out with youths who were much older than him.

"I didn't know what I would become until one of the kids I played with showed me his guitar," recalls Zhao. "When he played the instrument, I became fascinated. I loved the sound and started to listen to rock music he shared with me."

At 13, Zhao taught himself the guitar and formed his own band, which caused further paternal concern.

However, rather than becoming a "bad boy", Zhao devoted himself to music, playing guitar for hours every day, and tried to prove himself to his parents by studying hard in school so that he could continue playing. Though he had a regular job in his hometown as a driver, of which his parents approved, Zhao still loved playing his guitar.

In 2011, after discussing his idea with his parents, Zhao quit his job and opened a store selling musical instruments, such as keyboards, guitars and drums. He also trained youngsters to play instruments and helped them form their own bands.

One of the teenage bands that Zhao helped form, named Honghai'er, or Red Boy, stood out in a national music competition, and they won an award at the Midi Kids Band Competition, which concluded on Feb 20 in Beijing.

Now in its sixth year, the competition, which was launched and organized by the Beijing Midi Art Communication Co, saw 75 bands compete from May last year to February.

These were then divided into two groups: children aged under 12 and children aged from 13 to 17, according to the competition's organizer, Ren Guobin.

"We've seen a diversity of musical styles and great original songs performed by these young bands coming from different parts of the country," Ren says. The company also organizes the Beijing Midi Music Festival, one of the oldest and largest events of its kind in China.

"It was the first time that Honghai'er entered the top 10 ranking of the competition. I am so proud of them," says 41-year-old Zhao, adding that the band has participated in the competition three times since it was founded in 2018. "Like my parents who used to worry about me, their parents also feel reluctant about their children playing in a band. The award is quite convincing, which also makes the members and their parents proud."

The band is led by 12-year-old lead singer and guitarist Bao Zimo. The other members are guitarist Hou Wenbo, bassist and guzheng (a traditional, zither-like stringed instrument) player Pei Shoupeng and drummer Wang Peng. They named the band Honghai'er because coincidentally, the members all wore red when they did their first rehearsal.

Since Xinjiang is home to different ethnic groups, with Zimo being of Hui ethnicity and the other members of the Han ethnic group, the band has absorbed folk music styles, and sings stories from their hometown Xinjiang.

One of their songs is called Song of Shule, which was inspired by a local folklore about Shule, an ancient city in Kashgar.

"One day, the children shared a movie they watched with me, which was director Zack Snyder's 300.They were impressed by the brave warriors," recalls Zhao. "I told them a story about Shule, which is about a battle led by a general named Geng Gong over 2,000 years ago. With a few hundred soldiers, the general fought against an outnumbering army to protect Shule city. In extremely severe conditions, such as harsh weather and a lack of food, they bravely fought and won the battle with only 13 people left.

"We wrote the song together and performed it for the first time during the competition," says Zhao.

The song won best original song when they competed in an event in Southwest China.

Vocalist Zimo started to learn to play the guitar with Zhao when he was 5.

"We wrote the song from the very first note together. Though we didn't win the competition, we were happy that our song was heard by so many people during the event."

Under Zhao's guidance, the band also wrote another song, I Am You, which they also performed during the competition. "It is like a letter from the band members to their parents. It's also what I want to say to parents, to my parents in particular. It talks about worrying parents and their children, who are rebellious in the eyes of the parents. The song is about the communication between children and their parents," says Zhao.

"Like any other children learning to play instruments, such as piano and violin, they need to work hard on practicing. Doing rehearsals enables them to listen to one another, just like chamber musicians. They grow up and continue their school work while enjoying music," he adds.

Another group that stood out among the competitors, and which was made a top 10 finalist during the competition, was a band of Qiang and Tibetan ethnic performers from Maoxian county, Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture, Sichuan province. The name of the band, Esinaba, means "azalea flower" in the Qiang language.

The band was formed in March last year, and is made up of six children, including lead singer Li Guoran, guitarist Zhang Ruixiang and drummer Qiu Zixin, with an average age of 10.

According to their music teacher Ha Xue, it was formed to perform folk songs and compositions based on Qiang folk music.

"The original idea of forming a band was to make our school's musical education interesting and appealing to children. Our goal is to popularize our folk music and allow this beautiful music to reach a wider audience," says Ha, a music teacher at two local primary schools in Maoxian county. She adds that one of the members in the band is Yu Mengxiaofeng, who plays a Qiang musical percussion instrument made of sheepskin.

"We collected old songs of our ethnic group, many of which even have no written lyrics and are passed down by elders humming to their children," says the teacher. "I worked with the children to turn the old songs into new pieces with contemporary instruments. We plan to release an album this year featuring some of the songs we collected and adapted."

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