Where the vegetation is vigorous, there are the most birds, and the people with good hearts have the most friends.

- Hani proverb

In Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, Ma Xiaoping, a descendant of Abbas, wrote his brilliant life with pride.

In 1987, Ma Xiaoping graduated from Lanzhou University and was assigned to a provincial-level administrative unit as a department cadre.

In the eyes of the average person, this is a job with a stable income and enviability. In Ma Xiaoping's view, this is a rope that binds his personality and hands and feet. He has a flexible mind, is active by nature, and is particularly interested in the pop music of the moment, but is very uncomfortable with the regular life of the institution with his commuting to and from work.

In the trend of doing business for the whole people, he found his father Ma Yuliang and discussed with him: "Ada, I really don't like the work of the agency. I want to go to the sea to do business. ”

When Ma Yuliang heard that his son was going to go to the sea to do business, he couldn't help but get nervous. He asked anxiously: "Lose your stable job and go to the sea?" In case the business doesn't go well, have you figured out a way out? Besides, what are you going to do business with? Don't do speculative things! ”

Ma Xiaoping listened to his father's questions and felt that his father had really grown old and fallen behind the times. He patiently explained: "Ada, as the saying goes, 'there is no turning back when you open a bow'. If you want to make a career, you must have indomitable determination and will, and you can't always think about what to do if you fail. I plan to take advantage of our relationship with ethnic minorities to purchase folk crafts and local products of ethnic minorities and sell them to Hong Kong, Japan and other European countries. This is an advantageous resource that we have, and we will definitely succeed. Besides, the state's encouragement of administrative institutions to do business in the sea is not speculation. ”

Ma Yu asked unwillingly: "There are many regulations and procedures for starting a business, do you understand it clearly?" Where does the registered capital come from? ”

Ma Xiaoping said with a smile: "Now the procedures for starting a business are simplified, and it can be done within a month." As for the registered capital - Ada, how much money do we have in our passbook? ”

Ma Yuliang and his wife usually save money, in addition to the salaries of two people, there are also some manuscript fees earned from publishing calligraphy, painting and poetry, but they have saved a little more money than ordinary people's families. However, the money was intended for his son to marry and start a family, so how could he use it to do business?

Ma Yuliang shook his head resolutely.

Ma Xiaoping hurriedly coaxed his father and said, "Ada, even if I borrowed this money from you." You give me half a year, or a year, and I promise to pay you back. ”

Ma Yuliang asked, "What if it can't be repaid?" What do you do when you get married? ”

Ma Xiaoping swore and promised: "I promise that I will be able to pay it back." Besides, if I don't pay on time, I won't get married. ”

Ma Yuliang glared and said, "You must marry me within two years." My friend Maisha's daughter is a doctor at the Provincial People's Hospital. You don't have to schedule things this Sunday. We sat down with two families, young and old. ”

Ma Xiaoping had an idea, and immediately said: "Ada, if you lend me money, I will definitely listen to your arrangement." Otherwise, I will be ...... for the rest of my life."

Ma Yuliang interrupted his son's words impatiently, sighed, and said: "Okay, it's really 'no child looks forward to having a son, and having a son is worried to death'!" ”

Ma Xiaoping ignored the persuasion of his parents, resolutely went through the procedures of leaving his job without pay, and soon went to the sea with a few friends to found Gaolan Trading Co., Ltd., and started a businessman. His company mainly buys ethnic handicrafts produced by ethnic minorities and local local products, and the export channels are very smooth, and the business is booming.

Ma Xiaoping has repeatedly gone deep into the mountainous areas of Dongxiang and other areas to purchase commodities. He found that the Dongxiang people there did not attach much importance to cultural and educational undertakings, and the enrollment rate of school-age children was less than 30 percent, and even those who went to school began to drop out of school as soon as they learned to read and write and settle accounts, either letting them follow their parents to grow crops or go to worship in the temple to work as a manla, and the level of education was generally very low, let alone learning modern science and technology. What is more, some extremely impoverished ordinary people of the Dongxiang ethnic group tried to get rich overnight and committed the criminal activities of drug trafficking in a desperate gamble, and many of them were sentenced to prison by law enforcement organs, and even executed for serious crimes, resulting in the breakup of complete families.

Ma Xiaoping was anxious and heartbroken when he saw this situation. He thought that a nation without culture is a nation without a future; A closed and conservative nation will eventually be eliminated by the times!

After his company became profitable, the first thing Ma Xiaoping did was to sponsor primary schools in the impoverished mountainous areas of Dongxiang County, striving to send school-age children to school. He accompanied the principals and teachers of the village schools, climbed mountains and mountains, climbed slopes and ditches, went from village to village, and went door to door to mobilize and persuade parents to send their children to school.

Walking into the dilapidated and low-rise houses of the villagers, the situation inside shocked Ma Xiaoping and shocked him. In the dark and deserted room, an earthen kang occupies half of the area. On top of the kang was a woolen blanket that was riddled with holes and could no longer be seen in its previous color, and two quilts that had been tattered into strips. Plus a black whirring pot table, not a single decent piece of furniture. It's really a family with four walls.

Seeing Ma Xiaoping come in, several children with a small age gap and dirt on their old clothes quickly hid behind their parents, revealing a pair of bright big eyes, looking at the visiting strangers shyly.

Ma Xiaoping and his teachers struggled to persuade honest, simple and stubborn parents to plan for their children's growth and future.

After listening to Ma Xiaoping's persuasion, the villagers felt that it was indeed very reasonable, and they kept nodding their heads in agreement. However, when it came time to finally express their position, the villagers still said helplessly: "In our poor place of Dongxiang, there are 9 disasters in 10 years. There are no crops growing in the fields, and people can't even eat enough to eat, where is the money for the Gawa to study? ”

Ma Xiaoping looked around at the villagers' homes and realized that the fundamental reason why the children in Dongxiang were out of school was not that the villagers were unwilling to let their children go to school, but that they could not afford to provide for their children's education. The real root cause is poverty! Poverty must first be tackled if out-of-school children are to be recovered.

Ma Xiaoping immediately rushed back to Lanzhou and loudly appealed to all sectors of society and all entrepreneurs from the industrial and commercial circles he knew to come to the impoverished mountainous areas of Dongxiang County to donate money and materials to the poor schools, adopt out-of-school children, and ensure that they complete six years of primary school.

With the full care of leaders and organizations at all levels, with the support of a group of enthusiastic people like Ma Xiaoping who care about public welfare undertakings, and with the gradual consciousness of the villagers in the poor mountainous areas of Dongxiang, the schooling rate of school-age children in Dongxiang has gradually begun to rise slowly. The sound of reading came from schools and homes.

The good times didn't last long, and new problems arose.

Some children dropped out of school after less than half a year. The sound of reading at school and at home is gradually weakening. This time it's not because of poverty, it's about language.

The Dongxiang people have their own language, which belongs to the Mongolian language group of the Altaic language family. Among the vocabulary of Dongxiang language, there are many loanwords in Chinese and Mongolian, and there are also many loanwords in Turkic, Arabic and Iranian. There is no common script of the people, and the literate minority uses Chinese.

In schools, teachers use Chinese language to teach. These children communicate in Mandarin and only use Dongxiang when they return home to communicate with their parents. Over time, the children's Dongxiang level has regressed greatly.

This phenomenon makes the parents of children worried and restless. Fearing that the language of the nation would be lost, the entire nation would disappear, they left their children at home to work instead of going to school.

It's a tricky thing to do.

When Ma Xiaoping was in school, from elementary school to university, the school used Chinese. Therefore, his Chinese language proficiency is very high, but his Dongxiang language proficiency is not satisfactory. Ma Xiaoping understands the worries of his fellow villagers from his own situation. He tentatively asked if it was possible to teach both Chinese and Dongxiang in schools.

Some people agreed, saying that this would ensure that the language and culture of ethnic minorities would continue to be passed on from generation to generation. There are also people who firmly oppose it, believing that this is to impact the interests of the whole with local interests and interfere with the promotion and use of the common language of the country.

Niu Mulin found the relevant policies and regulations of the state and studied them carefully. He first found the concept of bilingual education:

Bilingual education refers to an education system or educational model in which two or more languages are used as the medium of instruction in a region of the world.

Bilingual education for ethnic minorities in China refers to a teaching mode in which the national standard language and minority languages are used to carry out relevant curriculum teaching in the process of ethnic minority education and teaching. Through the national common language, students can learn the culture of the Chinese nation, the mainstream culture of the country, and the culture of modern science and technology, so that ethnic minority students can face the whole country, the world, and the future, and achieve greater development; Learning minority cultures through the spoken and written languages of ethnic minorities enables them to be inherited and developed. Through the bilingual curriculum system, the comprehensive quality and bilingual ability of students are cultivated, and the training goal of both Chinese and Chinese is achieved.

So, is there any basis for the implementation of relevant national laws and regulations for the implementation of bilingual education?

Ma Xiaoping saw in the "Constitution of the People's Republic of China": Chapter 19 stipulates that the state promotes the use of Mandarin throughout the country. Article 4 also points out that all ethnic groups have the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written languages, and to maintain or reform their own customs and habits.

Article 37 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Regional Ethnic Autonomy stipulates that schools (classes) and other educational institutions that mainly enroll ethnic minority students shall use textbooks in minority languages and teach in minority languages where conditions permit; According to the situation, Chinese language courses will be set up from the lower or upper grades of primary school to promote Mandarin and standardized Chinese characters that are commonly used throughout the country.

Article 12 of Chapter 1 of the Education Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that the Chinese language is the basic language of instruction in schools and other educational institutions. Schools and other educational institutions with a predominantly minority student population may use the spoken and written language commonly used by their own ethnic group or the local ethnic group for teaching.

Seeing this, Ma Xiaoping slapped the table with his hand, stood up excitedly, walked to the bright window, and looked at the thriving Lanzhou.

He happily said to his assistant: "These laws and regulations clearly stipulate that ethnic minorities should learn the standard spoken and written language of the state and their own ethnic languages, and that the ethnic languages may be used in teaching in the school education of ethnic minorities, but the use of Mandarin and standardized Chinese characters used throughout the country should be promoted." This points out the direction for the implementation of bilingual education and the determination of bilingual education models. ”

Ma Xiaoping immediately wrote to the relevant departments, suggesting that bilingual education be implemented in minority areas in accordance with state laws and regulations.

After consulting the higher authorities and the relevant ministries and commissions of the central government, and after a long period of investigation and study, the relevant departments finally officially issued a document at the end of the second year to carry out the pilot work of bilingual education in some areas inhabited by ethnic minorities. Schools in the impoverished mountainous areas of Dongxiang were included in the pilot units.

After the pilot project of bilingual education was launched, the villagers of the Dongxiang ethnic group dispelled their worries and gradually began to send their children to school again.

Ma Xiaoping saw that his efforts had turned into fruitful results, and he felt very satisfied and proud in his heart.

It was at this time that the situation in the world changed dramatically and alarmingly. At 19:40 on December 25, 1991, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev announced his resignation as president. The next day, the House of Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR held its last meeting and declared the cessation of the existence of the USSR after 70 years. As a result, the Soviet Union was disintegrated and divided into 15 countries: three East Slavia, three Baltic states, three Transcaucasian states, Moldova and five nation-states in Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

The five countries of Central Asia suddenly and independently appeared in front of the world with their splendid national colors, which aroused the interest, attention, and research of all countries in the world, and began exchanges with them.

The people of these countries are inextricably linked with the Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Hui, Dongxiang, Salar and other ethnic groups in China, both historically and in modern times. The state, relevant scholars, experts, and relevant nationalities have all paid more attention to the five Central Asian countries and are actively developing cooperative relations in the political, economic, and cultural fields.

Ma Xiaoping's old problem of being lively and unwilling to be lonely has been committed again. He transferred his well-established Gaolan Trading Co., Ltd. to a friend, and founded the Salta Culture and Art Company, and began to pursue his musical dream.

This time, he learned the skill of being mellow in the world, and first adapted the long Dongxiang love narrative poems "Ma Wuge and Gadou Mei" and "Aunt Salta" written by his father Ma Yuliang into a song and dance drama.

These two songs and dances deeply touched the audience with their strong national customs and touching storylines, not only sensational in the northwest region, but also to the whole country, and finally even went abroad, touring more than 20 countries and regions in the world, especially in the five countries of Central Asia, which caused a strong response from the local people.

The people of all countries living in the homeland of the Khorezm Empire watched the song and dance drama brought by Ma Xiaoping, and only then did they know that there are still several fraternal nationalities living in China that are closely related to them.

In five Central Asian countries, Afghanistan, Iran and other countries, Ma Xiaoping visited the legendary historical cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, Urgench, Fergana, Andijan, Mare, Herat and Malasad, wandered on the banks of the wide Amu Darya, Syr Darya, Zeravshan and Murghab rivers, looked at the majestic Tianshan Mountains, the Hindu Kush Mountains, the Karatau Mountains and the Turkestan Mountains, walked through the vast Karakum Desert and the Kizilkum Desert, and looked for the footprints left by his ancestors in the Han Sea. Remembering the arduous journey of the ancestors who left their homeland and went to a foreign land.

When Ma Xiaoping was purchasing and collecting wind in Dongxiang County, he discovered the prince of folk songs of the Dongxiang tribe - Marsa.

It was early in the morning, and he chartered a local semi-new jeep in Suonanba Township, the county seat of Dongxiang, to arrive in Banxiang to buy embroidered velvet blankets made by Dongxiang women.

The driver of the car was a young man from the Dongxiang ethnic group. As soon as he got into the car, he put a cassette of songs into the car radio.

A man's voice singing flowers in Dongxiang came out of the loudspeaker. Although the singer's singing skills are slightly primitive, the melody of the song is melodious and moving, and the singer's voice is high-pitched and bright, and full of appeal.

Ma Xiaoping knows the singers of the music industry in Lanzhou and even Gansu Province well. However, he listened to it for a long time and didn't hear which famous singer this was, so he asked the driver curiously: "Ga guy, is it Ah (which) one is singing?" ”

The driver replied: "This is Marsa in the mountain village." Ga guy is talented, and he has a natural musical talent. Not only can I make flowers, but I can also sing. The villagers say that he is the prince of flowers in our mountains. I recorded this tape for him with a tape recorder. ”

Ma Xiaoping quickly concluded that this is a rare musical talent with his profound musical literacy. His heart was extremely excited, and he waved his big hand forward and said, "We won't go to Daban Township." Go to Takayama Village immediately. Let's go find this Marsa. ”

After several hours of bumpy driving on the mountain road, they came to a remote and barren mountain village, and they found out about Marsa, who was working in the yellow earth halfway up the mountain.

The driver stopped the car in the ravine, put his hands in the shape of a horn over his mouth, and shouted vigorously: "Martha, come down quickly, there is something urgent!" ”

Marsa responded, "Come on." You wait a little bit (for a while). ”

Martha put down his hoe and ran down the mountainside in a puff of smoke.

Martha looked to be in his mid-20s, wearing a white hat soaked with sweat on his head, and a fat, large set of clothes covered with beads of sweat and dust the size of beans. When he saw a stranger, he smiled shyly, revealing a row of yellowed teeth.

The driver explained to him what he meant: "Marsa, this is the musician Ma Age from the provincial city of Lanzhou. He listened to your songs, thought you were a talent, and came to see you. ”

Marsa said shyly: "When you work alone, you are very lonely, and when you see something, you put it into flowers, and sing it to relax." It's all singing indiscriminately at home, making Lanzhou's elder brother laugh. ”

Ma Xiaoping wanted to inspect his creative ability on the spot, so he asked tentatively: "Can you watch me make up a flower and sing it now?" ”

Martha nodded, opened his mouth and sang aloud:

"Early in the morning (well) the magpie called (a) Huan,

Lanzhou's elder brother (person) to the wheat field.

Ask 'Isa what to do,

Drink a bowl of hot tea at home. ”

Ma Xiaoping listened to the song and praised happily: "Not bad." Not bad indeed. Do you want to be a professional actor? ”

Marsa's face was flushed with shame suddenly, and he said with a worried expression: "This brother is laughing. I am a farmer in a poor ravine, where is the material to be a professional actor? ”

Ma Xiaoping said with certainty: "You are not only a good material for being an actor, but also a good material for being an excellent actor." Let's go, go home and pack up, and follow me down to Lanzhou today. ”

Marsa's smart mind, coupled with diligence and studiousness, soon emerged in the music scene of Gansu Province under Ma Xiaoping's careful training and packaging. He appeared on the TV screen and in various theatrical evenings with his handsome and handsome appearance and unique ethnic costumes, and became a well-known professional singer of Dongxiang flowers with his authentic and rich Dongxiang flower folk songs.

Ma Xiaoping struck while the iron was hot and produced and released a solo album for him called "The Son of Sarta".

"Son of Salta" sold very well. Ma Xiaoping has repeatedly increased printing, but the supply is still in short supply.

Ma Xiaoping simply opened the Jincheng Art School, personally served as the principal, and specially discovered and cultivated the folk singers of the Han, Hui, Dongxiang, Salar, Baoan, Yugur, Mongolian and other ethnic groups in Gansu Province, and vigorously inherited and passed on the folk art treasures of the Chinese nation.