Martin Li

    martin.mouse@163.com

    SHE is good at singing and always sings with her friends in the square in front of Shenzhen Book City CBD Store in Futian District on Saturday evenings.

    The purpose of their performance is not to make money but to raise funds to help autistic children in Shenzhen.

    She is Dong Anqi, a pop music art major at Shenzhen University (SZU) and one of the three founders of Voice of Love (VOL).

    VOL is dedicated to raising funds for an autistic children’s education institution in Shekou and for children with congenital heart disease through their street performances.

    Make a change

    Like many of her friends born after 1990, Dong lived a well-off and carefree life. She hung out with her two best friends almost every weekend during high school.

    The three girls would go shopping, sing at karaoke bars and see movies. However, they gradually started feeling they were wasting time.

    “Each time we asked for fun money, we felt useless. We began to believe the only thing we were good at was spending money,” Dong recalled.

    Dong and her friends decided to do something good for the public by singing, which they were good at. So they established VOL.

    Their first goal was to raise money for a church one of the girls attended.

    An outgoing girl and singing enthusiast, Dong was not nervous at all during that first performance.

    When the three girls finished the performance, only a man with his baby stayed after to talk to them.

    The baby was Yang Wuyou, and he was suffering from 14 diseases, including congenital heart disease.

    The father asked Dong and her friends to help raise funds for the boy’s medical treatments at Shenzhen Children’s Hospital.

    Dong and her friends decided to help him after learning that he was physically handicapped because of a traffic accident. His wife spent all her time taking care of the sick baby.

    Hard beginning

    In the beginning, Dong and her friends went to the square by metro every Saturday with heavy sound equipment, which VOL member Zhang Jiahui’s mother paid for.

    They would sing all day until 10 p.m. and then take the metro back home in Longgang District, which is far away from central Futian.

    Even when it was raining, the girls would keep singing by using umbrellas to protect the sound equipment.

    Love grows

    Dong said she didn’t intend to do the street performances on a regular basis. However, she and her friends did it one week after another because they didn’t want to give up on the suffering boy.

    VOL gradually grew in size as students watching the performance were drawn to it.

    VOL now has more than 100 student members.

    Dong said that VOL’s recruitment is not based on someone’s singing ability, but on their loving heart and persistence.

    Continuation

    After entering SZU, Dong could not join in the performances as often because of her busy school schedule. However, she tries her best to perform whenever she is available. In addition, she keeps visiting little Wuyou, who is making improvements.

    Dong said the boy’s smiling face brings her happiness.

    “VOL will continue, and our focus is on the boy and all the children at the autistic children education institution in Shekou,” said Dong.

    Dong said VOL is currently raising less money than they used to. They used to be able to raise more than 7,000 yuan for a single performance.

    Not for fame

    A music institution in Shenzhen filmed a music video for the three girls for free, in which they sing Adele’s “Someone like you.”

    The video has drawn more than 1 million viewers on the Internet, making the girls’ charity act known to the public.

    After that, many popular TV programs invited them to be guests, but they only participated in a few.

    Dong and the other girls were invited to appear on a TV show in Tianjin in June last year. Yang Wuyou and his father were also invited.

    However, the boy kept crying on the plane because he was having problems breathing and was sent to the hospital as soon as the plane landed at Tianjin airport.

    The boy had to stay in the intensive care unit (ICU) at the hospital, which cost about 3,000 yuan (US$492) per day.

    The three girls gave all the money that was supposed to be used for traveling to Tianjin to the boy’s father to cover the ICU costs.

    Unfortunately, the girls’ acts of charity have also invited misunderstandings. They used to be criticized by other street performers in the square. The girls sometimes try to keep a low profile to deflect criticism.

    “We don’t need to explain (why we are doing so). We are grateful for people who trust us and don’t care about people who distrust us. We are only doing something we believe is right and meaningful,” said Dong.

    “We don’t need to explain (why we are doing so). We are grateful for people who trust us and don’t care about people who distrust us. We are only doing something we believe is right and meaningful.”

    — Dong Anqi