DEVOTED VOX: Yu Quan, a famous Chinese pop duo, sing at an activity organized by the Hope Project, a charity program aimed at bringing primary school education to children in poverty-stricken areas, in Beijing on April 22, 2008. The two have long been devoted to writing nursery songs (CFP)

Many children learn music for utilitarian purposes such as gaining additional scores in various entrance examinations. Society lacks an atmosphere that encourages carefree singing. It is no wonder there are no new classics in nursery songs, they commented.

In addition, the contents of many old nursery songs lag behind the times. This makes the creation of new songs even more urgent. For instance, a famous old nursery song goes, I found a penny on the road. I picked it up and gave it to the policeman. Almost every young man has sung this song during childhood, learning the virtue of returning money found. However, a penny is rarely used in today's China because of its decreased value.

It is imperative to encourage artists, musicians and educators to create a large number of new children's songs.

Good children's music has an invisible force. It can imperceptibly influence kids' behavior. Also, it strengthens kinship between parents and children.

Almost all people born in the 1980s remember the nursery song called Good Mother."The famous song goes, My mother comes home from a hard day's work. She must be very tired. Mom, please sit down, and have a cup of tea. Many children, as the song taught them, sweetly served tea to their parents when they came back home from work.

Making efforts

Fortunately, new efforts have already been made in this field.

Currently, China's New Generation of Voice is making great strides to promote the creation of new nursery songs for today's children.

It plans to invite a group of talented music writers and singers to create new nursery songs. "I hope our program can serve as a new breakthrough for children's music education," said Lei Ying, Director of Aniworld TV.

Specifically, the program will sort out a number of classic nursery songs and update them by changing certain lyrics or melodies. In this way, the songs can keep up with the times.

However, the power of one TV program is far from enough to give a generation of children songs of their own. It needs joint efforts by society, said Lei.

Other encouraging effort comes from children themselves. Recently, a nursery song swept microblogging websites in China.

Daddy, you say the sunshine is so bright today, but the wind is so strong. It blows the sunshine away. The sunshine loses. The wind wins…

This nursery song, named The Sunshine Loses, was written by a 4-year-old girl, and sung together by a 7-year-old and an 8-year-old. The song touched the hearts of thousands of netizens. They could not have imagined such a beautiful and fresh song was created by such young children.

Children are indeed able to create their own songs. The pity is that adults seldom listen to them carefully.

The success of the song not only came because of its simple and catchy lyrics, but also because of the purity of the child world. These are the most precious and beautiful natures, which adults lost while growing up.

It is essential for Chinese society to listen to the voices of children. This requires efforts by all circles of society. Parents should spend more time playing with their children and letting the kids know they love and support them unconditionally. And educators should make education more children-oriented. Education geared toward pragmatism and a desire for quick returns should be abandoned. What's more, society should create a healthy environment for children's growth.

Also, adults should create more soul foods for children. Today, children mostly grow up in the company of computer games and cartoons. In addition to nursery songs, fairy tales, comic books, plays and paintings are all needed.

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