Cultural resonance

Promotion of the Kodaly method in China is not "one-way", as Buslig points out. "Cultural communication is a process of mutual learning," she says. "We can also gain new inspiration from the program."

This emotional resonance has a historical foundation. Magyars, the main ethnic group of Hungary, are widely believed to have come from the East.

Ancient Hungarian folk songs, those from before the 18th century, were composed using the pentatonic scale (five notes per octave), according to Lanczky, and the scale is the one primarily used in the Kodaly method to educate children.

Ancient Chinese music also traditionally adopts a pentatonic structure.

In the past year, Lanczky has traveled around China collecting many Chinese ballads from Inner Mongolia, Sichuan, Guizhou and other provinces and autonomous regions.

"The Kodaly method has been a good way to preserve traditional Hungarian folk songs, which are usually duets," she says. "And Chinese folk songs, which have a more complicated structure, can enrich its contents."

She and her colleagues are now drafting the first textbook of the Kodaly method specifically for China. Whenever she delivers classes, she asks local teachers like Huang to collect as many traditional local songs as possible for future textbooks.

On the final day of class in Anren, a chorus of local children presented Bodzavirag, a Hungarian household folk song. Like their angelic voices, the faculty's passion for the art also seems to be soaring.