Dong chorus teams from Guizhou's Liping county win several gold medals in an art competition, held in Hong Kong, on March 26. [Photo/www.gog.cn]

Dong chorus teams from Guizhou's Liping county won a number of awards, including gold medals, excellence medals, and other top awards, during their recent participation in a Hong Kong art competition for middle-aged and senior citizens across the country.

Hosted by Chinese Red Maple Art Tournament Organizing Committee, the competition saw 27 teams across China give stage performances to celebrate the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up.

Two grand choruses sung together by male and female chorus teams won gold medals. Shi Yuetao, head of the Dong chorus team in Liping won a special prize for her singing performance.

Tracing back 2,500 years, grand chorus is an indispensable part of the culture of the Dong ethnic group. Adopting simplified Chinese characters only in the last few centuries, the people of Dong did not have a writing system until then. Infusing a musical twist on traditional folklore, they used songs as a way of communicating and passing down stories from generation to generation.

In September 2015, Dong people in Liping county voluntarily organized a Dong chorus team, with the goal of protecting and passing down the intangible culture. As of now, the team has won several awards in Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Taiwan and even Russia.

During the competition, Shi and the other 32 team members of the team conveyed the culture of the Dong ethnic group through their natural singing, helping to spur on national cultural exchanges.

Zhao Yandi contributed to the story