Songs from Maidichong

Overview

A group of Miao minority Christians live in Maidichong, a small village in a remote mountain area in Yunnan Province. Christianity was brought to them by an English missionary called Samuel Pollard in 1903. Pollard created the Miao script for these villagers and translated the Bible into their language. For years, singing hymns and the gospels have brought joy to these Miao, and carried them though hard time, including the Cultural Revolution. At that time, they were forced to renounce their faith for Communism. Memories of this period remain strong among the villagers, but today, the holy songs once again reverberate through Maidichong, as the villagers’ belief in divine grace never truly disappeared.