One thing that has been historically lacking in the Chinese church is a corpus of indigenous worship music. In the past few years, however, some musicians have begun to compose and produce music for the church. These new songs are slowly gaining popularity.
One such composer is a woman by the name of Xiao Cao, who makes her music available online for free at her website xiaocaoshige.org. Here is the English introduction taken from her site:
I had never thought that I could write songs! My background is in Biology. I spent many years working in labs and no one around me had anything to do with music.
In 2004, I watched the movie "The Passion of the Christ", and was deeply moved. Once again, I saw that Jesus had been whipped, humiliated, shed blood and finally died on he cross for me! Once again, his love deeply touched my heart. When I returned home, a very strong feeling was stirring inside me and my heart kept crying out: "This is incomparable love! This is sacrificial love!" After a while, I opened my mouth and a song came out from my heart.
That night, I wrote two songs "Incomparable Love" and "Sacrificed Love." At midnight, I sat on my bed, thinking of God's grace and love and my heart was touched again, and I wrote another song "You are in My Life."
Since then, I write songs almost every day. No matter whether it is late in the night or early in the morning – whenever the melody or lyrics come to me, I record it or write it down. So far, I have written more than 800 songs.
I am so thankful for God's mercy to me! HE not only healed my physical sickness, HE also healed my broken heart. He even let my troubled soul sing! He collected my tears, changed them into musical notes and allowed me to sing, to praise HIM during my difficult time. HE used HIS unique way to heal my depression!
I am really thankful to HIM! Who am I to deserve HIS love and mercy? No matter what I do, I can't pay back HIS love for me. I have to offer my life to HIM, to live for HIM and to be used by HIM.Oh, my loving God, my merciful God, my faithful God, my Father in heaven! You are worthy of a life time of praising and worshiping! (11/6/2008)
Image credit: Music, by Fiona Shields, via Flickr
Are you enjoying a cup of good coffee or fragrant tea while reading the latest ChinaSource post? Consider donating the cost of that “cuppa” to support our content so we can continue to serve you with the latest on Christianity in China.