“The first step in realizing your dream is to not be afraid of any challenge,” Liu Wa from Bejing Chaoyang Kaiwen Academy said.

This July, when Liu was informed that the music festival her band was attending had some trouble and was about to be cancelled, she decided to take over the job of hosting it. “I thought to myself, how hard could hosting be?” What’s more, she turned this festival into a charity event by raising money for a stray dog rescue station in Anhui province.

Liu became a volunteer for the station by coincidence two years ago. “I realized how much money it could take to save those dogs. This music festival is exactly the opportunity I need to raise people’s awareness of protecting stray dogs and donate money for them,” Liu said.

Liu and her two friends, who are also members of the band needed to find sponsorships, set up the venue and contact bands of high schools in Beijing to perform within two weeks. “Negotiating with sponsors was tricky sometimes as we needed to figure out what they wanted and trade with resources we had,”Liu recalled. They managed to cooperate with companies such as a study abroad agency to cover the expense as much as possible. Many parents also “sponsored” them with their homemade food.

The weather forecast had said that the day of the music festival, Aug 6, was going to be rainy. “We were so worried at first. But then a miracle happened: It only rained a little toward the end, helping us to sell the umbrellas we had prepared,” Liu said.

Audiences were mainly friends, parents and students. “Because of the pandemic, the audiences were limited to no more than 200 people, which also pushed us to come up with ways of earning money other than tickets,” Liu explained. Eventually, they managed to raise 50,000 yuan from rain gear, food, and accessories they had designed.

Having been looked down upon many times by professional bands in Beijing, Liu also sees this festival as a way of telling the world that high school bands are just as good. “I want to run our own music channel on Bilibili. Our love for music will never stop,” Liu said.

Bondi, a British singer, songwriter and pianist has become an ambassador(大使)for the Lang Lang International Music Foundation. That’s because he hopes to build more musical bridges with his audience in China. “I can’t wait to visit China, experience the culture and hopefully make music with the artists there,” says Bondi.

The musician has already composed for and performed with many international stars. But working with a Chinese artist is still on top of his wish list. “This means the world to me,” he says. “I went to see Lang Lang when I was very young in my hometown. He’s one of the greatest pianists of all time, and he’s such a big inspiration to me.”

The foundation’s international ambassadors are a group of people who offer free music education to young people around the world. “Their task is to organize workshops to guide young kids. It’s just such a beautiful organization, and I’m so proud to be part of it,” Bondi says.

Lucas, the foundation’s CEO, comments that “music education is the perfect instrument to bring young Chinese and Western artists together and create lasting connections”. “Our young talents’ program offers both Chinese and non-Chinese kids the opportunity to learn from Lang Lang himself and from instructors and upcoming stars like Bondi,” he says.

Using his modern, humorous jazz skills and sweet, inspiring voice, Bondi has taken on the task to build bridges between different cultures and musical types. “My dream is to bring joy and love to people through music. I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world for the past 10 years,” Bondi says.

A job is more than just a job, especially to the older generation. “It’s not the money that matters, but the sense of self-worth,” 56-year-old Cheng Wonlan said. So, every day Ms Cheng carries a bag of parcels, letters and documents of all shapes and sizes and does her rounds in North Point. She’s a deliverer.

Five years ago, Ms Cheng was a nurse at a private clinic. She had worked there for almost 30 years but was made jobless when the clinic closed down. It was extremely difficult for her to find another job as a nurse. “People do not trust my ability when they learn how old I am,” she said. After two years of searching, the mother of two eventually found another nursing job. But then after two years, she quit. Why?

“My colleagues were young and they didn’t understand me because of my age. They often asked me, ‘You are so old, what are you working for?’ ”I was very unhappy.“ she said. So while the rest of her family left for work, she was left to lonely boredom at home. Then, one of Ms Cheng’s neighbors told her about Employee’s Retraining Board (ERB) offering retraining courses for older people on specific occupations, such as convenience store assistants, junior clerks and so on.

”I was interested in courier work. I didn’t think my age was a barrier because I was fit and healthy,“ she said. Upon graduation from the ERB, Ms Cheng was offered a job by the Speeding Shuttle Courier Service Company Limited. But then Ms Cheng was caught between honor and employment. It took Ms Cheng 24 hours to make up her mind and eventually she took heart and went off to work as a courier.

Ms Cheng’s employer is delighted with her. “Ms Cheng has been working with us for two months and has shown a good responsible attitude to work.” Anthony Chong, who runs the company, said. Mr Chong said he hired older people because they were able and reliable. “Age is not an important factor but attitude is. Many old people are more capable than youngsters. They will not run from difficulties but young ones might,” he said. “It is not easy to recruit young people since many of them shy away from hardship and challenges.”