"Come on, everyone looks in the mirror, lower your back and press your legs, lift your legs and kick your legs, keep the angle, amplitude and speed ......" 

In the gymnasium of Yunhe County No. 3 Middle School during the lunch break, the newly elected representative of the 20th Party Congress, the physical education teacher and director of the moral education department of Yunhe County No. 3 Middle School Zhong Huayan, as usual, instructs the 30 members of the "Yun Zhi Meng" aerobics team to train.

She is tall, dressed in loose casual sportswear, with a long ponytail and a bright smile on her wheat-coloured face.

As a party member as well as a teacher, she has been working for 14 years, always with education in mind and students in mind, using her profession of aerobics to plant seeds of hope in the hearts of the students of Yunhe County No. 3 Middle School and light up the lives of children in the mountains.

"It is my greatest happiness that the children can progress and achieve their dreams," she said.

To better perform her duties, she makes time to listen to and collect the views of grassroots party members and the public. At the same time, she also goes through party history books and research reports to study and familiarise herself with the theoretical materials.

"As a delegate to the 20th Congress from the field of education, I want to bring the voice of grassroots education to Beijing."

In 2008, 24-year-old Zhong Huayan returned to her hometown of Yunhe after graduating from Taizhou College's physical education school and became a physical education teacher with great aspirations.

Her school, a mountainous boarding school in the context of Yunhe's "small county, big city" development strategy and school layout adjustment, is responsible for the county's "five townships and three towns" and for teaching the children of migrant workers at the junior high school level. More than 80% of the school's students are left-behind rural children or children of migrant workers.

"I came from the countryside and it was a sport that opened my eyes to the bigger world. As a party member, I want to do what I can to help more children realise their dreams." In order to develop the skills of mountain children, she took the lead in setting up the "Yun Zhi Meng" aerobics team at Yunhe County No. 3 Middle School in 2011.

As the children did not have a basic knowledge of aerobics, she taught them simple movements such as basic hand shapes, expressions and postures. In order not to interfere with the children's studies, she took the children and squeezed in time after school to carry out training. In the absence of professional teaching materials, she researched and compiled a special aerobics course called "Dazzling Youth", which was promoted throughout the school.

Through years of perseverance and training, the school's students have participated in 1,527 aerobic competitions at all levels and have won first and second place in national competitions, 33 gold, 31 silver and 27 bronze medals in provincial competitions and ten consecutive titles in city competitions. 20 students have also been admitted to Beijing Sport University and Wuhan Institute of Physical Education with their aerobic skills.

"The children in the mountains are no worse than the children in the big cities! Look, these are the photos of the children who won the competition." Zhong Huayan pointed to the photo wall and told reporters that watching the children progress and achieve their dreams is her greatest happiness.

A party member is a role model. On the one hand, Zhong Huayan grasps the teaching of physical education without relaxing, on the other hand, she puts the students' big and small matters into her heart.

"She is the last one to eat in the canteen and the last one to leave the office." In the eyes of colleague He Weifen, Zhong Huayan treats her students like her own children.

Zhong Huayan found that several children in the high school section were thin and felt distressed, and often woke up early to cook eggs for the children to supplement their nutrition using an electric rice cooker.

"Aerobics training is physically demanding and the children have to keep up with the nutrition." She said.

Zhong Huayan is also the "Party Member Loving Mother" of dozens of children left behind in the mountains.

"In my work, I often meet children who are left behind at home because their parents are away working, and they desperately need to be cared for."

Zhong Huayan said that in order to help the children of these special families, she and her school teachers have been paired with children left behind in the mountains since 2018, forming the "Party Member Loving Mother" volunteer service team, which visits special families in remote villages such as Shitang Township, Chishi Township and Qisuitan Township every year along the long road to give them love and assistance.

Under the influence of Zhong Huayan, nowadays, more and more young party members have joined the team of "party members love mothers", and more than 40 party members in Yunhe County No. 3 Middle School have taken the initiative to pair up with 230 single-parent left-behind children in the county to send more warmth to the children in the mountains.

Zhong Huayan has been honoured as a national model teacher, a national-level referee and coach for aerobics (cheerleading), and one of the 10,000 good party members in Zhejiang province, but her original intention has remained the same.

After being elected as a delegate to the 20th Party Congress, Zhong Huayan admits that the burden on her shoulders has also become heavier. She said, "I will continue to play their own light and enthusiasm to the power of education so that the sunshine of urban and rural areas together to light up the future of children in the mountains."

Translator: Fan Chenyu (Intern)

Editor: Ye Ke, Fan Chenyu (Intern)