The school they come from sits below Mount Lalo, on the north bank of the Nalo River, at about 650 metres. Its Atayal name is Pqwasal Biru Naro. It was founded in 1933 and enrols around forty pupils in total — every grade, every classroom. The choir is a fifth of the school.
They sang two traditional pieces: one a celebration song, the other an anthem addressed to the descendants of the Atayal. The report of the morning says their pure voices pierced hearts. Among the listeners were Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim, Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung, and diplomats from ten countries, including the United States, South Korea and Palau. Hsiao spoke about trade pressure, extreme weather and geopolitical security. The children spoke about none of that.
What makes the singing possible is ordinary and weekly. Traditional song classes are part of the curriculum, built into Atayal-language teaching alongside a wooden xylophone ensemble. The language survives in the mouths of children because someone timetabled it.
The choir has travelled before. Silver at the Hoi An International Choir Festival in Vietnam in 2016. Two gold-grade awards at the World Youth Choir Festival in Hong Kong in July 2024, where twenty-four Jinping pupils competed among more than 2,400 participants. Their repertoire there ran from a Bunun mountain song to tavunga, an Inuit melody — children from a Taiwanese hillside singing Arctic music, and then singing their own.
A fifth-grader in the group wants to become a mathematics teacher; she has already been on a public-service trip to Malaysia. A sixth-grader wants to play professional basketball and says he likes meeting different people and learning the old culture. Neither ambition needs the choir. Both were shaped by it.