NANNING, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- In Luolou Village in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, when the emergency bullhorn airs folk songs three times a day, villagers are always all ears.
"For just a few days, let's cancel parties. Stay home and spend more time with your family," sings Pan Hongmei, a local celebrity singer, in a song that asks villagers to avoid gatherings during the novel coronavirus outbreak.
In another village in the region, a song expresses the same idea with slightly different lyrics: "No parties and visits, fewer worries to your relatives." Another song in the Miao language asks all ethnic groups to stand together in the battle against the epidemic.
When Internet-savvy urbanites shared their anti-virus knowledge via cartoons, short videos and emojis, the Zhuang people in the mountainous region sought inspiration from their ancestral love for singing and the abundant folk songs that have been passed down for generations.
Key points of the epidemic prevention and control efforts, including "don't eat bushmeat" and "wash hands properly," have been written into the lyrics of popular local melodies, which were then broadcast from bullhorns mounted in village centers or touring campaign trucks and motorcycles.
Local officials said such songs proved a more efficient means of persuasion than handing out leaflets among villagers.
Pan, a village official and local "folksong diva," said the key is to tailor anti-virus songs to be plainly worded and catchy.
After the spread of the new coronavirus convulsed the nation in late January, Pan enrolled in the village's volunteer group as a singer-songwriter to help locals guard against the virus.
Each day after work she would record new songs on her cellphone and broadcast them via bullhorns three times the next day, she told Xinhua.
"Diva, you sounded fantastic. But singing all day long will overwork you," Pan once received a kind note from a villager, who thought it was a live broadcast from her office.
Some villagers even gathered outside her office to sing an antiphony, following the local tradition. Pan had to "shoo them off" to guard against infection. "I told them 'now the virus is on the move, so it's not a good time -- this is how the song goes, don't you remember?'"
As an alternative, Pan invited them to sing the antiphony with her in online group-chats and video-calls. She said the faster the songs spread to each household, the faster the residents can learn to protect themselves and contribute to the nation's anti-virus fight.
Chinese in urban and rural areas alike have been advised to shun crowds and stay indoors to keep clear of the 2019-nCoV, which has infected over 40,000 people in China. Local governments are now working full-tilt to mobilize community workers and village officials to enforce quarantine rules and spread anti-virus messages.
For residents in remote mountains, the key to imparting the epidemic prevention knowledge lies in a good translation into local dialects and lexicons. This is particularly true for elderly residents.
Lu Qiuye, a Zhuang woman in her 70s in Dunzhou Village of Daxin, put on a medical mask and reminded her relatives to stay at home and practice good hygiene after hearing a song in the vernacular. "When people speak the 'earthly dialect' of Zhuang, my family pays more attention," she said.
Others find the songs a solace during their quarantine at home. "Don't charge into markets until you eat up the last onion," Xu Peigang, who recently returned to the border village of Longbian, recalled a song he learned, and faithfully followed, during his weeks-long isolation.
"Locals love folk songs and songs composed in their dialects," said Shi Feng, a publicity official of Rongshui County. "Moreover, singing soothes our mood in the heat of the anti-virus fight."
