Breaking the silence

Echoing Xiao, Yang Xiaoshuang, deputy head of the choir, who is a volunteer and a retired violist from the Tianjin Dance and Drama Theater, says: "I found that in many of the families there are underlying tensions between the parents and the children."

Xiao says she hopes such families cannot only change their outlook toward the condition but also help to raise awareness among their children and society at large.

To Xiao and Yang's delight, several children and their parents have shown that they are coping better after joining the choir.

A teen member of the choir, says she has become more confident and that even her English grades at school have gone up after practicing the songs in English at the choir, with most improvement in her pronunciation.

A mother who didn't want to be identified, says her daughter was diagnosed with "neural deafness" (a hearing loss) at six months old, and that the mother became desperate after learning about the condition.

"Since then I have tried different means to help my daughter, including getting a cochlear implant," she says. "The choir has helped her to learn singing, expanding her horizon and I found that my daughter has become more open-minded and sociable."