Saving the jia

Photo Provided to China Daily

The disease forced Wang to retire after three years, but he insisted in collecting the Jia as long as his body could still move.

"I did not regard myself as a patient. I just want to keep doing what I like.

First his feet, then his legs - the disease took away Wang's mobility bit by bit, but he kept working. After he could not walk anymore, he invited the elders to his home.

When Chen Jincai, a respected elder in nearby Zhanliang village, heard of Wang's devotion to collecting the Jia, he came to Wang's home, and stayed for two weeks. He sang the Jia and explained it to Wang. Wang used more than 50 cassettes.

"When I was told I could only live 25 years at most, 2008 became the deadline for finishing the book," Wang recalls. "Because of the disease, I could sit and write only three or four hours each day. But when I rested in bed, I listened to the recordings. I almost never watched TV in those years and at the end of 2008, I finally completed the first draft of the book."

With his perseverance and determination, Wang not only completed the collection, but also managed to prolong his own life. His love for the Jia and the culture of the Miao ethnic group helped him defy his prognosis. He outlived the doctors' estimations.

"Although most of his body is paralyzed, he used his hands and fingers - his only moving parts - to document more than 20,000 lines of the Jia and 30,000 Miao folk songs. He rescued the memories of our ethnic group," says Yu Qiuyang from the Museum of Miao Culture in Danzhai county.

The 2013 award for Chinese cultural figure of the year is a great recognition of his contribution to Miao culture, but Wang says: "Those inheritors of the Miao's Jia were real heroes for protecting and inheriting folk culture. I owe a great deal to all of them."

Wang says that, while he feels honored by the award, he also feels a great responsibility. Wang plans to publish another book about Danzhai county's history and culture this year. "As long as I can move, I will not give up this work," he says firmly.

"It is meaningful for us to use our limited lives and do something for eternal culture, and I think it's worth doing."

Jia Tingting and Xing Yi contributed to this story