Tiny trumpeter's ceremony melody hit right note

A 9-year-old solo trumpeter who performed at the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics practiced the melody about a thousand times before his big night at the Bird's Nest on Friday.

During the ceremony at the iconic venue, formally known as the National Stadium, Zhu De'en, a Beijing primary school student, played the song Me and My Motherland, well-known in China, as representatives from all walks of life and the nation's 56 ethnic groups passed the national flag to the flagpole.

Lasting more than a minute, the little trumpeter's confident performance deeply impressed audience members. One comment on a Sina Weibo micro-blog post about De'en said that as soon as his trumpet sounded out, the viewer almost cried. Another said De'en was adorable and excellent.