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On the morning of Oct 23, Chinese singer-songwriter Liu Shuang arrived in Heze, Shandong province, with his band to perform at an outdoor music festival.
10月23日早晨，独立音乐人柳爽抵达山东菏泽，携乐队成员登台菏泽海报音乐节。
柳爽 图源：中国日报
One hour before they checked their equipment and tested the sound, they were told that the event had been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
还没来得及检测设备和试音，他们便被告知因疫情防控，2021菏泽海报音乐节延期举办，原定活动取消。
Liu and the band were soon on their way back to Beijing, where they are based.
不久，柳爽和乐队又返回了他们的驻地北京。
On the train journey to the Chinese capital, Liu received a message on Sina Weibo, saying that his song Mohe Ballroom had gone viral on the Douyin video-sharing platform.
回北京的路上，柳爽收到微博私信：他的歌《漠河舞厅》在抖音火了。
However, he didn't take the message seriously until the next day, when he learned that footage of the song had been viewed more than 10 million times on Douyin.
起初他没有在意这个消息。但第二天《漠河舞厅》的片段在抖音的浏览量就破了1000万。
Liu, 29, now one of the most talked about Chinese singer-songwriters, said: "My team and I were overwhelmed by this sudden fame. It was like a dream come true, as we had been working hard to get our songs known by a wider audience."
29岁的柳爽是现在讨论热度很高的创作歌手，他说：“我们没想到能一夜成名，有点发懵。我一直期待我们的歌能被更多人听到，也算是圆梦了。”
图源：澎湃新闻
In less than two days, the video of the song had been viewed some 700 million times.
短短两天时间，歌曲视频播放量已达7亿次。
Mohe Ballroomwas released in June last year and featured in Liu's third album,First Planet.
《漠河舞厅》发行于2020年6月，是柳爽的第三张专辑《1st.星球》中的一首。
The song was inspired by Liu's trip in 2019 to Mohe, Heilongjiang province, China's northernmost city, where he met an elderly man who was dancing alone in a ballroom.
这首歌的灵感诞生于柳爽的一次旅行。2019年，柳爽到东北边陲小城漠河采风，遇到了一位在舞厅里独自舞蹈的老人。
"I was curious and danced with him. We talked for a while during a break, when I learned about his story," said Liu, who later wrote an article titled Goodbye Evening Star, which he published on his social media platform.
“我当时对他很好奇，就跟着一起跳。休息间隙和他闲聊时，了解到了他的故事。”之后，柳爽写下《再见了晚星》一文，并发布在他的社交媒体平台上。
张德全（中）图源：柳爽微信公众号“昂叔叔”
Mohe Ballroom, written in March last year, is based on the old man's story.
2020年3月，柳爽创作出《漠河舞厅》，背景故事中的原型人物，便是那位舞厅中央独自舞蹈的老人。
On May 6, 1987, about 200 people were killed when a fire that broke out in mountains near Mohe tore through the city. The fire, which lasted 28 days, destroyed more than 10,000 square kilometers of forest. Direct economic losses were estimated at 500 million yuan.
1987年5月6日，漠河—大兴安岭山区发生特大森林火灾，211人葬身火海。大火持续了28天，焚毁了1万多平方公里的森林，造成直接经济损失达5亿元。
The elderly man, who uses the pseudonym Zhang Dequan, lost his wife to the blaze. He has not remarried and has no children, so he often visits the old ballroom and dances alone to remember the times he and his wife spent there.
老人名为张德全（化名），他的妻子就在这场大火中丧生。之后几十年，老人未再婚，也没有子女。他常常独自在漠河舞厅跳舞，回忆和妻子在这里共舞的时光。
Liu said: "Both the article and the song have been fictionalized, and I added some additional details. To me, the most important part of the song are the lyrics. I wanted to dedicate Mohe Ballroomto those who lost their lives in that big fire."
柳爽说：“《再见了晚星》和《漠河舞厅》都加入了一些文学想象和细节填充。对我来说，最重要的部分是歌词，我想把《漠河舞厅》这首歌献给所有在那场大火中逝去的生命。”
One listener said: "It's easy to see why Mohe Ballroomresonated with listeners when it did. Full of emotional detail and poetic lyrics, the song, with Liu's whispery vocals, fulfills people's imaginations about a tragic love story."
一位听众说道：“其实不难看出《漠河舞厅》引得听众共鸣的原因：情感细节到位，歌词极具诗意，加上柳爽似低语般的嗓音，满足了人们对凄美爱情故事的想象。”
But Liu is upset when people refer to him as a singer who gained overnight fame on the internet.
但对于人们把他看作一个一夜成名的“网红歌手”，柳爽感到有些困扰。
Born and raised in Kuqa city, Aksu prefecture, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the self-taught singer-songwriter made his stage debut in 2014, performing his original song Grandpaduring a year-end gala at his university. Since then, he has been writing his own material. In 2018, he released his debut albumGrowand toured nationwide.
柳爽出生于新疆维吾尔自治区阿克苏地区库车市，自学唱歌和词曲创作。2014年，他登上中国人民公安大学年终晚会的舞台，演唱了原创歌曲《姥爷》，那是他的舞台首秀。自此，柳爽成为独立音乐人，并于2018年发行首专《生长》，开启首次全国巡演。
The song's huge popularity has made Mohe an in-demand tourism destination. Visitors flock to the city to see the ballroom, in the hope of meeting the elderly man.
《漠河舞厅》大火带动了漠河旅游业需求上涨。游客蜂拥来到漠河，参观舞厅，希望能遇到这位老人。
Li Jinbao, who owns the ballroom, told Beijing News: "The man often visited my ballroom in 2019. However, since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have not seen him.
舞厅老板李金宝告诉《新京报》：“2019年的时候，的确有个老人常来舞厅跳舞。但有了疫情以后，已经很久没有见他了。”
"I was 21 when I witnessed the fire that swept through Mohe. The city was later rebuilt and its first public ballroom opened, which immediately became popular among local residents."
“那年我才21岁，亲眼目睹了这场大火席卷漠河。火灾之后，漠河重建，当地出现了第一家真正意义上的私营大众舞厅，成为除电影院之外最受当地人喜爱的休闲娱乐场所。”
Zhang Wenqian, 30, a civil servant, visited the venue for the first time after she viewed Mohe Ballroom online.
30岁的公务员张文倩在网上看到《漠河舞厅》的视频后，第一次来到舞厅。
"This is a good chance to promote our city nationwide," she said. "At the same time, the song also reminds residents of painful memories and of the need to prevent a similar incident."
她说：“这是个宣传漠河的好机会。而这首歌也会警醒居民们记住那场灾难，防止类似事件再次发生。”
Mohe is one of the few places in China with a subarctic climate－long, severe winters and short, warm summers. Winter begins in early to mid-October and lasts until late April. The city holds the record for China's lowest temperature, minus 52.3 C in 1956.
漠河市，是国内为数不多拥有亚北极气候的城市之一。夏日温暖却短暂，冬日严寒而漫长，会从十月中上旬一直持续到次年四月底。1956年，漠河创下了中国最低气温纪录零下52.3摄氏度。
漠河 图源：中国新闻社
But if the climate suggests an inhospitable place, this is not the case. The border with Russia has a raw beauty, attracting countless tourists every year, although they mostly visit in summer to witness the aurora borealis, or northern lights.
但如果说这种气候意味着漠河不宜居住，就你就错了。因与俄罗斯接壤，边境线的风光野性奔放，每年都吸引着无数游客，哪怕多数游客只选择在夏天过来欣赏极光。
The local tourism department has been quick to seize the chance brought by Mohe Ballroom.
当地旅游部门迅速抓住了《漠河舞厅》带来的契机。
漠河北极滑雪场 图源：中国日报
Feng Guangqing, director of the bureau, told China Tourism News: "The local government has developed the tourist industry since 1981. However, due to the long distances involved and inconvenient transportation links, we haven't seen a large influx of tourists like some other well-known tourist destinations."
旅游局局长冯广庆告诉《中国旅游报》：“漠河旅游从1981年开始开发，虽然有三十几年的历史，但受制于交通问题，一直是个很平静、没有大量游客涌入的状态。”
Mohe has a long history, profound cultural heritage, and Mohe Ballroomhas touched the hearts of millions of people.
漠河历史悠久，文化底蕴深厚，而《漠河舞厅》更是触动了百万人的心。
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编辑：陈月华 周婵 商桢
记者：陈楠 周慧颖
录音：Stephanie Stone
实习生：李蕤 申乐
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