With the song On the Island of the Sun, Zheng Xulan, born in Beijing, became famous. After the movie Shaolin Temple became popular, her Shepherd's Song which was the film’s episode quickly spread all over the country. Becoming a smash hit singer in the 1980s, she appeared on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala several times.
In the midst of her popularity, Zheng who graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music, decided to leave the Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble which she belonged to, and traveled to the United States, completely disappearing from the audience's sight.
She did not give up music entirely, on the contrary, she devoted herself to creating and re-interpreting the song ‘Dream of Red Mansions’, for which she held a solo concert in Singapore in 1999, which caused a great sensation.
Afterwards, Zheng returned to China. A pastor’s wife, who loved her deeply and witnessed the ups and downs in her life, often shared God’s message with her, sending her a Bible and other Christian books, which she (the singer) all left in a corner.
Though thinking she did not need faith, she was beaten by a small bowel obstruction operation in 2003. At first, she could still continue to perform, relying on taking painkillers, but then she was completely bedridden.
Zheng had to seek medical attention everywhere, but doctors could not find out the cause of her pain. In her despair, the pastor’s wife came to see her again.
"She said, ‘Lanlan, it's time for you to come to God.’ I suddenly felt alerted at the time and wondered what she meant by this?", Zheng recalled.
After she left, Zheng sought those books discarded in the corner and read. "I could not understand much of them, but I kept reading them page by page, as I felt only they could give me the strength to overcome these hardships", she added.
After lying in bed for three years, Zheng was left nothing but her skin over her bones. After three years of suffering, Zheng, who was desperate, began to think about her life.
She said, "I just know how limited human abilities are. How far can your eyes see? How far can your hands reach? How far can you smell? Look, this is the range of human abilities! I met the Lord while in my trouble and knew God’s power."
During the days accompanied by the Bible, she kept calling on the Father God to heal her strange disease. Finally, through a friend's introduction, she met a doctor who said that the previous doctor made a cut at the wrong place, and then proceeded to cure her.
"Through this three years’ experience, I believe that God wants me to know that I cannot do anything on my own. If I had not experienced this pain, I would have felt that I could. I was very weak, so I could not come back to Him without His power”, she admitted.
A week after the surgery, Zheng was able to get out of bed. With faith in God, she began to actively prepare for her solo concert.
"At the end of 2007, I held my first concert. At that time, I was still very, very thin, and as my body was injured, my voice was also hurt."
Ten days before the concert, she suddenly lost her voice. She tried all kinds of methods, but none worked. The only thing she could do was to pray to God: "I just wanted the Lord to magically heal me. Because I knew that if I lost my voice, I could not get cured in a day or two. Only through a miracle could I complete the performance, otherwise I was dumb."
A miracle indeed happened, as she performed 11 concerts in a row, each day in a different city. Not only did her body recover, but she also performed successively better at each preceding concert.
She shared, "I just have faith in His real existence. There are many wonders in my life, and my existence right now is also a miracle. The Lord Jesus Christ repaired my singing wings and took me out of my predicament, drying my tears and healing my wounds. I want to sing for the Lord who supports me with love and trust, and takes me on clouds to the sky."
- Translated by Abigail Wu
