With the sound of gongs and drums, villagers in Linfen City of north China's Shanxi Province are preparing for their village gala for the upcoming Spring Festival.

The gala is organized by Zhang Yong, inheritor of Weifeng gong and drum, a form of folk music originated in the city and boasting a history as long as over 4,000 years.

Zhang proposed to organize the gala more than a month ago and received warm response from local villagers.

Villagers such as drivers, butchers, decoration workers and college students even left their work or study for the rehearsal of the gala.

Zhang started to learn drum playing since he was 15 years old, and opened a company dedicated to spreading drum culture in 2008.

Worried that the scores of Weifeng gong and drum may be lost one day, Zhang visited more than 300 villages over the past 15 years and saved over 1,500 scores.

"I have a different kind of feeling towards gongs and drum, as they have changed my character. I was weak, introverted and not confident in character before I was 15 years old. But since I began learning drum playing, I have been always in the central position of the team, and then I became talkative," said Zhang.

In recent years, Zhang has developed various platforms to spread this traditional culture among young people.

In his live streaming class, he combined gong and drum playing with popular music, attracting many young people to be his apprentices.

"Many people say young people don't like traditional culture. But actually, it is because our traditional culture has not been well displayed to them. I often hear someone say that he just wanted to have a look in my live streaming, but he spent more than an hour there. What does it mean? He is touched by my drum," Zhang said.

On Saturday, the long-anticipated gala was both staged in Zhang's village and livestreamed online at the same time, with the maximum online audience exceeding 30,000.

"For the Chinese Lunar New Year, red couplets are its symbol, gongs and drums stand for its sound, and fried cakes are its taste. These are all our traditional culture. If we revive the traditional culture, we will naturally create a festive mood for the Chinese lunar New Year. I will definitely go down this road," Zhang said.