12-year-old Uudam’s rising star (middle) captures the hearts of Chinese audience. Photo: CFP

Last Wednesday in Beijing, just minutes after his album release press conference ended, Uudam was lying on a sofa backstage, trying to squeeze in a nap before the rest of the day's events. "He's really tired. Between singing, promoting his new album and shooting a movie, he's just exhausted," said Urina, Uudam's adoptive mother.

Uudam has become a well-known little star. Debuting in China's Got Talent on Dragon TV in Shanghai last May, Uudam, a 12-year-old boy from Hulun Buir Prairie in China's northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, deeply impressed the show's judges and audience with his penetrating voice and remarkable stage presence.

Perhaps what has most profoundly touched people is the young boy's rare life experience that has tugged at everyone's heartstrings.

A star is born

Earlier this year on May 29, standing on the stage of China's Got Talent, after finishing a high-pitched Mongolian song "Mother in the Dream" which received massive applause, little Uudam's soul-touching performance aroused judges' curiosity. "So where is your mother?" one of the judges asked.

"Mom is in heaven," said Uudam. After learning that the performer had lost both of his parents in traffic accidents, judges couldn't help choking up, while people in the audience began to wipe away their tears.

However, on stage, Uudam was still wearing his innocent smile, watching the judges intently and answering each question calmly. "How can you be so stoic, having suffered the loss of your parents at such an early age?" one judge asked.

"I told myself that I just can't cry - I can't," little Uudam said firmly.

It was this television appearance that brought the pint-size singer under the nation's spotlight. With a bright, peaceful smile on his face, his confident and infectious spirit stole the show. After the judges commented that he resembled the title character of Le Petit Prince, the young singer was dubbed "the little prince of the prairie."

Strength from tragedy

Endowed with an outstanding voice, Uudam was first scouted for his singing talent when he was very young. At the age of five, he was recruited as the youngest member of Wucai Children's Chorus, a troupe from the vast Hulun Buir Prairie, which promotes the region's folk songs.

However, misfortune befell him when he was eight years old: his mother was severely injured in a traffic accident on her way home from one of Udam's shows. She spent the following year in bed, paralyzed and ill.

"During that period, Uudam constantly attended to his mother, delivering food, peeling bananas, meticulously caring for her, hoping she would get better," Urina told the Global Times.

But life ruthlessly failed this family. His mother eventually passed away, leaving the heartbroken Uudam with only one parent. Then about one year ago, his father' life was also taken in a traffic accident when he was on his way to see Uudam perform. The grief-saddled boy was devastated.

"He used to be so lively, mischievous and active," said his uncle, Manlai, who helped take care of Uudam for a while after his mother's death. "But after his mother passed away, he became very quiet, with little or no words."

Nurtured in a naturally tougher and sparsely inhabited environment, boys who grow up on the Mongolian prairie are generally stronger and more independent than their peers in the plains. Even within this culture, Uudam is seen as remarkably strong. "We know he's very sad, but he never talks about it with us," said Urina, "he's a very brave little man."

After his parents' deaths, Uudam's schoolwork was also affected. In an interview with Dragon TV, one of Uudam's teachers revealed that for a while Uudam was sullen and uncharacteristically distractible. "But after a while, he slowly came back to himself, showing interest and taking initiative again in both schoolwork and extracurricular activities," the teacher said.

Life is green again

When the judges of China's Got Talent asked what his dream was, Uudam replied, "I have a dream that one day I will invent a kind of ink that turns everything into grasslands when I put a drop on the ground." His surprisingly poetic and visionary response captivated the judges and audience, fueling their affections for him. In the end, the little prince became the youngest contestant to make it to the final four in the national competition.

It is comforting to know that his life is shedding its grayness and giving way to green again. His adoptive parents, mother Urina and father Buren Bayar, are both well-known Mongolian folk singers. With their help, Uudam released his first album, Mother in the Dream, last month.

Behind the microphone at last week's press conference, Uudam said he was very pleased and grateful that his adoptive parents have been so caring and supportive.

Despite always wearing a trace of shyness in his crystal-clear eyes, and sometimes intentionally keeping a distance from strangers out of wariness, little Uudam has a brave and big heart.

When asked by the Global Times whether he will choose to be a Mongolian folk singer when he grows up, Uudam hid shyly behind Urina, quietly murmuring "I don't know." A moment later he flashed back out of hiding and held his adoptive mother's arm, asking "What do you think, mother?" With heart-warming moments like this on stage nearly everywhere he goes, this little prince is bound to charm audiences for a long time to come.

Famous Mongolian musical acts and their signature songs:

Tenger: "The Paradise"

Buren Bayer: "Family of Auspiciousness"

Dedema: "Beautiful Grassland My Home"

Qiqigema: "East Spring"

Black Horse (band): "Hometown"

Phoenix Legend (band): "Above the Moon"