Songs and classic Chinese poetry and painting inspire a renowned former teacher's comics, giving visitors to an exhibition in his honor an opportunity to peek inside his mind, Lin Qi reports.

On the second-floor gallery at the Art Museum of the Beijing Fine Art Academy, the usual quietness occasionally interrupted by visitors' murmuring opinions is replaced by singing these days, which lights up the room as visitors stroll between paintings.

The Last Rose of Summer, a soothing piece inspired by the namesake poem of Irish poet Thomas Moore, is played in rotation.

Several decades ago, at a Shanghai middle school, the same melody tugged at the heartstrings of students attending a music class led by Feng Zikai (1898-1975).He later recollected how much students loved to learn lyrics and scores in his class and were touched by well-known songs, such as The Last Rose of Summer, Home Sweet Home, How Can I Leave Thee, and others that he taught.