Zhong Changyao

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He is the third-generation transmitter of Zhong Xueji, the king of She songs. Within the regional tradition and school record of She Xiaoshuoge in Xiapu, Fujian: The She novel song takes Bailukeng of Xiapu, Fujian, as its centre and circulates in the She-concentrated areas of eastern Fujian and southern Zhejiang; sung in the She language, with one singing and the crowd responding, it is mostly performed at ancestor worship, weddings, festivals and farm slack seasons, the tunes and pieces differing somewhat from place to place. The She novel song originated in Bailukeng village of Hounan town, Xiapu county, Fujian. The novel song began in the Qing, when the more literate of the She singers adapted Han chapter-novels and pinghua librettos into oral and manuscript songbooks of their own people, and later works were created on the basis of the deeds of heroes circulated among the She and combined with the life, psychology and language of the people, such as The Song of Emperor Gao, The Song of Successive Dynasties, Zhong Liangbi, The White Snake, The Song of Ten Worthies, Zhong Jingqi and Lan Tianyu, so that the novel song took shape. The late Qing and early Republican period was the heyday of the novel song, with many singers.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, She ethnicity, born in August 1932, a native of Xiapu County, Fujian Province. Influenced from childhood by his surroundings, he had a strong interest in She songs, and he began learning to sing narrative songs while copying songbooks for village singers. Through taking part in the annual She song gatherings, his singing technique steadily improved. Besides inheriting the traditional singing of She narrative songs, he adapted and composed works much loved by the people, such as 'Love Song of the Tea Mountain' (Chashan Qingge) and 'Eight Honours and Eight Shames' (Ba Rong Ba Chi). He took an active part in and guided various She song gatherings, systematically collected and collated historical She songbooks, and trained more than forty singers through mentoring and passing on. Within the documented technical tradition of She Xiaoshuoge in Xiapu, Fujian: Bailukeng is the area with the densest She population and the richest cultural deposit and may be called the first village of eastern Fujian. As a long story song the novel song is a unique literary form and cultural vehicle created by the She people. In content the She novel songs are mostly drawn from the stories circulating in Chinese folk opera and narrative-singing and differ from the She's ordinary miscellaneous songs. Their basic poetic features are: first, a strong narrative quality with plot; second, a strict structural method, each piece made up of many individual songs, each individual song having four lines of seven characters, like the Chinese seven-character quatrain; third, the use of various techniques to give artistic treatment to the characters; and fourth, the author's signature cleverly hidden at the end of the song. Because the She novel songs are rich in content and varied in form, bright in language and harmonious in rhyme, using no allusions and indulging in no exaggeration or embellishment, fusing narration, description of things and lyric expression into one and plain yet true, they are widely recognised by the She people. They are not only the essence of She songs but also the most representative cultural form of the She and the most distinctive artistic category of eastern Fujian. The novel song occupies an important place in the cultural and literary history of the She and is a progressive product in the development of She culture. There survive a hundred and thirty manuscript and oral novel songs. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The Song of Emperor Gao": A representative novel song of the She, recounting the legend of the She ancestral founder. "Zhong Liangbi": A She novel song created from the deeds of a hero of the people. "The White Snake": A She novel song adapted from Han chapter-novels and pinghua librettos. "The Song of Successive Dynasties": A novel song narrating the rise and fall of successive dynasties.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a representative bearer of She narrative songs, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Zhong Changyao · National Representative Bearer Archive