Wei Xiuju
01 · Lineage & Regional School
From the age of twelve she learned to sing Xiping folk songs with her father, Wei Zhankui. Within the regional tradition and school record of Xiping Folk Songs in Xixia, Henan: Xiping folk songs are flowing and lively, full of local character, and form an important part of many local art forms such as the colour-cloud dance, the tea-picking butterfly dance, the sedan chair, stilt walking and the bamboo horse. They occupy an irreplaceable place in the cultural life of the Xiping people and can provide important reference for the study of folk art. Xiping folk songs originate in the Han dynasty. They have continued unbroken through nearly two thousand years of history and formed a distinct folk song system.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
Female, Han, born in July 1947 in Xixia County, Henan Province. From the age of fifteen she travelled with her father to Jiangsu, Anhui, Shaanxi and elsewhere to sing Xiping folk songs, and later sang in many townships of Zhengzhou City, Nanyang City and Xixia County. In long practice she continued to learn from other Xiping singers and came to command more than twenty Xiping tune types, including Xiao Duihua, Niusi and Bainian Diao, as well as nearly one hundred traditional lyrics such as Yi Ge Da Jie Shi Liu Qi (A Girl of Sixteen or Seventeen), Song Lang (Seeing Off My Lover) and Zhengyue Ershiyi (The Twenty-First of the First Month). Her singing is sweet and clear, her pitch accurate, and her voice chiefly in the high register. At the same time she takes an active part in public welfare activities and in exhibitions and performances of intangible cultural heritage, and she regularly conducts demonstration and transmission activities at Xiping folk-song transmission sites. Within the documented technical tradition of Xiping Folk Songs in Xixia, Henan: Xiping folk songs are a form of folk music collectively created by the people of Xiping and passed down through generations. Xiping Town lies on the southwestern edge of Xixia County, Nanyang City, Henan Province. Xiping folk songs are circulated among some twenty villages in this area, including Mujia Ya, Xigang, Dongguanzhuang, Caocang and Dehe, and their influence reaches an area of one hundred kilometres across the borders of Henan, Hubei and Shaanxi. Xiping folk songs include more than thirty tune-types, among them Da Duihua, Xiao Duihua, Peilang, Liulang, Bainian Diao, Xiuhbao, Caicha Qu, Shiliu Shaohuo and Si Liu Ju; and there are close to a thousand songs covering labour songs, songs on current affairs, ritual songs, love songs, daily-life songs, historical legends and other subjects. The vocal style of Xiping folk songs is based mainly on the true voice; the male voice is high and plain while the female voice is soft and full, able to express feeling, to depict things and to tell a story, flexible and free-handed, and easy to spread. Xiping folk songs take many performing forms, including solo, duet, small-group singing and chorus; percussion and instruments can both be used for accompaniment, and they can also be sung without accompaniment. Combining the singing with many other folk art forms such as stilt walking and sedan chairs for performance is another main characteristic of Xiping folk songs. Its representative works include Wo Zai Fang Zhong Xiu Rong Hua and Pi Hua Xian. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Wo Zai Fang Zhong Xiu Rong Hua": One of the representative works of Xiping folk songs. "Pi Hua Xian": One of the representative works of Xiping folk songs. "Yi Ge Da Jie Shi Liu Qi": One of the traditional text pieces mastered by the inheritor Wei Xiuju. "Song Lang": One of the traditional text pieces mastered by the inheritor Wei Xiuju.
Wo Zai Fang Zhong Xiu Rong Hua
One of the representative works of Xiping folk songs.
Pi Hua Xian
One of the representative works of Xiping folk songs.
Yi Ge Da Jie Shi Liu Qi
One of the traditional text pieces mastered by the inheritor Wei Xiuju.
Song Lang
One of the traditional text pieces mastered by the inheritor Wei Xiuju.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
National representative bearer of Xiping Folk Songs, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. She has won awards in Xiping folk-song competitions on several occasions.
04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier
Historical origin
Xiping folk songs originate in the Han dynasty. They have continued unbroken through nearly two thousand years of history and formed a distinct folk song system.
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.
| Bearer | Declared area | Roster code | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wei Xiuju | Xixia, Henan | 05-2098 | This page |
06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records and the associated project dossier, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。