Pan Zhongmin
01 · Lineage & Regional School
Pan Zhongmin, Male, Han, from Banan, Chongqing, is a second-batch national representative bearer of Mudong Mountain Songs (Ⅱ-26). The tradition is documented in Banan, Chongqing. Within the regional tradition and school record of Mudong Mountain Songs in Banan, Chongqing: The Mudong mountain songs circulate mainly in Mudong town of Banan district, Chongqing, and the surrounding townships of Fengsheng, Shuanghekou and Maliuzui. Mudong lies on the southern bank of the Yangtze and has always been a strategic point of land and water; the atmosphere of mountain-song singing is rich, and in 1990 it was named a “home of mountain song” by Chongqing, forming a regional circle of singing with the helai as its main body and the chanteys and custom songs existing alongside. The Mudong mountain songs are a mountain-song kind sung by the people of Mudong town in Banan district, Chongqing; their origins may be traced to the “Ba-Yu song and dance” of high antiquity, passing through the “rustic songs of Ba” of the Warring States, the “Ba chanting” of the Han and the “bamboo-branch” of the Tang, until they evolved into the Mudong mountain songs in the Ming and Qing. Their lyric form and tune characteristics are quite similar to the bamboo-branch songs circulating among the Ba-Yu people since the Tang, and they are the “direct descendant” of the bamboo-branch song in the Mudong area. In 1991, of the first batch of forty folk singers named by Chongqing, Mudong accounted for thirty-seven, and all four of the first-grade singers able to sing more than five hundred songs were in Mudong. Mudong also compiled a monograph of more than three hundred thousand characters, The Mudong Mountain Songs, published in December 2005. In 1990 the Mudong area was named a “home of mountain song” by Chongqing, and in 1999 the Mudong mountain songs were named an “outstanding folk art of Ba-Yu”.
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
Male, Han ethnicity, born in 1937 in Chongqing. He is the fourth-generation bearer of this family lineage; in addition to composing and singing mountain songs such as the Luo'er Diao (work-song refrain), he is chiefly skilled in the Haoyang Helai (weeding and transplanting work songs) and the Shigong Haozi (stonemasons' work chants), and is especially known for singing the high-register gaoqiang Helai. His singing is high-pitched and resonant, with a distinctive timbre. Within the documented technical tradition of Mudong Mountain Songs in Banan, Chongqing: The main body of the Mudong mountain songs is the helai, called the rice-transplanting song. The helai circulates only in Mudong and its surroundings and is a rare kind among Chinese folk songs. It has a rich regional character and abundant tunes and pieces. There are chiefly the high-pitched helai, the low-pitched helai, the flat-pitched helai, the flowered helai and the linked-eight-line and other styles. These styles again include several sub-styles; the high-pitched helai, for instance, also includes the yiya helai, the ye helai, the gong-and-drum style, the yiyi style, the yaya style, the four-flat style, the oho style, the wu'o style and the youhe style. Another important song kind of the Mudong mountain songs is the children's tune. The pieces of the Mudong mountain songs include Mountain Songs Are Easy to Sing but Hard to Open the Mouth, Going Deep into the Hills the Rain Will Come, Mudong's New Look and Going to Market. The Mudong mountain songs also include work chanteys, custom songs and performance songs and other styles. There are thousands of pieces, and folk singers are numerous. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Mountain Songs Are Easy to Sing but Hard to Open the Mouth": One of the pieces of the Mudong mountain songs. "Going Deep into the Hills the Rain Will Come": One of the pieces of the Mudong mountain songs. "Mudong's New Look": One of the pieces of the Mudong mountain songs. "Going to Market": One of the pieces of the Mudong mountain songs.
Mountain Songs Are Easy to Sing but Hard to Open the Mouth
One of the pieces of the Mudong mountain songs.
Going Deep into the Hills the Rain Will Come
One of the pieces of the Mudong mountain songs.
Mudong's New Look
One of the pieces of the Mudong mountain songs.
Going to Market
One of the pieces of the Mudong mountain songs.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
He is a national representative bearer of Mudong Mountain Songs, a second-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. Since the 1980s he has repeatedly taken part in and organised mountain-song performances and competitions, winning numerous awards; during this period he has also taught Mudong Mountain Songs and has been known as the "King of Mudong Mountain Songs", "Bashan Monkey" and "Pan the Mountain Singer". In the early 1990s the Chongqing Municipal Culture Bureau conferred on him the title "Folk Singer"; he has been interviewed by China Central Television and has recorded background music for a number of films and television dramas.
04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier
Historical origin
The Mudong mountain songs are a mountain-song kind sung by the people of Mudong town in Banan district, Chongqing; their origins may be traced to the “Ba-Yu song and dance” of high antiquity, passing through the “rustic songs of Ba” of the Warring States, the “Ba chanting” of the Han and the “bamboo-branch” of the Tang, until they evolved into the Mudong mountain songs in the Ming and Qing. Their lyric form and tune characteristics are quite similar to the bamboo-branch songs circulating among the Ba-Yu people since the Tang, and they are the “direct descendant” of the bamboo-branch song in the Mudong area. In 1991, of the first batch of forty folk singers named by Chongqing, Mudong accounted for thirty-seven, and all four of the first-grade singers able to sing more than five hundred songs were in Mudong. Mudong also compiled a monograph of more than three hundred thousand characters, The Mudong Mountain Songs, published in December 2005. In 1990 the Mudong area was named a “home of mountain song” by Chongqing, and in 1999 the Mudong mountain songs were named an “outstanding folk art of Ba-Yu”.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pan Zhongmin | Banan, Chongqing | 02-0251 | This page |
| Yu Lianghua | Banan, Chongqing | 03-0823 | Same declared area |
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。