Li Zhaluo
Mastery, Signature Works & Repertoire
Male, of the Lahu ethnic group, born in 1943, a native of Pu'er, Yunnan. Li Zhaluo grew up in the mountain country of the Lahu people. From early childhood he held a deep love for the traditional culture of his own ethnic group, and from his adolescence he began to study the lusheng dance and the singing of Mupamipa, the oral literature of the Lahu people. His singing is mostly in the major mode and is generally performed by a single singer. The number of syllables rises and falls with the length of the lyrics, and the melodic phrase is repeated until all the lyrics have been sung; at the end of a section, the words "Lahu" or "Lahu cuo" are often added as a closing cadence. Spoken recitation may then follow, consisting either of the lyrics just sung or of the lyrics about to be sung. The spoken recitation has no fixed number of lines: eight lines, sixteen lines, or more, depending on the atmosphere of the performance and the mood of the artist. Because he can perform all nineteen sections of Mupamipa and has mastered more than one hundred lusheng dances, Li Zhaluo has been called a "gamaiba" and the "Prince of the Lusheng," and he has made an active contribution to the promotion of traditional Lahu culture. In 2006, when he took part in the First Simao Municipal Arts Festival, his performance of Mupamipa won unanimous acclaim from the audience. In 1989, the text of Mupamipa as sung by Li Zhaluo, after being transcribed and edited, was published by the Yunnan Ethnic Culture Publishing House.
Honors & Recognition
A national representative bearer of Mupamipa, a first-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.
References & Archival Sources
Representative Items of This Bearer
- Mupamipa Ⅰ-4
Profile
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