Laosier

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In 1963 he taught himself to play the erhu and to sing Holboo and Wuligeer; in 1965 he became a pupil of Jigawa, and in 1973 he studied under Queji. His performing style carried forward the improvised Holboo form of the Pajie and Maoyihan schools, and he habitually drew on traditional Mongolian benediction verses, panegyric verses and Holboo language to shape his characters. Within the regional tradition and school record of Wuligeer in Zhaluteqi, Inner Mongolia: On the Horqin grasslands, for instance, “Huren uliger” is comparatively well developed, and in the course of history three schools of differing style formed around Menggen Gaolitau, Erdun Zhurihe and Buren Bayar; in Fuxin Mongol Autonomous County of Liaoning Province, by contrast, the transplanting and adaptation of uliger from Han stories is more widespread, and it has even brought forth new artistic forms such as “Fuxin Mongol opera”. Uliger is a Mongolian form of quyi storytelling; it took shape around the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing dynasty and has circulated widely in every part of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and in the Mongolian settlements of the neighbouring provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning. The subjects of uliger numbers draw on a very wide range of sources: some come from folk tales, such as “Taiyang Guniang”; some are the work of writers or performers, such as “Qingshi Yanyi”; some come from folk narrative poems and narrative songs, such as “Gada Meiren” and “Danabala”; some are composed out of events that actually happened in real life, such as “Hongtaiyang”, “Yanjiu Zhihai” and “Zhengqi de Linluo”; and some are transplanted and adapted from comparable Han forms or literary stories, such as “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”, “Investiture of the Gods” and “Yang Jinhua Duo Yin”. The best known include, of the Qing dynasty, Dansennima, Baiyinbaoligao, Chuobang, Sanbula, Saren Mandula, Helitengdugu’er, Baitanqi, Wiritanasitu and Xiennitu; of the Republican period, Zhana, Jinbaoshan, Changming, Kuai Mang, Menggen Gaolitau, Erdun Zhurihe, Buren Bayar, Wendusu, Zhamusu and Xiribu; and since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Pajie, Maoyihan, Zhana, Daorji, Quejigawa, Laosier as well as Baoliang, Laixi, Wulijisang, Mengbangzhu, Renqin, Shulin, Tegxibayar, Demuxige, Ganjur, Yuanbao, Temuergaole, Menggen Aola and others — all of them were warmly welcomed for the excellence of their uliger art. Over its long course of development and change, uliger performance in the different regions where it circulates has formed its own distinct characteristics. After the 1980s began, many well-known performers died one after another, new successors were seriously lacking, and ways of life changed while forms of entertainment became more varied; the survival and development of the uliger art tradition came under threat, performances shrank day by day, there was a shortage of venues in which to perform and the ranks lacked successors, so that strong measures of support and protection are urgently needed.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

He served as honorary vice-chairman of the Inner Mongolia Quyi Artists Association, president of the Tongliao Mongolian Storytelling Society, chairman of the Zhalute Banner Quyi Artists Association and head of the Zhalute Wuligeer Art Troupe. He recorded several dozen Wuligeer epics and more than one hundred Holboo pieces for Inner Mongolia Radio. His own Holboo Romance of Qing History (Qing Shi Yanyi Holboo) was warmly received, and his Course in the Art of Wuligeer (Wuligeer Yishu Jiaocheng) filled a gap in teaching materials for the Mongolian art of Wuligeer. Within the documented technical tradition of Wuligeer in Zhaluteqi, Inner Mongolia: In Chinese the meaning of uliger is “storytelling”; because it is performed in the Mongolian language, it is also called “Mongolian-language storytelling”. Among the Mongolian people, uliger performed by mouth alone with no instrumental accompaniment is called “Yabugan uliger”, also known as “Hurui uliger”; uliger performed in narration and song with chor accompaniment is called “Chorin uliger”; and uliger performed in narration and song with four-string fiddle accompaniment is called “Huren uliger”. Uliger performed with instrumental accompaniment is usually sung and narrated by a single performer accompanying himself on a fiddle; the melodies of the vocal style are richly varied and highly flexible, and those with comparatively clear functional characteristics include [Zhengzhan diao], [Zeou diao], [Fengci diao], [Shanhe diao], [Ganlu diao] and [Shangchao diao]. The artistic accumulation of uliger is very deep; its numbers fall into short, medium and long, the long ones being the most compelling. “The Story of the Suppression of Mangus”, “The Five Tang Narratives” (that is, “The Narrative of Weeping at the Marriage”, “Whole Family Happiness”, “The Narrative of the Weeping Demon”, “The Narrative of Qibi”, “The Narrative of the Qiang and the Hu”), “Khubilai Khan”, “The Golden History”, “The Western Han”, “The Romance of the History of Yuan”, “The Romance of the History of Qing”, “Marshal Baiyina”, “Spring and Autumn and the Warring States”, “Great Western Liang”, “Northern Liao”, “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” and “Dream of the Red Chamber” are all classics among them. New numbers written and performed after the founding of the People’s Republic of China include “The Twenty-Five Thousand Li Long March”, “Liu Hulan”, “Huang Jiguang”, “The Woman Hero Guo Junqing”, “Children of the Grasslands”, “The Red Detachment of Women”, “The Red Lantern”, “Scaling the Tiger Mountain”, “The Lock of Linked Hearts”, “The Golden Avenue”, “The Xisha Women” and “Enterprise”. Historically the uliger performers who travelled between the great grasslands of Inner Mongolia and the Mongolian settlements of Northeast China were as numerous as the stars. For the broad masses of the Mongolian people, uliger is not only the principal way and means of their cultural life but also an important educational means for acquiring knowledge and cultivating the mind; in their eyes uliger occupies a very important place. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Three modes of the Mongolian tale-telling": Oral only, accompanied by the chuur fiddle, or accompanied by the four-string huur — three distinct modes of performance. "Functional melodies": Melodies are assigned to dramatic functions such as battle, courtship, satire, landscape, journey and court audience. "The long narrative cycles": The great long cycles, including the Five Chronicles of the Tang and the tale of the suppression of the Mangghus. "The four-string huur accompaniment": In the Khorchin grasslands the huur-accompanied mode flourishes, with the Jarud banner a stronghold of the style.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

Male, Mongolian, born in 1946 and deceased in 2010, a native of Tongliao, Inner Mongolia. National representative bearer of Wuligeer, a second-batch national intangible cultural heritage project; a Grade II national actor.

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. Laosier · National Representative Bearer Archive