Shi Guangming
Lineage & School of Heritage
Shi Guangming was a disciple of Wu Chaogui, a renowned local master singer. By the age of thirty he could recite the entire Miao Kedao song from memory, and he became one of the most esteemed master singers in the local area.
Mastery, Signature Works & Repertoire
The Miao Kedao, literally "carved wood," is known in Chinese as the Miao Courtship Song and is a type of Miao wine song. While singing, the performer holds a round bamboo or wooden stick on which the main content of the song is carved, whence the name derives. The Miao Kedao is composed in the form of five-character-line stanza poetry. It narrates the ancient marriage customs of the Miao and is of great value for the study of Miao history. Nearly all the singers of the surrounding area once studied the Kedao under him. Besides the Kedao, he could also sing wine songs such as the Sister Song, the New Year Song, and the Day-Choosing Song. With the passage of time, the marriage customs of the Miao have been partly assimilated into the modern way of life; few people under the age of fifty can still sing the Miao Kedao, and in some villages the tradition has even been broken between generations. As early as the mid-1980s, Shi Guangming took part in a county-wide symposium of folk artists and a conference on the rescue of Miao folk literature, both organized by the Shibing County Cultural Center, and he actively followed and devoted himself to the transmission and development of the Miao Kedao. His representative works include the Miao Kedao, the Douzu Song, the New Year Song, and the Day-Choosing Song.
Honors & Recognition
Male, of the Miao ethnic group, born in 1941 and deceased in 2010, a native of Shibing, Guizhou. A national representative bearer of the Kedao, a first-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.
References & Archival Sources
Representative Items of This Bearer
- Kedao Ⅰ-5
Profile
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