Li Xuehua

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Li Xuehua, Male, Lisu, from Lushui, Yunnan, is a third-batch national representative bearer of Lisu Folk Songs (Ⅱ-17). The tradition is documented in Lushui, Yunnan. Within the regional tradition and school record of Lisu Folk Songs in Lushui, Yunnan: The mugua is generally sung antiphonally by middle-aged and elderly men divided into two sides, sitting cross-legged round the fire pit and questioning and answering in the roles of man and woman. Its sung content is divided into the two kinds of the “duowo” and the “xiawo”. Lushui lies in the southern section of the great Nujiang gorge and is one of the core areas of Lisu settlement. From the Tang and Song periods the Lisu forebears moved west by stages from the Jinsha and Lancang river basins into the Nujiang basin, and their folk songs spread with them among the mountain stockades of Lushui. From the Ming and Qing onwards, with the loosening of the clan villages and the flourishing of such folk activities as the Denggeng bathing-pool song contest, the three great song tunes of the baishi, the mugua and the youye formed in the Lushui area a stable pattern of transmission and became an indispensable part of local Lisu weddings, house-warmings and festivals.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Lisu, born in January 1952, a native of Lushui County, Yunnan Province. From childhood he loved to sit beside the elders and listen to them sing. Nurtured by his parents and the artists of his village, he mastered both the technique and the content of Lisu folk-song singing and can sing different tunes on different occasions. Whether the traditional youye, which expresses the sincere feelings of men and women, the mugua, which chants ancient songs and long narrative poems, or the improvised baishi, he can sing them all at will. At the same time he applies his distinctive technique with great proficiency, using a profusion of tremolo on short notes, while his long notes rise and fall, beautiful and mellow, full of passion and power to move. In 1999 he helped found the Lufeng Folk Art Troupe of Lushui and served as its deputy head, leading the troupe in performances and competitions throughout the year. Within the documented technical tradition of Lisu Folk Songs in Lushui, Yunnan: The Lisu folk songs include such song kinds as the mugua, the baishi and the youye. The “mugua” is one of the most important and most widely current of the Lisu folk-song kinds, circulating in the Lisu areas of settlement of the Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture, Yunnan. In the Lisu language “mugua” originally referred generally to all songs and tunes, and later gradually became the specific name for the narrative ancient song; other songs and tunes of the mugua class are generally prefixed by their content, such as the achimugua (the goat tune) and the qiben mugua (the three-string tune). The mugua is used mainly for traditional narrative long poems of serious content and solemn atmosphere, and is mostly sung at national festivals, gatherings and similar times and occasions. Representative sung contents include The Creation, The Song of Production, The Shepherd's Song and The Song of Fleeing Marriage, and its tunes are plain and deep, with a bleak and ancient style. In antiphonal singing one person from each side leads and the many accompany: the leader sings a line and the accompaniers answer a line, and the chanting is enlivened with wine, drinking and singing together. The mugua antiphonal singing also has the character of a contest; if both leaders are masters of song, the contest may last several days and nights. The Lisu traditional narrative ancient songs sung antiphonally in the mugua manner touch widely on ethnic origins, human reproduction, production and life, customs and manners, love and marriage, religious belief and intercourse between peoples, vividly reproducing the broad panorama of Lisu social history and possessing relatively high cognitive and aesthetic value. The long narrative song The Song of Fleeing Marriage, for instance, reflects the Lisu marriage customs of “betrothal before birth” and “cattle as betrothal gift”, the social custom of fleeing marriage to win freedom and love, the primitive beliefs of killing a sheep to summon the soul, swearing by a dog's head and cursing over sprinkled wine, and also the spirit of unity in mutual exchange and mutual help among the various peoples and the level of the Lisu's productive forces and their conditions of production. With the passing away one after another of the older generation of singers, few people today can sing in full the content of the Lisu mugua historical songs and long narrative songs. The “baishi” and the “youye” are the two most representative kinds of Lisu mountain song in the Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture, Yunnan. The baishi is widely current in the Lisu areas of Lushui county and Lanping county and is sung in ordinary times and on festive occasions such as festival gatherings, celebrations of harvest and marriages; its lyrics are wide-ranging and its tune warm and unrestrained, well suited to the expression of inner passion, and it is deeply loved by the Lisu people. The baishi is mostly antiphonal singing between groups of men and women, and may also be sung by one person as a solo for self-enjoyment. The “duowo” sings mainly traditional narrative long poems, while the “xiawo” is improvised according to the partner in the singing, mostly on love and current affairs. Representative pieces of the baishi include The Bamboo-String Song, Song of Recalling Bitterness and Tears of the Orphan. The annual Denggeng “bathing-pool song contest” of Lushui county is a grand occasion of baishi antiphonal singing. The youye is current mainly in the Lisu villages of Fugong county and is divided by content and form into two kinds: one, in which the middle-aged and elderly sit round the fire pit drinking and singing antiphonally, has as its main content the recalling of past sorrows and suffering, with a low tune, slow tempo and even melody; the other, lighter and livelier in tune, is the chief means by which young men and women express their feelings, and may be sung antiphonally between man and woman or between persons of the same sex. The first kind of youye is now seldom sung, while the second is still widely current. Common youye pieces include The Hunting Song, Whispered Words and The Firewood-Cutting Song. The baishi and the youye are outstanding representatives of the Lisu oral literary art; through the creations of generations of singers they have long accumulated an extremely rich sung content touching almost every aspect of social life and folk activity. They have also created many artistic means of expression full of ethnic character—the sentence patterns, rhymes and rhetorical features of Lisu poetry, for instance, are chiefly embodied in these folk songs—and they reflect the typical musical features of Lisu folk song, for such things as the Lisu's multi-voice singing, vibrato singing and use of padding words are all fully embodied in the baishi and the youye. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The Bamboo-String Song": Representative pieces of the Lisu baishi include The Bamboo-String Song, Song of Recalling Bitterness and Tears of the Orphan. "Song of Recalling Bitterness": A representative piece of the Lisu baishi mountain song, sung at festive gatherings and celebrations of harvest. "Tears of the Orphan": A representative piece of the Lisu baishi reflecting the sorrows of the old days. "The Hunting Song": Common pieces of the Lisu youye include The Hunting Song, Whispered Words and The Firewood-Cutting Song.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Lisu Folk Songs, a third-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

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. Li Xuehua · National Representative Bearer Archive