Pan Sayinhua

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Pan Sayinhua, Female, Dong, from Congjiang, Guizhou, is a third-batch national representative bearer of Grand Song of the Dong Ethnic Group (Ⅱ-28). The tradition is documented in Congjiang, Guizhou. Within the regional tradition and school record of Grand Song of the Dong Ethnic Group in Congjiang, Guizhou: The Congjiang Dong grand song circulates mainly in the Dong villages of Congjiang county, Guizhou, with the “Erqianjiu”, “Liudong” and “Jiudong” areas at its core, and radiates to Liping, Rongjiang and Sanjiang in Guangxi. As early as the Song dynasty the Dong grand song was already relatively mature and it has been transmitted without a break since; in the Ming the writer Kuang Lu clearly recorded in his Chi Ya the scene of the Dong people “singing long songs with closed eyes”. The Dong grand song of Guizhou province circulates mainly in Congjiang, Rongjiang and other places; since the Xiaohuang Dong grand song formed an independent system in the Kangxi reign of the Qing it has, through the transmission of more than ten generations of song masters, continually spread to the neighbouring Erqianjiu, Liudong and Jiudong areas and to Liping, Sanjiang and Rongjiang, greatly enriching the repertoire of the Dong grand song.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, of Dong ethnicity, born in May 1943 in Congjiang County, Guizhou Province. Born into a family of song masters, she began learning songs from her grandmother and mother at the age of five; with an exceptional memory she had mastered more than two thousand songs by thirteen, and she sang the high voice part known as saiga in the song troupe, leading the singing so that it was harmonious, unified and beautiful. At seventeen she and her companions won a singing contest against the lahan, the young Dong men, at the drum tower, and from then on she became famous. At eighteen she began teaching songs to the young men and women of her village. She concentrates on composing Grand Song of the Dong, takes pride in passing songs on and delight in teaching them, takes an active part in bringing ethnic folk culture into schools, and has trained successors for the transmission of the Dong grand song. Within the documented technical tradition of Grand Song of the Dong Ethnic Group in Congjiang, Guizhou: The Dong grand song is called “gal laox” in the Dong language and is a folk singing form of the Dong of great distinctiveness. It includes mainly the drum-tower grand song, the sound grand song, the narrative grand song, the love song, the ethical grand song, the ceremonial grand song, the children's song, the operatic grand song and the old people's song; its singing reaches a relatively high level in multi-voice thinking and choral technique, and in performance it is usually divided into two voice parts, known among the folk as the “male tone” (the high part) and the “female tone” (the low part). The smallest structural unit of the Dong grand song is called “jogx”, rendered in Chinese as “line”; several “jogx” make up a “sengh”, rendered as “stanza”; and several “sengh” make up a “meix”, rendered as “song”. Added together in this way they form a multi-stanza linked form of a strophic character, embodying the basic structure of the various kinds of grand song. The great majority of Dong grand songs need no instrumental accompaniment; apart from the narrative songs, the Dong grand song may be accompanied by the great pipa when sung by male voices. The grand song is mostly in the yu mode, generally with a relatively narrow range and no great leaps of interval; it is sung mostly in the natural voice, and its linguistic tones, syllables and stresses are extremely rich, with varied metre. Its representative pieces include The Cicada Song, Song Dong Ya Dao Mang Yao Yue Tou (rendered as When Will Our Love End) and Da Hua Le (rendered as Flowers Pass as People Age). By its distinctive manner of singing and form of organization the Dong grand song transmits the history and culture of the Dong and is an important part of Dong social structure, marriage culture and spiritual life. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The Cicada Song": A representative piece of the Dong grand song. "Song Dong Ya Dao Mang Yao Yue Tou (When Will Our Love End)": A representative piece of the Dong grand song. "When Will Our Love End": The Chinese rendering of Song Dong Ya Dao Mang Yao Yue Tou. "Da Hua Le (Flowers Pass as People Age)": A representative piece of the Dong grand song.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of the Grand Song of the Dong Ethnic Group, 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. Pan Sayinhua · National Representative Bearer Archive