Wang Lanying

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Wang Lanying, Female, Han, from Gaoyou, Jiangsu, is a third-batch national representative bearer of Gaoyou Folk Songs (Ⅱ-75). The tradition is documented in Gaoyou, Jiangsu. Within the regional tradition and school record of Gaoyou Folk Songs in Gaoyou, Jiangsu: Gaoyou folk songs are popular in the Lixiahe region of northern Jiangsu, where modes of production and life such as rice cultivation, waterside living, duck herding and fishing have given rise to a rich variety of folk songs. The period from the Qing dynasty to the Republic of China was the high tide of the development of Gaoyou folk songs; the Gaoyou poet Wei Baisen wrote one hundred Qin You Bamboo Branch Songs in the late Qing and early Republic, and the lines “how they delight like the farmers' seedling songs, whole households singing across the ridges” reflect the unprecedented popularity of Gaoyou folk songs at the time. The period from the Qing dynasty to the Republic of China was the high tide of the development of Gaoyou folk songs; the Gaoyou poet Wei Baisen wrote one hundred Qin You Bamboo Branch Songs in the late Qing and early Republic, and the lines “how they delight like the farmers' seedling songs, whole households singing across the ridges” reflect the unprecedented popularity of Gaoyou folk songs at the time.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

She is a woman of the Han ethnic group, born in July 1937 in Gaoyou, Jiangsu Province. She is a national first-class performer. As a child she learned to sing Gaoyou folk songs from her grandmother and gradually acquired a firm command of singing technique. In 1955 she joined the Wu'an Cultural Work Troupe of Gaoyou County. In 1957 she represented Jiangsu Province at the Second National Festival of Folk Music and Dance. The traditional local songs she carries on, among them Shu Ya Dan (Counting Duck Eggs), Xiao Xiao Liu Jiejie (Little Sister Liu) and Huang Huang Zi, are peculiar to the Gaoyou area and bear the strong flavour of the water towns of northern Jiangsu. Her manner of singing preserves the distinctive rhythms of Gaoyou folk custom and gives full expression to local feeling. Since 2000 she has taken part in many performances and competitions in various places, enthusiastically passing on Gaoyou folk songs. Within the documented technical tradition of Gaoyou Folk Songs in Gaoyou, Jiangsu: Gaoyou folk songs are folk tunes popular in the Lixiahe region of northern Jiangsu; their words and music can be traced back at the earliest to the “scattering fresh flowers” of the ancient qunuo exorcism performance, and this folk song form began to take shape and to receive its initial development in the Yuan and Ming periods. Most Gaoyou folk songs are improvised on the spot by the people in response to what they see and feel, and their content is very rich. By subject they are mainly of several kinds: labour songs, including counting-duck-egg songs, porters' songs, carrying songs, and the distinctive Gaoyou seedling songs, water-pushing and damo stone-rolling songs, ramming songs and ox songs; life songs that transmit experience of life and practical knowledge, such as Quan Fu Mo Du Qian and He Zi Ge; love songs that sing of love and longing between men and women, such as Gao You Xi Bei Xiang and Lang Mei Dui Ge; and songs of the times and of revolutionary struggle that record social conditions in various periods, such as Qi Xin Xue Wen Hua and Song Fu Can Jun. Besides these there are also some primal religious songs and ritual chants. Gaoyou folk songs are mostly performed in the manners of “jian bai”, spoken interludes, “dui bai”, antiphonal speech, and “one leads, all respond”; the music is mainly pentatonic, or a six-tone scale with the added Qingjue or Biangong, and it often has leaps of fourths, fifths and sixths, with many interjections and filler syllables such as “yi ya ke zi yo a yo”; deft, lively, playful and witty, and with cleverly arranged changing notes, ornamental notes and interjections, it sounds melodious and full of expressive feeling. The Gaoyou folk song artists have inherited the traditional singing methods, so that this ancient folk song continues to play its proper part in the new era. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Shu Ya Dan": A distinctive Gaoyou labour song, and a representative piece handed down by the inheritor Wang Lanying. "Gao You Xi Bei Xiang": A representative love song of the Gaoyou folk songs, singing of love and longing. "Quan Fu Mo Du Qian": A representative life song of the Gaoyou folk songs, transmitting experience of life. "He Zi Ge": A representative life song of the Gaoyou folk songs.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of Gaoyou 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. Wang Lanying · National Representative Bearer Archive