Danzhou Diaosheng Singing
01 · Historical Records
During his stay in Danzhou the great Northern Song man of letters Su Dongpo praised the flourishing of song here with the line “barbarian song without cease all night long”. In 1962, when Mr Tian Han inspected Danzhou, he called the Danzhou diaosheng “a rare flower of the southern kingdom's musical world”.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Danzhou was the Dan'er commandery in the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han, 110 BCE, and has had the reputation of a “sea of song” since ancient times. Recently Danzhou has again been named a “home of Chinese folk art” by the Ministry of Culture for its rich folk art forms and cultural content, including the diaosheng. The diaosheng is the kind most loved by the masses in this “sea of song” and is indispensable spiritual nourishment in the people's life. It is sung mainly at leisure from farming or at festivals, when young men and women gather in the hills and fields to contend in song, and the annual “Mid-Autumn song fair” is especially lively, with participants often numbering in the thousands. In singing the diaosheng the young men and women line up facing each other in two rows or form a circle, hooking fingers together, their hands and bodies swaying with the rhythm of the song as they sing and dance. The diaosheng has a number of commonly used tunes, on the basis of which more new tunes can be created, so that it is ever sung and ever new. Over the years more than six hundred diaosheng tunes have been collected; the pieces with a certain representative character include Though Heaven Fall and Earth Sink, Feeling Is Not Betrayed; The Motherland's Rivers and Mountains, a Hundred Kinds of Flowers; Not Seeing You for an Hour Is Gloom for Three; and Striking the Drum with One Mallet Makes No Sound.
Though Heaven Fall and Earth Sink, Feeling Is Not Betrayed
One of the representative pieces of the Danzhou diaosheng.
The Motherland's Rivers and Mountains, a Hundred Kinds of Flowers
One of the representative pieces of the Danzhou diaosheng.
Not Seeing You for an Hour Is Gloom for Three
One of the representative pieces of the Danzhou diaosheng.
Striking the Drum with One Mallet Makes No Sound
One of the representative pieces of the Danzhou diaosheng.
The Common Diaosheng Tunes (More Than Six Hundred)
The system of tunes developed and varied from a number of commonly used tunes, ever sung and ever new.
The Mid-Autumn Diaosheng Festival and Mid-Autumn Song Fair
The diaosheng song fair held in Danzhou on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month each year, with participants often numbering in the thousands.
Singing and Dancing with the Two Sexes in Facing Rows, Hooking Fingers and Swaying
The distinctive form in which young men and women line up facing each other or form a circle, hooking fingers and swaying their bodies to the song as they dance.
Danzhou Diaosheng Direction and Short Diaosheng Plays
Tang Baoshan's transmission practice of making the diaosheng into short plays and dances and combining it with Danzhou mountain songs into Danzhou opera.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Danzhou diaosheng is a folk song circulating only in Danzhou, Hainan, and having a distinctive regional style.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The diaosheng song fair is a good form of the masses' self-amusement and self-education, and the Danzhou city government has decided to make the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month each year the “Mid-Autumn Diaosheng Festival” in order to protect the diaosheng across the board; it has also promoted transmission by bringing the diaosheng into the schools and holding diaosheng contests. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Tang Baoshan, male, Han, born 1949, a native of Danzhou, Hainan, at present head of a private Danzhou opera troupe and a diaosheng director. He excels at composing, singing and directing for himself, can sing the diaosheng solo and in antiphony, and sings with both voice and feeling; in 2003 he was named an “outstanding folk artist”. His representative works include The Filial Son and It Is Hard to Be a Person. He is a representative bearer of the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the Danzhou diaosheng. He began singing the diaosheng in the 1970s and is called a “master of the diaosheng”; he has many times won the special, first, second and third prizes in Danzhou diaosheng contests, and has made the diaosheng into short diaosheng plays and dances and, combining it with Danzhou mountain songs, into Danzhou opera.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Tang Baoshan 02-0237
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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