Hua'er
01 · Historical Records
The Erlang mountain flower fair originated at the earliest in the Min county god-sacrifice festival; research holds that it took shape in the Ming dynasty.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
It is sung on two main kinds of occasion: daily production and life, and the “flower fair”. The “flower fair” is a large folk song gathering, also called “singing the mountain”. Min county lies in southern Gansu, at the meeting place of the Loess plateau, the Qinghai-Tibet plateau and the western Qinling mountain country. Erlang mountain lies south of the Min county seat, at the beginning of the thousand-li Min mountains. Each year in the fifth lunar month the eighteen pool deities, or dragon gods, distributed within the county are all borne out on procession through the whole area. The villages on their route hold sacrifices at fixed points, praying for abundant harvests, and so at the sacrificial places more than forty large and small fair sites are formed, where candles are lit, the gods besought, vows made and hua'er sung, the Erlang mountain flower fair of the seventeenth of the fifth month being the largest. On the afternoon of the sacrificial day the eighteen pool deities are carried in turn up Erlang mountain to receive the official sacrifice, while the sacrificial crowds contend in singing “Taomin hua'er”, the participants in the contest reaching more than a hundred thousand and the scene extremely lively. The “Taomin hua'er” sung is divided into the southern and northern schools; the southern school hua'er, also called “A'ou Lian'er”, is sung in a rough and high manner with the marked feature of a primitive beauty; the northern school, also called “Liang Lian'er”, has a free and unhurried tune and is good at narrative. For historical reasons the ancient custom of sacrificing to the pool deities still survives, but the mountain-top official sacrifice ceremony faces endangerment and awaits further protection. In recent years, through the efforts of the Min county Party committee and government, “Taomin hua'er” has been awarded by UNESCO the honour of a “United Nations folk-song survey base”.
The Southern School “A'ou Lian'er”
The southern school of Taomin hua'er, sung in a rough and high manner with the marked feature of a primitive beauty.
The Northern School “Liang Lian'er”
The northern school of Taomin hua'er, with a free and unhurried tune and good at narrative.
The Procession of the Eighteen Pool Deities and the Official Sacrifice
The sacrificial activities in which the eighteen pool deities are borne out on procession in the fifth lunar month and receive the official sacrifice at Erlang mountain on the seventeenth.
The Fair Sites for Lighting Candles, Beseeching the Gods, Making Vows and Singing Hua'er
The more than forty fair sites formed by the fixed-point sacrifices of the village branches along the procession route.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Hua'er is a mountain-song kind widely current among the eight ethnic groups—Hui, Han, Tu, Dongxiang, Bao'an, Salar, Tibetan and Yugur—of the four provinces and regions of Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang. It is always sung in the local Chinese dialect and may be sung only outside the villages and stockades; it is commonly called a “wild song” (as opposed to the “home song”, that is, the banquet song) and is also known as the “youth”.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Hua'er · Hua'er · Hua'er · Hua'er · Hua'er · Hua'er · Hua'er · Hua'er · Hua'er · Hua'er.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Besides having musical value and value for improvised singing, “Taomin hua'er” also has extremely high literary value in its lyrics; like the pool-deity sacrifice it concentrates the wisdom of the working people and is a treasury for the study of the history of Min county's social development and of its folk culture. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Liu Guocheng, male, Han, born October 1964, a native of Min county, Gansu. He has naturally good vocal equipment, and his singing most strikingly displays the typical vocal character of the southern school of Min county's Taomin hua'er. For his outstanding performance in hua'er singing he was named a “Gansu province hua'er singer” by the Gansu folk literature and art association. He is a representative bearer of the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, hua'er (the Erlang mountain flower fair), and has trained a body of outstanding students who have grown into the mainstay of the Min county hua'er singing world and successors carrying on the Erlang mountain hua'er.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Ma Jinshan 02-0241
- Ma Delin 02-0242
- Ma Mingshan 02-0243
- Zhao Cunlu 02-0244
- Zhang Yingzhi 02-0245
- Wang Cunfu 02-0246
- Ma Shenglin 02-0247
- Wang Lianlian 03-0819
- Liu Guocheng 03-0820
- Zhang Mingxing 03-0821
- Han Shengyuan 03-0822
- Su Ping 05-2040
- Li Guiying 05-2041
- Wang Deqin 05-2042
- Ma Handong 05-2043
- Wang Xiufang 05-2044
- Song Baoyuan
- Zhang Jianjun
- Wen Xianglian
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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