Nanxi Work Songs
01 · Historical Records
The Nanxi work songs arose in the Nanxi area of Qianjiang district, Chongqing; their rudimentary form was the labour chantey and mountain-song chantey with which Tujia peasants relieved fatigue and roused their spirits at work, akin to the weeding gong-and-drum. They gradually developed and took settled form over long field singing and have become an oral tradition handed down from generation to generation in the Tujia areas of settlement.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Nanxi work songs are current in Qianjiang district, Chongqing; their rudimentary form was the labour chantey and mountain-song chantey with which Tujia peasants relieved fatigue and roused their spirits at work, akin to the weeding gong-and-drum. The lyrics of the Nanxi work songs are mostly improvised, but their tunes and manner of singing are relatively fixed. The vocal styles number more than ten, chiefly the great-plank style, the nine-turn road, the three-platform voice, the racket-beating, the South River chantey and the trumpet chantey. Their basic manner of singing is one person leading the call, two or three taking the sharp voice, that is, crying the high notes, three or more crying the low notes and the many joining in, thus forming a heavenly sound of high, middle and low parts answering one another and echoing melodiously through the hills and fields. The content of the Nanxi work songs touches on Tujia history, geography and folk legend and conveys much ancient historical and cultural information.
The Great-Plank Style, the Nine-Turn Road and the Three-Platform Voice
The main styles among the more than ten vocal styles of the Nanxi work songs.
The Racket-Beating, the South River Chantey and the Trumpet Chantey
The other representative vocal styles of the Nanxi work songs.
One Leading the Call with the Sharp and Low Parts Answering
The manner of singing in which one leads the call, two or three take the sharp voice, three or more cry the low notes and the many join in.
Singing at Field Labour among the Tujia
The occasions of singing at field labour, akin to the weeding gong-and-drum, to relieve fatigue and rouse the spirits.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In the long course of singing the Nanxi work songs gradually developed into a mountain-song kind of a special character, differing both from the neighbouring Chuanjiang work songs and tracker chanteys and from the other labour chanteys and mountain-song chanteys widely sung in the Wuling mountains.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
They are a survival of Tujia musical culture with relatively high artistic value, and can also enrich the people's cultural life and serve the spiritual civilization of contemporary society. At present fewer than ten people in the whole Qianjiang district can sing the Nanxi work songs, and all are advanced in age; not one of the young or middle-aged can cry the chanteys. This folk music form is gravely endangered and urgently needs saving and protection. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Yang Zhengze, male, Tujia, born 1949, a native of Chongqing. In 2006 he was named a “master of folk art” by the Qianjiang district people's government. He now devotes himself mainly to the sorting-out of written material on the Nanxi work songs and to transmission work. His representative works include the Great-Plank Style and The Three-Platform Deep. He is a representative bearer of the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the Nanxi work songs, and in 2004 won the title of “song king” in the Qianjiang district mountain-song contest.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yang Zhengze 02-0250
- Feng Guangxiang
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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