Grand Song of the Dong Ethnic Group

01 · Historical Records

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 · Core Techniques & Process

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.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

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.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Grand Song of the Dong Ethnic Group · Grand Song of the Dong Ethnic Group · Grand Song of the Dong Ethnic Group · Grand Song of the Dong Ethnic Group.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Dong grand song has extremely wide content, touching on many fields—ethnology, musicology, sociology, the history of marriage, the history of thought and the history of education—and has important academic research value. With the rapid development of the market economy and the wide dissemination of modern culture this traditional folk art of a minority ethnic group faces the danger of being lost, and its protection and transmission brook no delay. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Wu Renhe successively composed such Dong songs as Lai A Xi and The Party's Policy Is for the Dong Households, and such Dong plays as Buji Nai Ji, The Story of Buguan and Learning from Dazhai. After reform and opening up he also composed Peng Lang Gan Mei and Not Graduating from Middle School Disqualifies You for Work, all of which were loved and praised by audiences. In his life he composed twenty-seven traditional Dong plays and more than three hundred newly written Dong songs, some of which are still sung and performed in the Dong stockades and deeply loved by the local Dong people. Male, Dong, born April 1931, died February 2016, a native of Congjiang county, Guizhou. He was a representative bearer of the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the Dong grand song. Pan Sayinhua, female, Dong, born May 1943, a native of Congjiang county, Guizhou. Born into a family of song masters, she began learning songs with her grandmother and mother at five and had an extraordinary memory: by thirteen she had mastered more than two thousand songs and took the role of the “saiga”, the high part singer, in the song team, leading the singing to be harmonious, neat and beautifully pleasing. At seventeen she sang antiphonally with the “lahan”, the Dong young men, in the drum tower and won, becoming famous at a stroke. At eighteen she began teaching songs to the young men and women of her own stockade. She mainly composes Dong grand songs, taking the transmission of songs as her glory and the teaching of songs as her joy, and takes an active part in the activities of bringing ethnic folk culture into the schools, training successors for the transmission of the Dong grand song. She is a representative bearer of the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the Dong grand song.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

• Wu Pinxian 02-0253
• Wu Guangzu 02-0254
• Tannaihao 02-0255
• Wu Renhe 03-0826
• Pan Sayinhua 03-0827
• Hu Guanmei 04-1510
• Jia Fuying 05-2050

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Grand Song of the Dong Ethnic Group (Congjiang, Guizhou) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Wu Renhe · National Representative Bearer Archive
3. Pan Sayinhua · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗