Jing Ha Festival
01 · Historical Records
The origin of the Ha Festival has been preserved mainly through oral narrative among the people: one account says that in ancient times an immortal singer came to the three islands and, using the transmission of songs as a call to action, roused the people to resist oppression; her singing moved the villagers, and later generations built Ha pavilions where they sang in response at regular intervals, which gradually became a fixed custom. The Ha pavilion stands at the center of each village, with festival activities centered on it, lasting three days of all-night singing and dancing without cease — the word "ha" in the Jing language simply means "song." Archival records add that the Ha Festival developed and evolved over nearly five hundred years, in keeping with the history of the Jing people forming settlements along the coast and living intermixed with the Han and Zhuang peoples over a long period; the sacrificial texts and Ha-sister song lyrics written in the Jing people's Nom script, compiled by ritual officiants such as Luo Zhouwen, are the body of texts most directly related to the early festival customs that can still be seen today.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Jing people mainly live on three small islands — Wanwei, Wutou, and Shanxin — in Dongxing City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, at the southwesternmost part of China's mainland coastline, facing Vietnam across the sea. The Ha Festival is the grandest festival of the Jing people, also known as the "Changha Festival" (Song-Singing Festival). "Ha" is a transliteration from the Jing language, meaning "song." The dates of the Ha Festival vary by locality: the tenth day of the sixth lunar month, the tenth day of the eighth lunar month, or the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Every locality has a building dedicated to Ha Festival activities — the Ha pavilion (Hating). The activities of the Jing Ha Festival consist of ancestor worship, communal village drinking (xiangyin), socializing, and entertainment. There are many folk legends about the Ha Festival; among the more representative is the one that in ancient times an immortal singer came to the three Jing islands and, in the name of transmitting songs, mobilized the masses to rise against feudal oppression. Her singing moved many people. Later generations, in memory of her, built "Ha pavilions" and regularly sang and transmitted songs in them, which gradually became a festival custom. The Ha pavilion of each village is the center of festival activities. Festival activities last three days, all night long, with singing and dancing without cease. People of surrounding ethnic groups also come to join the celebration. The lead performers in the Ha singing number three: one male singer, called the "Ha brother," who specializes in playing the stringed instrument as accompaniment, and two female singers, called "Ha sisters," one holding two bamboo clappers and the other a bamboo bang (clapper), beating time as accompaniment; they take turns singing. The songs deal with folk legends, philosophical tales, love stories, and the like. Amid the sound of gongs and drums, young women often take the stage to dance, the most distinctive being the "Dance of the Sky Lamp on the Head." The dancer balances porcelain bowls on her head, with plates stacked on the bowls and candles lit in the plates, while both hands hold wine cups, each also containing a candle. As she sings and dances, the three candles flicker without going out; if several people dance it together, the whole scene shimmers with candlelight, beautiful and moving. After nearly five hundred years of development and evolution, the Jing Ha Festival is a concentrated expression of Jing traditional culture.
Ancestor rite at the pavilion
The opening rite: offerings and candles are set in the pavilion, an invocation is recited before the ancestors are invited to join the festival.
The lead singer and the two accompanists
One male singer accompanies on a stringed instrument while two women beat rhythm on bamboo clappers, the lead choosing each song in turn.
The communal feast at the pavilion
A feast in the pavilion after the ancestor rite, with toasts and song carrying on through the night.
The candle crown dance
Dancers balance a bowl of stacked plates holding a candle on the head while holding a burning candle in each hand.
Taking turns across the three islets
The three islets keep different dates, and guests follow a rota of neighbouring villages, linking the celebrations into one festival line.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Ha Festival is transmitted with the three islands of Wanwei, Wutou, and Shanxin as its core, with dates differing between islands: some set it on the tenth day of the sixth lunar month, some on the tenth day of the eighth lunar month, and others on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month; hence in the Dongxing area one can encounter three Ha Festivals within a single year. The Ha pavilions of each village are hosted by different villages in turn, and visitors attend according to the rotation of neighboring villages. The three islands lie at the southwesternmost part of China's mainland coastline, facing Vietnam across the sea; the islanders make their living from fishing, and with many people going out to sea, the day for going to the market fair to exchange for offerings is set a few days before the festival. The Ha pavilion serves both as a singing ground and a place for deliberation; apart from the Ha singing, villagers also gather under the pavilion before and after village affairs are discussed.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Luo Zhouwen (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): Deputy to the Fifth National People's Congress. After serving as the seventh-generation pavilion head of the Ha pavilion, he was responsible for planning and organizing all matters large and small of the local Ha Festival. He frequently compiled sacrificial texts and Ha-sister song lyrics written in the Jing Nom script, taught others to recognize the Nom script, to recite, and to sing, and trained personnel holding various posts in the Ha Festival ceremonies, thereby transmitting Ha Festival culture. Male, of the Jing nationality, born in May 1936, died in March 2017, a native of Dongxing City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Representative inheritor of the Jing Ha Festival, an intangible cultural heritage project of the third national-level batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Luo Zhouwen 03-1464
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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