Yi Haicaiqiang
01 · Historical Records
The singing of the haicai tune has a long history and was deeply influenced in the course of its formation and development by the Han culture brought by Han immigrants in the Ming and Qing. Local gazetteers from the Qing onwards contain many records and poems about the singing of the haicai tune. With the disappearance since the 1950s of the “eating fire-grass tobacco” courtship custom on which the haicai tune depended and the introduction of other cultural and recreational forms, the singing of the haicai tune has gradually declined; there are now few “tune masters” or “tune bosses” (both honorific titles for famous singers) able to sing a complete suite of the haicai tune, and few lovers of it among the younger generation, so that its transmission faces a serious crisis and protection is urgently needed.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Yi haicai tune is a folk-song variety peculiar to the Yi of Yunnan, famous at home and abroad; it is also called the great punting oar or the reversed punting oar and commonly known as the Shiping tune, and it circulates mainly in the Yi Nisu villages of Shiping county in the Honghe Hani and Yi autonomous prefecture, Yunnan. The Shiping Yi haicai tune is a folk song of the haicai-tune variant and, together with the other three variant tunes—the shayou tune, the four tune and the wushan tune—is called one of the “four great tunes”, which the Yi call “tunes”. A complete haicai tune is usually made up of the ju tune, the empty tune, the zhengqi tune and the vernacular tune; it is complex in structure and vast in scale, a large vocal suite formed of several musical sections and combining solo, antiphonal singing, lead singing, unison and chorus. Representative pieces of the haicai tune include Brother Sings a Ditty and Sister Learns It and Shiping Olive Greens.
Brother Sings a Ditty and Sister Learns It
Representative pieces of the haicai tune include Brother Sings a Ditty and Sister Learns It and Shiping Olive Greens.
Shiping Olive Greens
A representative piece of the Shiping Yi haicai tune.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The haicai tune circulates mainly in the Yi Nisu villages within Shiping county of the Honghe Hani and Yi autonomous prefecture, Yunnan, being most concentrated in the Baxin and Niujie area along the shores of Lake Yilong, and it is also sung in the Yi areas of settlement of the neighbouring counties and cities of Jianshui and Mengzi. Together with the shayou tune, the four tune and the wushan tune it is called one of the “four great tunes”, which the Yi collectively call “tunes”.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
As a traditional art form produced in a particular environment, the haicai tune has a high degree of adaptability and a broad mass character in its particular ecological, social and cultural setting, and has important value for the study of such subjects as the Yi history of development, cultural history, moral values, artistic ways of thinking and the blending of Yi and Han cultures. The systematic exploration, rescue and study of the folk songs peculiar to the minority nationalities, represented by the haicai tune, is also of positive significance for enriching and perfecting the study of China's traditional music system and music history. (Associated bearer recorded in the official archive:) Hou Baoyun, male, Yi, born 1942, a native of Shiping, Yunnan, who lives by farming. In 1993, at the invitation of Professor Tian Feng of the Central Conservatory of Music, he served as a teacher at the Yunnan ethnic culture transmission centre. He has long been engaged in the teaching of traditional culture, and his students are to be found all over Yunnan. He is a representative bearer of the second batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage items, the Yi haicai tune. In 1984 he won three first-class prizes of excellence at the first ethnic folk song and dance contest held by Shiping county.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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