Yueye
01 · Historical Records
The origin of Yueye can be stated in a single sentence: in the Dong language it simply means visiting other villages as a group; local Han Chinese call it "eating homesickness" or "eating village food." Its dates are set in the first and eighth lunar months, precisely fitting the gaps in the Dong agricultural calendar — the slack season between the autumn harvest and the Spring Festival, when villagers can leave home and teams can be organized. This visiting is not an empty coming and going: the guest team and the host team face each other as rivals, blocking the road with obstacles and answering in song; those who cannot answer must set off firecrackers in apology, singing their way from the village gate into the village. When it is time to leave, the host village again musters its team to escort the guests to the village gate, singing the road-blocking songs once more in a plea to stay.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Yueye means "collective visiting" in the Dong language; local Han Chinese call it "eating homesickness" or "eating village food." It is generally held in the first and eighth lunar months and is a traditional social and fellowship activity of the Dong people. The road-blocking song is a song sung by the Dong people when welcoming and seeing off guests; it is most often used on Yueye occasions. The length of a Yueye visit is determined by its content, and the number of participants is generally one representative per family. Led by a person of prestige in the village, the group sets out together to visit a friendly village. When guests from Village A approach Village B, the people of Village B go to the village gate to receive them, while setting up successive roadblocks with everyday tools of production and articles of daily use; the two sides deploy their song formations and sing road-blocking songs in antiphonal reply. The host team poses questions in song and the guest team answers in song; each correct answer removes one roadblock. If an answer is wrong, the guest team sets off firecrackers as an expression of apology and respect; the host team then removes all the roadblocks, ushers the guests into the village, and joins in the colorful joint festivities, such as performing Dong opera, singing Dong songs, dragon and lion dances, and lusheng (reed-pipe) competitions. When Yueye ends, the host village again musters its team to see the guests off happily; at the village gate they sing road-blocking songs once more as an expression of reluctance to part. Reluctant to say goodbye, both sides display the solidarity and friendly affection of fellow countrymen. Yueye is practiced among the Dong people of Liping, Congjiang, and Rongjiang in Guizhou Province and the Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County in Guangxi. The Dong custom of Yueye is generally held in the slack agricultural season after the autumn harvest or around the Spring Festival. Yueye activities are grand in scale: men and women, old and young of the Dong villages all dress in festive attire to take part, and the village "song teams," "lusheng teams," and opera troupes join in together. During the visit, hosts and guests may perform Dong opera, compete in lusheng playing, or dance in the song hall by day; at night they go to the drum tower to sing grand songs in antiphony, or enjoy gajin (Dong musical storytelling) deep into the night; afterwards the young men and women of the two villages go to the moon hall to sing and sit out the night until dawn. From the very day the guests arrive at the host village, distinctive Dong folk activities such as road-blocking welcomes, reed-pipe welcomes to guests, inviting the goddess "Sa" into the hall, singing toasts, "carrying the official" games, and painting faces are presented simultaneously with various cultural displays. Hosts and guests celebrate together in this way for three to five days before dispersing. At parting, the host village also presents gifts of pigs and sheep. Depending on the harvest, the visiting village returns the visit to the host village the following year or after several years. In the Dong custom of Yueye, collective visiting is the platform of the activity, cultural display is its content, and emotional exchange is its purpose. Through Yueye, the Dong people deepen their affections, strengthen their unity, forge friendships, and build a harmonious society.
Barriers on the road
As the guests approach, the host village blocks the road with tools and household gear and takes up singing positions; the barriers fall only after the song contest.
The antiphonal road song
The hosts question and the guests answer, each correct answer removing one barrier; a wrong answer is answered with firecrackers in apology.
Inviting the deity into the hall
Before any rejoicing the guests invite the deity into the hall and present offerings, the most weighty step in receiving visitors.
Song team, lusheng band and opera troupe
Song teams, lusheng bands and opera troupes travel with the guests: theatre by day, great songs at the drum tower by night, and courtship songs in the moon hall till dawn.
Lifting the official and daubing faces
A chosen young man is lifted onto shoulders to lead the procession and faces are painted as spirits; both are unmistakably Dong ways of welcoming.
Seeing guests off and fixing the return
The hosts see the guests off with a last song at the gate, present livestock, and fix the next visit according to the harvest.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Yueye is practiced among the Dong people of Liping, Congjiang, and Rongjiang in Guizhou, as well as the Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County in Guangxi. Hosts and guests celebrate together for three to five days before dispersing; when they part, the host village presents gifts of pigs and sheep, and depending on the harvest, this village returns the visit to that village the following year or after several years. Such reciprocal visits on rotation draw the relations between villages into a long thread: one trip a year, with no reduction in courtesy, so that exchanges between villages need no other pretext.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
From a cultural standpoint, the Yueye custom is an important means by which the Dong people display and transmit their own culture in a distinctive form and strengthen their ethnic cultural identity; it is the most important avenue of cultural exchange and the soil in which Dong culture survives.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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