Hui Minjian Instrumental Music
01 · Historical Records
Because of changes in history, these instruments have become very rare among the Han and other ethnic minorities of China today, yet as late as the twentieth century they were still popular among the Hui people of Ningxia.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Through long practice of life and cultural activity, the Hui of Ningxia have inherited the ancient instruments of Ningxia and the instruments of the northwestern frontier region together with their music, and have gradually developed them into folk instruments of the Hui with their own character. In the last century Chinese historians and philologists established that the Ningxia wawu, mimi and jaw harp are respectively the transformations and survivals of the xun, the qiang flute, the reed pipe and the free reed, ancient instruments circulating in Ningxia since the Han and Tang dynasties. The instruments of the Hui of Ningxia have already formed distinctive performing techniques, craftsmanship and the art of singing with instrumental accompaniment. A Hui virtuoso can use crossed trilling fingers to blow florid embellishments on the high-pitched wawu that the instrument can hardly produce by itself. The Hui instruments made by Hui artisans resemble an ox head or a small lamb; they are decorated with Hui artistic patterns and lines and carved with Arabic calligraphy, and they have vivid features of Hui culture. Because they have a beautiful tone, are easy to play and are convenient to carry, they have been handed down through generations among the Hui of Ningxia. In some Hui villages, whether young maidens or white-haired elders, everyone has a small jaw harp, while Hui boys and young men are skilled at blowing the mimi and the wawu. The village saying 'the wawu sings, the crops grow; the mimi blows, the cattle and sheep thrive' is exactly a portrait of village custom. Many artists of the older generation have changed their trade, and many young people no longer know what the jaw harp, the mimi and the wawu are.
Kou-xian jaw-harp playing
Hui women commonly carry a jaw harp and play it, using sharply marked rhythm and a melody of rise and fall to narrate the heart's feelings and convey emotion.
Mimi pipe playing
The mimi is a transformation and survival of the qiang flute and reed pipe of the Han and Tang dynasties; Hui boys and young men are often good at playing it. The village saying 'the wawu sings, the crops grow; the mimi blows, the cattle and sheep thrive' is exactly a portrait of this.
Wawu clay-ocarina craft
It takes forms such as the lentil wawu and the ox-head wawu; the artisans shape and fire it from clay, decorating it with Hui artistic patterns and lines and carving Arabic calligraphy on it.
Crossed trill technique
A Hui virtuoso uses crossed trilling fingers to blow florid embellishments on the high-pitched wawu that the instrument can hardly produce by itself.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The lines 'The barbarian dust clears the Jade Pass, the qiang flute rings with the war gong' and 'I do not know who is blowing the reed pipe; all the soldiers on campaign gaze all night long at home' in Li Shimin's 'Song of Watering Horses at the Caves of the Great Wall' are both true records of the instruments then in vogue, written after the Tang emperor personally visited the ancient Ningxia region of Lingzhou.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
At present, Hui women who wear the head covering and play the jaw harp have been recognized as the image ambassadors of the Hui of Ningxia. In recent decades, because of changes in people's way of life and other factors, the social soil on which the instrumental music of the Hui of Ningxia survives is disappearing rapidly, and its transmission has met a crisis. In order to protect the folk instrumental music of the Hui of Ningxia effectively, a protection mechanism and a corresponding system should be established as soon as possible, publicity should be strengthened, and broader attention from the whole of society should be won. Ma Lanhua (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Female, Hui nationality, born in 1939, a native of Lingwu, Ningxia. She learned jaw-harp playing and making from her father when young and mastered the playing of many jaw-harp pieces. Her playing has sharp rhythm and a melody of rise and fall; it can narrate the heart's feelings and convey emotion, and it has a distinctive artistic style. Her brothers and sisters are all good at playing the jaw harp as well, and her family is a representative Hui jaw-harp transmitting family of the Ningxia plain area. Representative inheritor of the second national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item folk instrumental music of the Hui. Yang Dawude (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Hui nationality, born in October 1965, a native of Pingluo County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. From childhood he inherited from his elders the making and playing of the clay wawu, including the lentil wawu and the ox-head wawu. In 1994 he built his own potter's kiln at Qukou Township in Pingluo County, Ningxia, improved the shaping of the clay wawu and fired it, and began small-batch production. After years of exploration and trial manufacture, the improved fired clay wawu is easier to play, more durable and more beautiful in shape and tone, and it became a specialty tourist handicraft of Ningxia. He also developed clay wawu with a double cavity and with multiple cavities, whose range can be widened to two octaves and which can be promoted as professional instruments. In recent years, with the help of the cultural departments at all levels, he has established a Hui instrument workshop, compiled and printed a 'Manual of Clay Wawu Playing', and brought the clay wawu he makes into the music classes of primary and secondary schools, so that more Hui and Han young people in Ningxia can come to know and master this folk instrument of the nation. Representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item folk instrumental music of the Hui.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Ma Lanhua 02-0311
- Yang Dawude 03-0853
- An Yuge 05-2088
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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