Gaoyou Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
The period from the Qing dynasty to the Republic of China was the high tide of the development of Gaoyou folk songs; the Gaoyou poet Wei Baisen wrote one hundred Qin You Bamboo Branch Songs in the late Qing and early Republic, and the lines “how they delight like the farmers' seedling songs, whole households singing across the ridges” reflect the unprecedented popularity of Gaoyou folk songs at the time.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Gaoyou folk songs are folk tunes popular in the Lixiahe region of northern Jiangsu; their words and music can be traced back at the earliest to the “scattering fresh flowers” of the ancient qunuo exorcism performance, and this folk song form began to take shape and to receive its initial development in the Yuan and Ming periods. Most Gaoyou folk songs are improvised on the spot by the people in response to what they see and feel, and their content is very rich. By subject they are mainly of several kinds: labour songs, including counting-duck-egg songs, porters' songs, carrying songs, and the distinctive Gaoyou seedling songs, water-pushing and damo stone-rolling songs, ramming songs and ox songs; life songs that transmit experience of life and practical knowledge, such as Quan Fu Mo Du Qian and He Zi Ge; love songs that sing of love and longing between men and women, such as Gao You Xi Bei Xiang and Lang Mei Dui Ge; and songs of the times and of revolutionary struggle that record social conditions in various periods, such as Qi Xin Xue Wen Hua and Song Fu Can Jun. Besides these there are also some primal religious songs and ritual chants. Gaoyou folk songs are mostly performed in the manners of “jian bai”, spoken interludes, “dui bai”, antiphonal speech, and “one leads, all respond”; the music is mainly pentatonic, or a six-tone scale with the added Qingjue or Biangong, and it often has leaps of fourths, fifths and sixths, with many interjections and filler syllables such as “yi ya ke zi yo a yo”; deft, lively, playful and witty, and with cleverly arranged changing notes, ornamental notes and interjections, it sounds melodious and full of expressive feeling. The Gaoyou folk song artists have inherited the traditional singing methods, so that this ancient folk song continues to play its proper part in the new era.
Shu Ya Dan
A distinctive Gaoyou labour song, and a representative piece handed down by the inheritor Wang Lanying.
Gao You Xi Bei Xiang
A representative love song of the Gaoyou folk songs, singing of love and longing.
Quan Fu Mo Du Qian
A representative life song of the Gaoyou folk songs, transmitting experience of life.
He Zi Ge
A representative life song of the Gaoyou folk songs.
Lang Mei Dui Ge
A representative love song of the Gaoyou folk songs.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Gaoyou folk songs are popular in the Lixiahe region of northern Jiangsu, where modes of production and life such as rice cultivation, waterside living, duck herding and fishing have given rise to a rich variety of folk songs. The period from the Qing dynasty to the Republic of China was the high tide of the development of Gaoyou folk songs; the Gaoyou poet Wei Baisen wrote one hundred Qin You Bamboo Branch Songs in the late Qing and early Republic, and the lines “how they delight like the farmers' seedling songs, whole households singing across the ridges” reflect the unprecedented popularity of Gaoyou folk songs at the time.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Gaoyou folk songs blend cultural elements from many sides of the Lixiahe region — its rice cultivation, water, duck and fishing cultures — and have research value in folklore studies, sociology, anthropology and other fields. In recent years, as the old folk singers have died one after another, some original singing techniques have gradually been lost, and large numbers of Gaoyou folk songs that are sincere in feeling and beautiful in melody are quietly slipping away, so that rescue and protection are urgently needed. Wang Lanying (as recorded in the official dossier of an associated inheritor): female, Han, born in July 1937, a native of Gaoyou city, Jiangsu Province. A national first-class performer. She learned to sing Gaoyou folk songs from her grandmother as a child and gradually mastered certain singing techniques. In 1955 she joined the Wu'an cultural troupe of Gaoyou county. In 1957 she represented Jiangsu Province at the Second National Folk Music and Dance Performance. The traditional local folk songs peculiar to the Gaoyou region which she has handed down, such as Shu Ya Dan, Xiao Xiao Liu Jie Jie and Huang Huang Zi, carry the strong character of the water country of northern Jiangsu. Her singing preserves the unique rhythmic character of Gaoyou folk song and fully expresses the local feeling. Since 2000 she has taken part many times in performances and competitions in various places, singing Gaoyou folk songs with warmth. Representative inheritor of Gaoyou folk songs in the third national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage projects.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Lanying 03-0862
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。