Manhandiao
01 · Historical Records
In the late Qing dynasty large numbers of Han people poured into Jungar Banner, and the area soon became a zone of mixed Mongol and Han settlement.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Manhan diao circulates in Jungar Banner of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and has a history of almost a hundred years. In the course of long coexistence, the Mongol and Han peoples exchanged widely and deeply in production, daily life, culture and art, and manhan diao emerged out of this exchange of folk music: taking the Mongol short-tune folk song as its matrix, it absorbs Han folk song into itself and finally forms a distinctive musical form. Manhan diao belongs to the folk minor tunes and is sung mostly indoors, accompanied by an ensemble of dizi, sihu and yangqin, with percussion such as wooden clappers and the si kuan wa (four tiles) also used. Compared with folk songs of the mountain song type, manhan diao contains more artistic elaboration; its tunes are flowing and its expressiveness strong. Manhan diao usually consists of a single section built from two or four phrases, a simple one-part form with the characteristics of completeness and periodicity. Its modes are yu, gong, zhi and shang, of which the yu mode is the most frequent, accounting for about one third. Manhan diao has wide leaps of scale; leaps of sixths, sevenths and octaves are especially marked, and those of ninths, tenths and elevenths are used most often, with leaps of a twelfth sometimes occurring. Manhan diao has a wide range: it can express unrestrained and impassioned feeling, and it can also create a musical image that is expansive and free or deep and roundabout. Representative works include Da He Pan Shang Zai Liu Shu and Tian Xia Huang He Jiu Shi Jiu Dao Wan.
Da He Pan Shang Zai Liu Shu
One of the representative works of manhan diao.
Tian Xia Huang He Jiu Shi Jiu Dao Wan
One of the representative works of manhan diao.
Seven thematic categories
Ninety pieces have now been collected and sorted out, and by the sense of their words in the original tunes they fall roughly into seven types: longing for an end to hardship, praise and eulogy, love, yearning, lament, sorrow at parting and new sounds.
Chamber ensemble of dizi, sihu and yangqin
Manhan diao belongs to the folk minor tunes and is sung mostly indoors, accompanied by an ensemble of dizi, sihu and yangqin, with percussion such as wooden clappers and four tiles also used.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Manhan diao has a large repertoire; ninety pieces have now been collected and sorted out, and according to the sense of the words in their original tunes they can be roughly divided into seven types: longing for an end to hardship, praise and eulogy, love, yearning, lament, sorrow at parting and new sounds.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
From its birth to the present, manhan diao has played an important role in the political, economic and cultural life of Jungar Banner in every period; for studying the history of Jungar, manhan diao may be taken as an important object of observation. As society has developed, the ecological environment of manhan diao has been damaged, producing a serious break in its transmission. At present understanding of manhan diao remains at a low level, and the work of sorting out, studying and protecting it needs to be further strengthened. Qi Fulin (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): male, of Mongol ethnicity, born in November 1953, native of Jungar Banner of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. His parents and elders in the family were all well known manhan diao singers locally; shaped by this family environment he has loved manhan diao since childhood, and by his twenties he was already a master of it known throughout the neighbouring hundred li. His singing voice is resonant and every phrase falls into melody, and he is skilled at improvising songs on the spot. His vocal style is high and bright, winding and drawn-out, and he uses chest and head voice together with easy control, giving just weight to real tone and empty tone. Representative inheritor of the fourth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item manhan diao. He has taken part many times in performance competitions and won awards. He has trained more than fifty manhan diao singers, among them Yue Wenxiang, Wang Huiping and Xie Erdong.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Qifulin 04-1532
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。