Oroqen Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
The Oroqen are distributed mainly in the Oroqen Autonomous Banner and the Butha Banner of Hulunbuir League in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and in Huma, Xunke, Aihui and Jiayin counties of Heilongjiang Province; they are one of the less numerous peoples of China. Zandaren is an Oroqen word meaning “mountain song”; it is the principal singing art form of the Oroqen people and a medium of communication and exchange in their hunting life.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Oroqen are distributed mainly in the Oroqen Autonomous Banner and the Butha Banner of Hulunbuir League in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and in Huma, Xunke, Aihui and Jiayin counties of Heilongjiang Province. Oroqen folk songs are very varied in melody and style, and their lyrics are often improvised, composed and sung on the spot. These folk songs take as their main material the tune of the zandaren, that is, the mountain song, which is high in pitch and full in tone, with a slight vibrato. Zandaren is performed in antiphonal singing, repeated singing, solo and chorus, and the singing is often interspersed with refrain words such as nayiye and xinaye; it sounds lingering and melodious and moves the heart. The Oroqen are one of the less numerous peoples of China. Zandaren is an Oroqen word meaning “mountain song”; it is the principal singing art form of the Oroqen people and a medium of communication and exchange in Oroqen hunting life. Oroqen zandaren has a long history and circulates mainly within the Oroqen Autonomous Banner in Inner Mongolia and in Aihui, Huma and Xunke counties of Heilongjiang Province. Oroqen zandaren is simple in structure and rich in content. Its melodies are based mainly on the yu, gong and zhi modes of the pentatonic scale, with few words and long vocal lines, a free rhythm, and melodies that are high and vigorous, lingering and undulating, showing strong ethnic characteristics of hunting culture. Oroqen folk songs are sung mostly improvisationally, or fitted at the moment with words to a comparatively fixed melody according to the circumstances; some melodies have no lyrics, and singers commonly fit fixed refrain words and vocal particles such as nayiye, ehulan, dehulan and hemohamo to the music. Because the lyrics are strongly improvised and free in treatment, they fit the metre and rhyme more easily and are readily sung, and are therefore much loved by the people wherever they circulate. Representative works of Oroqen zandaren include Do Not Get Drunk, I Grew Up in the Greater Khingan Range, Seeing Off the Hunt and Why Do You Not Love Me.
Biehezui Le (Do Not Get Drunk)
Representative works of Oroqen zandaren include Do Not Get Drunk, I Grew Up in the Greater Khingan Range, Seeing Off the Hunt and Why Do You Not Love Me.
Wo Shengzhang Zai Xing’anling Shang (I Grew Up in the Greater Khingan Range)
Representative works of Oroqen zandaren include Do Not Get Drunk, I Grew Up in the Greater Khingan Range, Seeing Off the Hunt and Why Do You Not Love Me.
Dalie Songxing (Seeing Off the Hunt)
Representative works of Oroqen zandaren include Do Not Get Drunk, I Grew Up in the Greater Khingan Range, Seeing Off the Hunt and Why Do You Not Love Me.
Ni Weishenme Bu Aiwo (Why Do You Not Love Me)
Representative works of Oroqen zandaren include Do Not Get Drunk, I Grew Up in the Greater Khingan Range, Seeing Off the Hunt and Why Do You Not Love Me.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Zandaren circulates mainly within the Oroqen Autonomous Banner in Inner Mongolia and in Aihui, Huma and Xunke counties of Heilongjiang Province; its melodies are based mainly on the yu, gong and zhi modes of the pentatonic scale, with few words and long vocal lines, a free rhythm, and melodies that are high and vigorous, lingering and undulating.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Oroqen Folk Songs.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Oroqen zandaren, handed down orally from generation to generation, makes up for the absence of any written record of Oroqen history; in artistic form it presents the social life of the Oroqen in their original hunting era and provides invaluable material for research in ethnology, folklore, anthropology, ethnoreligion and folk art. At present the change in the Oroqen mode of production and life greatly restricts the transmission and development of zandaren; if protection is not promptly strengthened, this precious ethnic art may well be lost. Erdengua (per the official record of the associated inheritor): She came from a family of musicians; her grandaunt Wodengzhu and her mother Maxiyan were both well-known zandaren singers in the locality. From childhood she learned to sing Oroqen folk songs from her grandaunt and her mother and mastered close to a hundred traditional zandaren pieces; her performing style is archaic and of distinctive flavour. In 1988 she received the commemorative award for the compilation of literary and art collective volumes and for the sorting of materials, awarded by the Ministry of Culture and the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, in recognition of her transmission, collection and sorting of material on Oroqen zandaren; from 2007 to 2008 she was engaged as an adviser by the Hulunbuir Children's Five-Colour Choir and taught Oroqen zandaren. A woman of the Oroqen nationality, born in January 1932 and deceased in July 2020, from the Oroqen Autonomous Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Representative inheritor of Oroqen folk songs (Oroqen zandaren) for the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. In recent years, while performing at home and abroad to spread zandaren, she has trained more than thirty inheritors of Oroqen folk song, including Bai Yan and Qu Yun.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Eerdenggua 05-2115
- Guanjinfang 05-2116
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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