Daur Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
According to the Fularji gazetteer, when Russia invaded in the sixth year of Shunzhi of the Qing dynasty (1649), Daur people living on the north bank of the Nen River began migrating in large numbers to Fularji and settled in what is now Durmenqin Township, forming a settlement of some size, and Hanbodai Village is the village where Daur people gathered.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Daur means "pioneers". The Daur people live mainly in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Heilongjiang Province, with a few in Tacheng City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Daur folk music takes forms such as mountain songs, antiphonal singing and dance lyrics, and is distinguished by passionate and unrestrained melodies, subtle and varied expression, marked rhythm and strict metre. Hanbodai Daur folk songs are a form of music full of Daur ethnic character, transmitted mainly in Hanbodai Village and neighbouring villages of Durmenqin Daur Ethnic Township, Fularji District, Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province. In long-term production and life the Daur people of Hanbodai created a large number of folk songs. Hanbodai Daur folk songs fully reflect the true conditions of the production and life of local Daur people, and their subjects and content involve nature, labour, love, marriage and funerals, festival celebrations, traditional education and other aspects. Their singing forms include solo, chorus, antiphonal singing and song with dance. When sung, the rhythm is marked, the manner combines strength and softness, the delivery is passionate and unrestrained, and refrain words are frequently used in repeated singing, giving them a strong untouched-original character. Representative works of Hanbodai Daur folk songs include "Yingshanhonghua Manshanpo", "Mama de Zhufu", "Yingxiong de Cunzhuang", "Duige" and "Kouti Gege", of which more than thirty have now been translated and produced.
Yingshanhonghua Manshanpo
Representative works of Hanbodai Daur folk songs include "Yingshanhonghua Manshanpo", "Mama de Zhufu", "Yingxiong de Cunzhuang", "Duige" and "Kouti Gege", of which more than thirty have now been translated and produced.
Mama de Zhufu
Representative works of Hanbodai Daur folk songs include "Yingshanhonghua Manshanpo", "Mama de Zhufu", "Yingxiong de Cunzhuang", "Duige" and "Kouti Gege", of which more than thirty have now been translated and produced.
Yingxiong de Cunzhuang
Representative works of Hanbodai Daur folk songs include "Yingshanhonghua Manshanpo", "Mama de Zhufu", "Yingxiong de Cunzhuang", "Duige" and "Kouti Gege", of which more than thirty have now been translated and produced.
Duige
Representative works of Hanbodai Daur folk songs include "Yingshanhonghua Manshanpo", "Mama de Zhufu", "Yingxiong de Cunzhuang", "Duige" and "Kouti Gege", of which more than thirty have now been translated and produced.
Kouti Gege
Representative works of Hanbodai Daur folk songs include "Yingshanhonghua Manshanpo", "Mama de Zhufu", "Yingxiong de Cunzhuang", "Duige" and "Kouti Gege", of which more than thirty have now been translated and produced.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Hanbodai Daur folk songs are transmitted mainly in Hanbodai Village and neighbouring villages of Durmenqin Daur Ethnic Township, Fularji District, Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province. According to the "Fularji Gazetteer", when Russia invaded in the sixth year of Shunzhi of the Qing dynasty (1649), Daur people living on the north bank of the Nen River migrated in large numbers to Fularji, settled in what is now Durmenqin Township and formed a settlement of some size, and Hanbodai Village is the village where Daur people gathered. Local folk songs are sung in the Daur language and make frequent use of refrain words in repeated singing.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Daur Folk Songs.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Because the Daur have no script, these folk songs have been transmitted orally from generation to generation and continually enriched in the process, forming the distinctive folk song style of the Daur people of Hanbodai Village. Hanbodai Daur folk songs record in artistic form the social and historical conditions of the locality, and provide valuable material for research into the origins, development, way of life and folk customs of nomadic peoples. At present the Daur language is gradually disappearing, and Daur-language folk songs are rapidly declining with it. Only two or three people remain able to sing such songs proficiently; if protection is not timely, Hanbodai Daur folk songs will be on the verge of disappearing. Mo Jinzhong (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): A male of the Daur ethnicity, born in October 1937, native of Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province. He was influenced by his family from childhood and learned traditional folk songs from his elders, giving his singing a deep foundation in traditional Daur culture. In 2011 he opened a Daur folk song training class, and over two hundred people took part in study in successive cohorts. In his eighties he can still sing several hundred zhandale mountain song tunes that he has mastered, accompanying himself on the four-stringed fiddle. He is a representative inheritor of Daur folk songs (Hanbodai Daur folk songs), a project of the fifth national-level batch intangible cultural heritage. In 1958, after his self-composed one-act play "The People's Commune Is Good" won a prize in the region-wide peasant amateur arts performance, his singing moved from self-entertainment onto various performance stages.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Mojinzhong 05-2117
- Mengmanrong
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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