Blang Folk Songs

01 · Historical Records

It grew out of the singing of the ancestors of the Blang people and was formed by absorbing Dai music into the folk music of the Blang. Blang plucked-and-sung performance is used above all at major festivals and at weddings, funerals and marriages, and the songs sung deal with the migration history of the people, production knowledge, sacrifice and the like; mountain songs, love songs, songs about labour and life and children's songs are also sung.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Blang are a people of long history, living mainly in Menghai and Jinghong counties of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in western Yunnan, and in Shuangjiang, Yongde, Yunxian and Gengma and the Lancang and Mojiang counties of the Simao area in Lincang City. Blang folk songs have many melodies and rich content; by subject they may be divided into short songs such as labour songs, custom songs, migration songs, songs of resentment, praise songs, love songs and children's songs, as well as long lyrical poems and narrative poems. Blang plucked-and-sung performance is a form of folk song warmly welcomed by the Blang people, current chiefly in the Blang settlements of Brown Mountain Township, Xiding Township, Daluo Town and Mengman Town of Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture. Blang plucked-and-sung performance has five basic melodic modes, “suo”, “shen”, “zhai”, “zai” and “tuanman”, of which “suo” is the richest and most varied, comprising five sub-melodies that are either lively and bouncing or slow and deep, each with its own style. Because the “suo” mode is accompanied on the Blang traditional four-stringed fiddle, the form is called “Blang plucked-and-sung”. “Suokelikuluo” in the “suo” mode is the melody for courting; it is used above all for singing of ardent love, and expresses the longing of young men and women for a beautiful life in the future. Blang plucked-and-sung performance is generally sung by a man and a woman in antiphonal form, the man singing while playing the four-stringed fiddle and the woman answering with corresponding lines; the vocal style is round and gentle, the melody clear, sweet and beautiful, and the lyrics mostly express the mutual attraction of men and women. Representative works include The Joyful Blang, Two Flowers Equally Fragrant and How Beautiful the Moonlight Is Tonight. Blang plucked-and-sung performance has already become an indispensable part of Blang daily life.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Blang plucked-and-sung performance is current chiefly in the Blang settlements of Brown Mountain Township, Xiding Township, Daluo Town and Mengman Town of Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, and is used above all at major festivals and at weddings, funerals and marriages, the songs sung dealing with the migration history of the people, production knowledge, sacrifice and the like. It has five basic melodic modes, “suo”, “shen”, “zhai”, “zai” and “tuanman”, of which “suo” is the richest and most varied and comprises five sub-melodies; because the “suo” mode is accompanied on the Blang traditional four-stringed fiddle, the form is called “Blang plucked-and-sung”.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

In recent years the subjects of Blang plucked-and-sung performance have greatly widened, with material added that shows social progress and the continual emergence of new people and new things. At present, under the impact of outside culture and under restrictions such as the custom that women may not sing in public after marriage, the inheritors of Blang plucked-and-sung performance are becoming ever fewer, and urgent effective measures are needed for its protection. Yan Waluo (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): male, Blang, born in March 1962, a native of Menghai County, Yunnan Province. He has liked Blang folk songs since childhood, and at sixteen formally took the old village artist Yan San as his master, completely mastering the traditional way of singing Blang folk songs and becoming able to pluck and sing narrative and blessing melodies reflecting Blang migration, sacrifice and the commemoration of ancestors, so that he became a singer beloved by the local Blang people. His store of words is rich and his capacity for improvising is strong, and he is warmly received by the masses; the Blang people of Namgyi in Myanmar have also invited him by repute to sing, and he is a folk singer of high renown among the Blang people locally and overseas. In 2002 Pacific Audio-Visual Company published and released the CD Banna Folk Songs, which included folk songs sung by him. In August 2003 China Central Television interviewed him and reported on him. Representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Blang folk songs (Blang plucked-and-sung). He has taken part many times in the various cultural and artistic activities organised by the prefecture, county and township departments, and has won awards.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

• Yanwaluo 03-0870

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

1. Blang Folk Songs (Menghai, Yunnan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Yanwaluo · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗