Fengyang Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
Since the middle of the Ming dynasty, Fengyang folk songs have not only circulated locally, but a considerable number of them have also spread everywhere with “Fengyang Flower Drum”, especially in Jiangnan, Beijing and Shanxi. At the beginning of the 20th century Fengyang folk songs were one of the folk arts recorded on gramophone records of the time, with as many as ten titles, and enjoyed a vogue for a time. In 1935 the Fengyang folk song “New Fengyang Song” appeared as an insert song in the film “The Big Road”, sung by Li Lili, and caused a strong reaction. From the middle of the Ming dynasty onward, Fengyang folk songs spread with “Fengyang Flower Drum” to other regions and had a widespread influence.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Fengyang folk songs are a genre of song with a character of its own, current in Fengyang County in the north-east of Anhui Province. “Fengyang Flower Drum” and “Xian Hua Diao” (“Jasmine Flower”) are especially well known among them. Of these, the “Fengyang Flower Drum” sung by the “golden-throated” Zhou Xuan is the most famous.
Fengyang Flower Drum
The most famous piece among Fengyang folk songs, best known in the version sung by the “golden-throated” Zhou Xuan; at the beginning of the 20th century Fengyang folk songs were one of the folk arts recorded on gramophone records of the time.
Xian Hua Diao (Jasmine Flower)
One of the best-known pieces among Fengyang folk songs.
New Fengyang Song
In 1935 it appeared as an insert song in the film “The Big Road”, sung by Li Lili, and caused a strong reaction.
Love songs
Love songs are the most numerous and the most beloved category in Fengyang folk songs, reflecting the beautiful longing for and pursuit of marriage and love of young women in the old society.
Political songs
They mainly reflect the masses of the people's understanding of and attitude towards social events, some praising and some satirising, and are strongly coloured in politics.
Four thematic categories
Fengyang folk songs fall into several main categories — daily-life songs, love songs, songs on current affairs and work songs — numbering as many as 300; work songs are divided into yangge and haozi, and the ramming song is the most popular of them locally.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
They fall into several main categories — daily-life songs, love songs, songs on current affairs and work songs — numbering as many as 300. Fengyang folk songs mainly reflect the everyday situations of the masses of the people in different historical periods, such as “Yang Guniang Shangdiao” and “Guniang Chaojia”; love songs are the most numerous and also the most beloved by the people, such as “Da Caitai”, “Song Lang” and “Er Guniang Daitie”, and they reflect the beautiful longing for and pursuit of marriage and love of young women in the old society; work songs are the songs sung during production and labour, and are divided into yangge and haozi, of which the ramming song is the most popular locally; songs on current affairs mainly reflect the people's understanding of and attitude towards social events, some praising and some satirising, and are strongly coloured in politics, such as “Shi Bei Jiu”, “Tugai Gezi” and “Da Lihun”.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The historical value of Fengyang folk songs lies in the fact that, in a vivid and plain form and content, they reflect the living conditions, ideals and aspirations of the masses of the people in different periods, and have become precious living materials for the history of music. Ou Jialing (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Female, Han, born in August 1938, a native of Fengyang County, Anhui Province. Her mother Liu Yuelan beat the flower drum and sang door songs before the founding of the People's Republic of China, and had mastered more than a hundred Fengyang folk ditties. Influenced by ear and eye from childhood, she learned many folk songs from her mother. Her singing voice is resonant and strong, rich in emotional colouring, and full of a thick local flavour. Representative inheritor of Fengyang folk songs of the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. She taught Fengyang folk songs and studied folk dance at the Anhui Vocational School of Art, then returned to her home county to carry out the teaching, rehearsal and publicising of Fengyang folk songs, and has devoted herself to their transmission and dissemination. Over several decades she has taught Fengyang folk songs many times in township cultural publicity teams, factories, mines, enterprises and schools, has held more than ten classes of Fengyang folk song training for primary and secondary schools, and has trained hundreds of young folk singers.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Ou Jialing 05-2160
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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