Midu Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
Since the 1950s, with a group of traditional and adapted Midu folk songs such as “Xiao He Tang Shui”, “Shi Da Jie”, “Xiu He Bao” and “Midu Mountain Songs” spreading widely at home and abroad, the name “Midu folk songs” gradually came to have a broad influence throughout the country and became a folk song category of high fame in China.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Midu folk songs are the Han and minority folk songs current within Midu County, Yunnan Province. The “Nine Chapters of Mountain Songs” recorded in the early Jiaqing reign of the Qing dynasty in the “Dianxi” attests forcefully to the long history of Midu folk songs. The representative tunes are: among the mountain songs, “Xiao He Tang Shui”, “Midu Mountain Songs”, “Gengzi Diao”, “Midi Diao”, “Mizhi Diao”, “Fangyang Diao”, “Guoshan Diao” and so on; among the ditties, “Ganma Diao”, “Xiu He Bao”, “Xiu Xiangdai” and so on; among the dance songs, “Shi Da Jie” and a number of versions of “Da Ge Diao”; among the customary songs, “Yingqin Diao”, “Songqin Diao”, “Kuwang Diao”, “Zhulu Ge” and “Jisai Ge” and so on.
Mountain songs
Representative tunes in the mountain song category of Midu folk songs, including “Xiao He Tang Shui”, “Midu Mountain Songs”, “Gengzi Diao”, “Midi Diao”, “Mizhi Diao”, “Fangyang Diao”, “Guoshan Diao” and so on.
Minor tunes
Representative pieces in the ditty category of Midu folk songs.
Dance songs
Representative pieces in the dance song category of Midu folk songs.
Customary songs
Representative pieces in the customary song category of Midu folk songs.
Nine Chapters of Mountain Songs
The “Nine Chapters of Mountain Songs” recorded in the early Jiaqing reign of the Qing dynasty in the “Dianxi” attests forcefully to the long history of Midu folk songs.
Local teaching materials
Midu County has put forward the idea of “taking advantage of the ‘Xiao He Tang Shui’ brand to build a famous county of flower-lantern culture”, has edited and published the primary and secondary school local teaching materials “Midu Flower Lantern Folk Songs”, and has issued the DVD anthology “Selected Midu Folk Songs” in its original form and the VCD “Midu Journey”.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Midu folk songs are rich in content and varied in form, and truly reflect the production, the life, the thoughts and the feelings of the masses of the people; classified by nationality, they fall into Han folk songs and minority folk songs, while classified by musical genre they fall into mountain songs, ditties, dance songs, customary songs and the like; their tunes are extremely rich and their melodies are winding and melodious.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Midu folk songs are transmitted by teaching from masters, by family transmission and by self-teaching. With social development and the successive deaths of the older generations of folk singers, the transmission of Midu folk songs has suffered a break and faces a great survival crisis. For this reason the Midu County Party Committee and the county government have put forward the cultural development idea of “taking advantage of the ‘Xiao He Tang Shui’ brand to build a famous county of flower-lantern culture”: they have built the “Xiao He Tang Shui” artistic setting and a song-dueling ground, edited and published the primary and secondary school local teaching materials “Midu Flower Lantern Folk Songs”, issued the DVD anthology “Selected Midu Folk Songs” in its original form and the VCD “Midu Journey”, and held folk song duelling competitions and other activities, creating a favourable social environment for the sustained development of Midu folk songs. Li Caifeng (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Female, Yi, born in April 1943, a native of Midu County, Yunnan Province. Influenced by her elders, she took a liking to mountain song tunes from childhood. Her voice is full and resonant, high and clear, with a long and lingering flavour and penetrating power; the content she sings embraces the customs and the human relations of the Yi people, and she can sing both ancient folk songs and improvise new ones. She has recorded, translated and sorted out more than five hundred folk songs, which were included in “The Source of Xiao He Tang Shui — Midu Xishan”. China Central Television has many times broadcast the folk songs she sings, including “Xiao He Tang Shui”, “Fangyang Diao”, “Midu Mountain Songs” and “Midu Yi Love Songs”. In 2010 the film crew of the Wuzhou Communications Centre television programme “Seeking the King of Song” came to Midu and filmed Midu folk songs sung by Li Caifeng. Representative inheritor of Midu folk songs of the fourth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. Over the years she has persisted in teaching mountain songs and ditties to villagers, and has taken on more than a hundred apprentices.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Li Caifeng 04-1538
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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