Qinghai Hanzuminjianxiaodiao
01 · Historical Records
Because of the influence of geography and historical change, the Han folk minor tunes of this area are rich in store and varied in character, and with their distinctive plateau style they occupy a unique position among the folk songs of China.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Qinghai Han folk minor tunes are folk songs with a deep historical tradition closely bound to local folk custom. Their principal area of transmission is the Han settlement area in eastern Qinghai. Most of the folk songs sung are traditional minor tunes with strong local character; the representative pieces include Flying the Kite, Weaving the Hand Towel, The Fifth-Watch Bird and Four Seasons Song. Qinghai Han minor tunes are one of the more numerous genres of Han folk song. They circulate widely, their forms are regular, their words and melodies relatively fixed, their modes of expression varied, their melodies pleasing to the ear and their emotional colouring finely observed; they are sung mainly in the people's leisure and entertainments and at gatherings for celebration. Their subject matter touches every aspect of social life; they take mostly the strophic form, with lyrics mainly in lines of five or seven characters, though many other line forms are also found. Most commonly a stanza comprises four lines, while those running to several dozen lines a stanza are usually connected with historical stories or figures of one kind or another, and with narrative songs on various subjects. The Qinghai Han folk minor tunes sing about a wide range of subjects: social life, the occupational activities of scholars, farmers, artisans and merchants, folk customs and manners, praise of the past and commentary on the present, stories and legends, and the sufferings of women are all material for the Qinghai Han minor tunes. Qinghai Han folk minor tunes are generally accompanied by the sanxian, the bamboo flute, the banhu (or the zhonghu, sihu or erhu) and clappers.
Flying the Kite
Most of the folk songs are traditional minor tunes with strong local character; the representative pieces include Flying the Kite, Weaving the Hand Towel, The Fifth-Watch Bird and Four Seasons Song, among others.
Weaving the Hand Towel
Most of the folk songs are traditional minor tunes with strong local character; the representative pieces include Flying the Kite, Weaving the Hand Towel, The Fifth-Watch Bird and Four Seasons Song, among others.
The Fifth-Watch Bird
Most of the folk songs are traditional minor tunes with strong local character; the representative pieces include Flying the Kite, Weaving the Hand Towel, The Fifth-Watch Bird and Four Seasons Song, among others.
Four Seasons Song
Most of the folk songs are traditional minor tunes with strong local character; the representative pieces include Flying the Kite, Weaving the Hand Towel, The Fifth-Watch Bird and Four Seasons Song, among others.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Every year during the Spring Festival the locality always holds lively and grand folk shehuo performances, at which the people twist the yangge and play with dragon lanterns, lions and land boats, singing and dancing as they please. These have produced a certain influence especially on the transmission and blending of Central Plains culture on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and on the evolution of the outlook on life, the values, the folk customs and the folkways of the local people of all ethnic groups.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Qinghai Han folk minor tunes have a certain value for reference and comparison in the study of local history, ethnic groups, religion, belief, folk custom, folkways and local gazetteers. Liu Shiwei (from the official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han, born in August 1946, native of Huangzhong County, Qinghai Province. He learned minor tunes from childhood, and studied under many of the outstanding local folk singers. Through long years of study and performance he formed a style of his own; he can sing the different roles according to the plot of a story, his performance is rich in feeling and highly expressive, and he has won a number of awards. The work he composed and sang, “A Load of Water”, won the provincial first prize for composition and the second prize for performance; “The Orchard Meeting”, “The Dragon King's Resignation” and “The Virtuous Daughter-in-law” won the Ministry of Culture Qunxing (Stars of the Masses) Award; and the minor-tune CDs he recorded, such as “Performing Shehuo in High Spirits” and “The Jasmine Flower of Qinghai”, have been released. Besides singing and composing, he has long devoted himself to the collection and sorting out of Han folk minor tunes and to the training of successors. He is a representative inheritor of Qinghai Han folk minor tunes, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the fifth national-level batch.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Liu Shiwei 05-2164
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。