Kazakh Folk Songs
01 · Historical Records
Kazakh folk songs have been sung generation after generation in the Ili valley, Tacheng and Altay, following the migrations of the tribes and the rotation of their pastures. Herders on horseback, gatherings in the yurts, weddings and festivals all speak through song, forming a singing tradition that accompanies pastoral production from beginning to end; the folk saying “song and horse are the two wings of the Kazakh people” is its very portrait.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Kazakhs are engaged mainly in animal husbandry, and for thousands of years they have led a nomadic life moving from pasture to pasture in search of water and grass. They have the strong, distinctive and brilliantly colourful characteristics of grassland culture. The folk saying “song and horse are the two wings of the Kazakh people” vividly shows that folk song is an indispensable close companion in the life of the Kazakh people. Singing Kazakh folk songs is an indispensable principal form of folk entertainment at every festive occasion and family gathering. In terms of content they fall into four categories — labour songs, songs of praise, love songs and customary songs — and the performing forms include solo, chorus, accompanied singing, unaccompanied singing and antiphonal singing. Kazakh folk songs are not only a true portrait of the joys, sorrows, partings and reunions of Kazakh life, but also a mirror reflecting society and history. They concentrate the history and culture, the national spirit, the customs and ways of life, the habits, the psychological qualities and the aesthetic tastes of the Kazakh people, and have a strong educational function.
Kokshimshik (Spring Bird)
One of the representative works of the inheritor of Kazakh folk songs.
Love for the Homeland
One of the representative works of the inheritor of Kazakh folk songs.
Nomadic Life
One of the representative works of the inheritor of Kazakh folk songs.
I Am a Chinese Kazakh
One of the representative works of the inheritor of Kazakh folk songs.
Four thematic categories
In terms of content, Kazakh folk songs fall into four categories — labour songs, songs of praise, love songs and customary songs — and the performing forms include solo, chorus, accompanied singing, unaccompanied singing and antiphonal singing.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Kazakh folk songs are transmitted mainly in the eight counties and two cities directly under Ili Prefecture of the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, in the Tacheng and Altay areas, and in the three Kazakh autonomous counties of Mulei, Barkol and Aksai in Gansu Province, with a few more to be found in the Kazakh settlements within the Urumqi area, the Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture and the Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In recent years, with the spread of Mandarin and the decline of the Kazakh mother tongue, Kazakh folk songs face an unprecedented survival predicament; in particular, tolau, one of the gems of the Kazakhs’ ancient folk art forms, is in an endangered state of disappearance, deformation and distortion and is in urgent need of protection and transmission. Jumaxi Ismihan (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, of Kazakh ethnicity, born in August 1938, a native of Xinyuan County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. He learned to sing Kazakh folk songs from his mother as a child, and became skilled in the traditional vocal method, the performing techniques and some of the older sets of lyrics. His singing is clear in diction and plain in style, full of the flavour of the grassland pastoral song, and he is a folk artist of considerable representativeness and influence locally. He has long been dedicated to collecting, sorting and composing Kazakh folk songs, accumulating more than three hundred of them to date, and is able to demonstrate and teach more than sixty folk songs by singing them. His representative works include “Kokshimshik (Spring Bird)”, “Love for the Homeland”, “Nomadic Life” and “I Am a Chinese Kazakh”. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch intangible cultural heritage project Kazakh folk songs. He places emphasis on training successors and has led his disciples in transmitting and disseminating Kazakh folk songs at the grassroots.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Jumaxi Yisimuhan 05-2165
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。