Kangding is a high-plains city in Sichuan Province, known as Pao Ma Shan (跑馬山) — the “horse-race mountain.” Many congregate here for the annual horse races, at a place known as "The Gate to Tibet." Lovers regale one another with beautifully flowing songs, expressing their deeply felt longings, and their love for a happy and free life.
"The hungry sing for their supper, the farmers while at work, and those in love sing of love." So it is written in the Shijing, the oldest and greatest collection of traditional Chinese folk melodies, hailing from around 700 BCE. In these lyrics is to be found human life in all its richness.
Traditional Chinese Folk Songs
Traditional Chinese folk songs are divided into three main categories: haozi (workmen's melodies), shange (山歌 songs of the mountains), and xiaodiao (小調 folk tunes).
The first are sung while at work. They are supposed to have originated from simple, loud calls while working in a group, and were meant to regulate breathing, to establish a rhythm while working heavily, and to alleviate the pressure of work. These simple calls evolved into ever more complicated lyrics and interwoven melodies. In spite of their simple musical structure, their content is powerful and energetic.Shange, mountain songs, were originally meant for communication over large distances. Since they were disseminated over large areas from the South China mountain regions into other areas, they were given the name shan (山 mountain) and ge (歌 song).
They tell stories of inner feelings, typically expressing love or bitterness. They are relatively short with varying rhythms. They are sung outdoors, at a high pitch, and in many variations. The Kang Ding love song is typically of this sort, and the very high pitch at the outset arouses the listeners' emotions, directly expressing the singer's state of mind.
Xiaodiao - the folk tunes - are lively rhythms and melodies for entertainment, sung at festivals, or even during breaks at work. They are the most widely spread and well-known all over China. In the countryside, men, women and even children who are not working in the fields sing these melodies; the latter cannot sing the haozi.
City folk from all segments of society know these tunes - from tradespeople to workmen to intellectuals. The songs tell of love affairs, sad good-byes, good customs, legends, historic events, and some even touch on current affairs.
Folk Songs Lost, Destroyed
"The sky in the east is red; the sun rises; Mao Zedong rises in China; he brings the people happiness and is the people's messiah." Everyone in China born after 1949, the year of the founding of the People's Republic of China, knows Dong Fang's song. During the Cultural Revolution, all of China's people were compelled to sing this one every day, while scant few knew the source of the melody.
It is based on the love song "Sesame Oil" from the Shanbei region in Shanxi province. The original lyrics went like this: " Sesame oil, Chinese cabbage—we must first remove the strings from the green beans. I have not seen you for three days, missed you and thought you had already died—hai you hai, my beloved man."
"Chinese culture has been destroyed since 1949 - the population was cut off from tradition; art was made to fit the regime's designs and was made a tool of the Party," so commented Yang Jianshen, a graduate from China's Central Conservatory of Music and Alto Vocalist with the Divine Performing Arts Company.
According to Yang, former singer from the Chinese Central Orchestra, groups of composer mingled each year with the people, collecting folk melodies. “They did collect many folk songs, but were banned from using most of them - they were censored.” She says. “Most of the songs' lyrics were replaced with communist text, to present them to the people as ‘folk songs.’”
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