Sangzhi folk songs: one of first state-level intangible cultural heritages

Sangzhi County, located in the northwestern corner of Hunan Province, is famed as the land of Chinese folk songs. It is also where Marshal He Long(a great militarist who fought for the founding of the PRC) was born and the second troop of the Red Army started their long march.

For thousands of years, minority groups, including Tujia, Bai and Miao, have been living there and carrying forward their own distinctive culture that mixes words with music. They exchange literally everything at everywhere by singing folk songs, which was listed in the first state-level intangible cultural heritages in 2006.

Located in the depth of Wuling Mountains, Sangzhi County is actually a poverty-stricken area where 470,000 residents need to earn a living from the disproportionate farmland on over 10,000 hills. Over the past 2,000 years, Sangzhi people created more than 10,000 folk songs during their agricultural life and over 2,300 songs have been collected and classified.

Many of the folk songs are about the New Democratic Revolution that the old China was going through in the early 20th century as Sangzhi County is a known revolutionary area where Marshal He Long established several bases. On November 19, 1935, over 17,000 soldiers of the Red Army started their long march from Sangzhi and many local people came to see them off by singing folk songs they specially made to salute the troop. The deep feelings between them can be still vividly displayed in those folk songs remaining today.

There are also folk songs about love amid tough times. The most famous one, originally about a woman waiting for her husband to come back home from his business trip, dates back to the Qing dynasty and was enriched with new lyrics and a deeper meaning in the 1920s when He Jinzhai, a militarist, devoted his life to the Agrarian Revolution War and his wife Dai Guixiang, who had waited at home for years, stayed unmarried for the rest of her life after He’s death. The song moved so many people as there were a total of 72 widows like Dai Guixiang.

All these folk songs have been widely known in many areas and are of great significance. The revolutionary spirit they carry gets recognized today and lights the way for new talents in the long march of the new era that they are about to embark on.

Since folk songs are a living culture that requires oral work and comprehension, some songs disappeared because of the changing production and living style. Therefore, it is urgent to protect and carry forward the folk songs.

Sangzhi County has compiled textbooks of the folk songs, which are included in the courses and taught by music teachers in elementary and secondary schools. There will also be folk song competitions and other activities, as a way to protect and inherit the legacy of folk songs, to acquaint children with local traditional culture.

At present, emergency work has been done to collect first-hand materials, cultivate the next generation of inheritors, and make Sangzhi folk songs appreciated by different organizations and published in CDs and books. Meanwhile, many people from the circle of literature and art have spared no effort to protect the folk songs. Meng Yong, for example, the vice Chairman of Hunan Provincial Federation of Literature, adapted a number of Sangzhi folk songs for modernized elements, such as orchestra.

Through the resonant folk songs, we can hear the rustling primeval forest in the depth of Badagong Mountain, the gurgling Lishui River, the bustling crowds dancing to the music in the downtown, and the whistling trains running across the area. They represent a new level of economic and social development in Sangzhi County, which is being lifted out of poverty with the policy support in the new era.